Unable to open PowerPoint 95 presentation

[rsqmedic]

I am attempting to open several powerpoint presentations
on a CD. When I try to open them up, I get an error
message that says either the program is corrupted, it is
in a format that is not recognized by powerepoint or some
other problem. When I open it up in a neighbor's windows
machine it opens without a problem. It is a Powerpoint 95
program. Is this presentation not compatable with a
macintosh powerpoint X program? Has anyone else had
problems similiar?

 

[Mickey Stevens]

This is a limitation of PowerPoint X. It lacks the ability to open
PowerPoint 3 and PowerPoint 4/95 files. You could try using the PowerPoint
Viewer in Classic mode to run these files.
<http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00153.htm>

If your neighbor is running PowerPoint 97 or later, ask if you can use his
or her computer once more. Then, open the presentations, go to File -> Save
As, and re-save them as regular presentation files. You should then be able
to open them normally on your machine with PowerPoint X.

 

[dano]

This is a limitation of PowerPoint X. It lacks the ability to open
PowerPoint 3 and PowerPoint 4/95 files. You could try using the PowerPoint
Viewer in Classic mode to run these files.
<http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00153.htm>

If your neighbor is running PowerPoint 97 or later, ask if you can use his
or her computer once more. Then, open the presentations, go to File -> Save
As, and re-save them as regular presentation files. You should then be able
to open them normally on your machine with PowerPoint X.

There used to be a translator for PPT3 to PPT4. I know there was one
because I've used it (it worked) and istr I still have it somewhere.
(But can't find it right now - argh.)

A search of google groups hasn't yet turned up any links. Do you
remember such a translator? Would it be available in an ORK somewhere?

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

There used to be a translator for PPT3 to PPT4. I know there was one

because I've used it (it worked) and istr I still have it somewhere.
(But can't find it right now - argh.)

A search of google groups hasn't yet turned up any links. Do you
remember such a translator? Would it be available in an ORK somewhere?

Just what I could find at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads and searching on
POwerPoint as the technology and "converter" as the term. No joy there. There
were a few things that apparently let you use Mac PPT98 files in Mac PPT4, but
that's not a hot item, huh? ;-)



--
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================
Featured Presenter, PowerPoint Live 2004
October 10-13, San Diego, CA www.PowerPointLive.com
================================================

 

[dano]

There used to be a translator for PPT3 to PPT4. I know there was one
because I've used it (it worked) and istr I still have it somewhere.
(But can't find it right now - argh.)

A search of google groups hasn't yet turned up any links. Do you
remember such a translator? Would it be available in an ORK somewhere?

From an appeal in another location <http://www.mac-mgrs.org/> several
people knew what I was asking about. Two of them sent the translator and
it worked on three test files. I've even got a Microsoft URL:

<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/download/office98/ppt4x_updater.asp>

I tested it on three different files and it allows opening PPT files not
compatible with 98 or v.X into 98. From there the file can be saved out
in 98-X format and it works.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

<http://www.microsoft.com/mac/download/office98/ppt4x_updater.asp>

Thanks for posting back with that; alas, that url seems 404. I can't get
there from here. Have you had any luck with it?

--
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================
Featured Presenter, PowerPoint Live 2004
October 10-13, San Diego, CA www.PowerPointLive.com
================================================

 

[dano]

Thanks for posting back with that; alas, that url seems 404. I can't get
there from here. Have you had any luck with it?

I tried it from History and it 404'ed also. Turns out it's the URL of
the .waf file one guy sent to me. I can email it to you if you like.


My challenge now is to find out what the Microsoft licensing
requirements are for it. (By the way, it's just a library that goes into
one of the folders.) That is, I've been told to not assume we can use it
just because we have Office 98 (license version). Argh.

Anyway, here is the full text of the Read Me that came with the
translator files.


--
------------------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft PowerPoint 4 PP8Trans Update ReadMe
(c) Copyright Microsoft Corporation, 1999
------------------------------------------------------------------

This document explains how to install and use the PowerPoint 4-8
Translator Update.

--------
CONTENTS
--------
Introduction
Why do you need this update?
Installation
Memory Requirements
Compatibility

Introduction
============
PowerPoint 4-8 translator allows you to open PowerPoint 4.0
presentations in PowerPoint 98. This allows you to view and edit your
presentations created with previous versions of PowerPoint.

Why do you need this update?
============================
This update reduces the memory required to perform translation from
PowerPoint 4.0 files to PowerPoint 98. This allows better conversion
presentations with large amounts of graphics and slides into the latest
version of PowerPoint.

This update can be used with PowerPoint Viewer 98 to view PowerPoint 4.0
presentations.

This translator can be used with all international versions of
PowerPoint 98

Installation
===========
To install PowerPoint 4-8 translator:
- Drag the file 'PP Translator 4-8' into the Translators folder located
in the Office folder on your Hard Disk.
- Click OK to overwrite the old version of the translator.

To use the translator just select Open from the File menu, and select
the presentation file that you would like to open. If your presentation
was created using PowerPoint 4.0 it will be automatically translated
into PowerPoint 98 for viewing, editing, etc.

To use this update with PowerPoint Viewer drag this file to the folder
where your PowerPoint viewer is installed. When you open a presentation
created with PowerPoint 4.0 the Viewer will automatically use the
updated translator.

Memory Requirements
===================
The general rule for converting PowerPoint 4 presentations into
PowerPoint 98 is to allocate 5 Mb of memory more than the size of your
presentation to PowerPoint application. For example, if your
presentation file size is 7 Megabytes, you would allocate at least 12
Megabytes of memory for PowerPoint to perform a translation from
PowerPoint 4 to PowerPoint 98.

Note: There is a possibility that extremely large presentations will
fail to translate. In this case try to allocate more memory for
PowerPoint.

Compatibility
=============
In most cases, features are translated as closely as possible to the
original presentation using PowerPoint 98 functionality.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I tried it from History and it 404'ed also. Turns out it's the URL of
the .waf file one guy sent to me. I can email it to you if you like.

Thanks, but I'll pass - don't need it myself. If you do find a URL where it
can be downloaded, do post it here though ... thanks!

 

[dano]

I tried it from History and it 404'ed also. Turns out it's the URL of
the .waf file one guy sent to me. I can email it to you if you like.

Thanks, but I'll pass - don't need it myself. If you do find a URL where it
can be downloaded, do post it here though ... thanks![/QUOTE]

I'll see if I can persuade the list mom for Mac-NT to put it in the
shared utilities there. If he agrees, I'll post the URL.