some files won't open

[Cayugagirl]

Hi,

I'm increasingly seeing Powerpoint files that will not open in Office
2004 at all. The error says it is not a powerpoint file. But this
same file will open on any PC.

I tried opening it on several macs around the office and it just would
not recognize the file.

I also tried saving it on a PC as a previous version and it still
would not open on the Mac Powerpoint.

Any suggestions?

thanks!

Heather

 

[Cayugagirl]

Clarification, the error says:

The server application, source file, or item can not be found. Check
that path and file name are correct or try reinstalling the server
application.

But it will say that on several macs, bring it to my PC and no
problem.

thx!

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi,

I would expect to see that message when trying to open an embedded object on
a slide that was linked to a specific file path that does not exist.

For some reason the file does not seem to be a PowerPoint file. How was it
saved? What is the file extension? Is there an embedded object that's linked
to a place that the macs can't get to?

-Jim

Hi,

I'm increasingly seeing Powerpoint files that will not open in Office
2004 at all. The error says it is not a powerpoint file. But this
same file will open on any PC.

I tried opening it on several macs around the office and it just would
not recognize the file.

I also tried saving it on a PC as a previous version and it still
would not open on the Mac Powerpoint.

Any suggestions?

thanks!

Heather

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[Cayugagirl]

Hi,

I would expect to see that message when trying to open an embedded object on
a slide that was linked to a specific file path that does not exist.

For some reason the file does not seem to be a PowerPoint file. How was it
saved? What is the file extension? Is there an embedded object that's linked
to a place that the macs can't get to?

-Jim

Hi Jim,

Sorry to be unclear. The Mac recognizes the file as PowerPoint. But
when it tries to open the file, after a few minutes I receive the
error message I described.

In my research I saw that an embedded object would cause this
problem.

But, I guess what confuses me is: I send this Powerpoint file to a PC
that has never seen it before and it opens fine. No accompanying
folder, no objects. Send to any of the Macs around me - won't open,
error message.

This is about the third time I've seen this exact scenario and all
possible office updates have been done.


Again, any help is greatly appreciated!

thanks!

Heather

 

[Cayugagirl]

Oh and I disconnected all my network drives on the PC and the file
still opened.

=/

 

[CyberTaz]

Hi Jim,

Sorry to be unclear. The Mac recognizes the file as PowerPoint. But
when it tries to open the file, after a few minutes I receive the
error message I described.

In my research I saw that an embedded object would cause this
problem.

But, I guess what confuses me is: I send this Powerpoint file to a PC
that has never seen it before and it opens fine. No accompanying
folder, no objects. Send to any of the Macs around me - won't open,
error message.

This is about the third time I've seen this exact scenario and all
possible office updates have been done.


Again, any help is greatly appreciated!

thanks!

Heather

Hi Heather -

Linked or Embedded objects are "foreign matter" inserted into a file of a
different type. Although the host file can carry the stuff around, its
parent program most often cannot *Open* that type of file & may not even be
able to display its content **unless** there is an available application on
the system where the host file is being opened which supports the file type
of the linked/embedded stuff.

I think what you're seeing here is that the PPt files contain objects
(linked or embedded makes no difference) that are associated with
applications not available on the Macs but are available on the PCs. IOW,
Mac PPt simply cannot parse the objects & has no compatible "assistant"
available to help out.

BTW - one of the major contributors to the problem is Copy/Paste which
usually bypasses the appropriate import filters. The same content placed
using the Insert menu commands (Picture, Object, File, etc.) typically
minimize such an issue, but there *are* file types native to each platform
that won't work on the other.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi Jim,

Sorry to be unclear. The Mac recognizes the file as PowerPoint. But
when it tries to open the file, after a few minutes I receive the
error message I described.

In my research I saw that an embedded object would cause this
problem.

But, I guess what confuses me is: I send this Powerpoint file to a PC
that has never seen it before and it opens fine. No accompanying
folder, no objects. Send to any of the Macs around me - won't open,
error message.

This is about the third time I've seen this exact scenario and all
possible office updates have been done.

A couple of things: Bob's explained the whole embedded object issue in great
detail but let me add one other bit. When you see a "Server not found" message,
it doesn't mean server as in computer, it means OLE server, the application that
created the embedded content, and which needs to be available in order to edit
or update the content. So for example if there's a linked Excel object, PPT
will try to update it when it opens the file, and for that Excel must be present
to "serve" the updated info. Else you get "Server not found".

So much for that. But "Server found" or not, the file should still open, though
it might be missing bits. I wonder if this could be a file that was originally
created in, or at some point edited in, PPT 2007 and then saved backward to an
earlier format. Can you check on that?




================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi,

Add to piggy-back onto what Steve just said, if there is an embedded object
other than an Word or Excel document then Mac OLE will not be able to use
the OLE server (due to limitations in the Mac implementation of OLE).

There could be an embedded Visio (or any other OLE complaint application)
object from Windows that will never open on a Mac and hence you would get
that error message.

-Jim

A couple of things: Bob's explained the whole embedded object issue in great
detail but let me add one other bit. When you see a "Server not found"
message,
it doesn't mean server as in computer, it means OLE server, the application
that
created the embedded content, and which needs to be available in order to edit
or update the content. So for example if there's a linked Excel object, PPT
will try to update it when it opens the file, and for that Excel must be
present
to "serve" the updated info. Else you get "Server not found".

So much for that. But "Server found" or not, the file should still open,
though
it might be missing bits. I wonder if this could be a file that was
originally
created in, or at some point edited in, PPT 2007 and then saved backward to an
earlier format. Can you check on that?




================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[Cayugagirl]

Hmmm... thanks guys. It's a rather large presentation, 33 pages.
But I went through and looked at some of the graphics. Some of them
when I try to save out say "windows enhanced metafile"

Could those be the problem objects?

I'm checking on whether it was created in 2007 or not.

Thanks!

Heather

 

[CyberTaz]

Could very well be - EMFs can include a variety of content including
executable code which may not be Mac-compatible... some of it may not even
be universally PC-compatible For files that will move from PC-to-Mac &
back (IMHO) it's better to stay away from EMF & WMF on the PC or PICT on the
Mac.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hmmm... thanks guys. It's a rather large presentation, 33 pages.
But I went through and looked at some of the graphics. Some of them
when I try to save out say "windows enhanced metafile"

Could those be the problem objects?

Possibly. If you have access to a PC, you can select those and ungroup them.
That converts them from Windows-specific graphics that have to be converted to
play on the Mac to native PPT drawing objects, which don't.


================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[Cayugagirl]

Well, thanks everyone.

It's a 30 page presentation so it's a bit hard for me to have them
remove every Windows object. And it's coming from a client, so we
can't really ask very much of them.

Guess I'll ask them to save it as a pdf for the Mac folk.

Thanks Again!

Heather