Unable to use Powerpoint Template Offered on Mactopia Site

[cschlachte]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor: Intel Hi,

I downloaded the following template:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/D/3/5D39257E-0649-4440-A575-F0624E91FB15/PitchBook.potx

into my downloads folder, decompressed it (resulting in a folder called PitchBook.Potx) and moved it into my "My Templates" folder on the hard drive. Did a restart and still can't figure out how to use the template.

When I look inside the folder PitchBook.Potx there are three sub-folders: ppt, docProps and_rels. Lots of subfolders and such below that, everything is an .xml file. Nothing looks like a template and there is no instruction on where (if at all) I should put this stuff to use it.

I'd really like to use the template / format, so are there any suggestions on how to access it? I'm using Office 2008 and the latest of everything else (OS etc.).

Thanks in advance,

Carl

 

[Jim Gordon Mac MVP]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor:
Intel Hi,

I downloaded the following template:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/D/3/5D39257E-0649-4440-A575-F0624E91FB15/PitchBook.potx


into my downloads folder, decompressed it (resulting in a folder called
PitchBook.Potx) and moved it into my "My Templates" folder on the hard
drive. Did a restart and still can't figure out how to use the template.

When I look inside the folder PitchBook.Potx there are three
sub-folders: ppt, docProps and_rels. Lots of subfolders and such below
that, everything is an .xml file. Nothing looks like a template and
there is no instruction on where (if at all) I should put this stuff to
use it.

I'd really like to use the template / format, so are there any
suggestions on how to access it? I'm using Office 2008 and the latest of
everything else (OS etc.).

Thanks in advance,

Carl

Hi Carl,

All you have to do is put the .potx file into your My Templates folder.
If you don't know where that folder is, use the File menu and choose
Project Gallery. When Project Gallery opens click the Settings tab.
Click the blue link where it says File Locations: Local Templates and
you will see your My Templates folder.

Once you have put the template into the My Templates folder, quit
PowerPoint. Then when you re-open PowerPoint or the Project Gallery,
your template will be available to you under My Templates in Project
Gallery and also in the Templates tab of the Elements Gallery.

More about this is in the book Office 2008 for Mac All-in-One For Dummies
http://tinyurl.com/Office-2008-for-Dummies

-Jim

 

[cschlachte]

Jim,

No offense, but that's exactly what I did.

As I said in my original post, the .potx "thing" (referenced in my original post) I downloaded and uncompressed is a file folder with something like 20 different items in it -- all xml. I had originally moved this FOLDER called "PitchBook.potx" into the spot you suggested. When I open Project Gallery in PowerPoint and go to "My Templates" I see an item called "PitchBook.potx". When I select it I see 5 different Excel spreadsheets -- opening any of those generates an error that says "This workbook contains content that is not supported by Excel 2008 for Mac."

Again, the template in the link is supposed to be a PowerPoint template.

I fully realize I may have done something wrong here, but it's not at all obvious. I trashed the original download and repeated the process with the same result. Take a look at the link and tell me what you think.

FYI I have downloaded and used other templates before with no problems.

Any other suggestions for me to try?

Carl

> > Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Processor:
> > Intel Hi,
> >
> > I downloaded the following template:
> >
> > http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/D/3/5D39257E-0649-4440-A575-F0624E91FB15/PitchBook.potx
> >
> >
> > into my downloads folder, decompressed it (resulting in a folder called
> > PitchBook.Potx) and moved it into my "My Templates" folder on the hard
> > drive. Did a restart and still can't figure out how to use the template.
> >
> > When I look inside the folder PitchBook.Potx there are three
> > sub-folders: ppt, docProps and_rels. Lots of subfolders and such below
> > that, everything is an .xml file. Nothing looks like a template and
> > there is no instruction on where (if at all) I should put this stuff to
> > use it.
> >
> > I'd really like to use the template / format, so are there any
> > suggestions on how to access it? I'm using Office 2008 and the latest of
> > everything else (OS etc.).
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> >
> > Carl

>
> Hi Carl,
>
> All you have to do is put the .potx file into your My Templates folder.
> If you don't know where that folder is, use the File menu and choose
> Project Gallery. When Project Gallery opens click the Settings tab.
> Click the blue link where it says File Locations: Local Templates and
> you will see your My Templates folder.
>
> Once you have put the template into the My Templates folder, quit
> PowerPoint. Then when you re-open PowerPoint or the Project Gallery,
> your template will be available to you under My Templates in Project
> Gallery and also in the Templates tab of the Elements Gallery.
>
> More about this is in the book Office 2008 for Mac All-in-One For Dummies
> http://tinyurl.com/Office-2008-for-Dummies
>
> -Jim
>
> --
> Jim Gordon
> Mac MVP
> Co-author of Office 2008 for Mac All-in-One For Dummies
> http://tinyurl.com/Office-2008-for-Dummies
>

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Jim,

As I said in my original post, the .potx "thing" (referenced in my
original post) I downloaded and uncompressed is a file folder with
something like 20 different items in it -- all xml. I had originally
moved this FOLDER called "PitchBook.potx" into the spot you
suggested. When I open Project Gallery in PowerPoint and go to "My
Templates" I see an item called "PitchBook.potx". When I select it I
see 5 different Excel spreadsheets -- opening any of those generates
an error that says "This workbook contains content that is not
supported by Excel 2008 for Mac."

When you select it ... how exactly?

What happens when you start PowerPoint then use the normal File, Open command to open the file
rather than doubleclicking it (assuming you're doubleclicking to open it now, that is)?

When I downloaded the file just now (Windows system, PPT 2007) there were no issues with it, so it
doesn't seem that the file itself is corrupted.

But you shouldn't have to decompress it. It's a usable file as it is. Decompressing it will give
you loads of little files, none of which will individually be of any use to you.

If the originally downloaded file landed on your system with a .ZIP extension (as will happen
sometimes), rename it to give it a POTX extension and use it as is.

 

[cschlachte]

> When you select it ... how exactly?
>
> What happens when you start PowerPoint then use the normal File, Open command to open the file
> rather than doubleclicking it (assuming you're doubleclicking to open it now, that is)?
>

Steve,

That fixed it. thanks for the help. Just to close this out, here's what happened:

I clicked on the link and downloaded the file which for whatever reason comes in as a ".zip". My system automatically decompresses that leaving me with a folder with extension ".potx". That's the one I moved into the "My Templates" folder.

Going back to the originally downloaded file, removing the appended ".zip" from the filename and then moving the now renamed file to "My Templates" corrects the errors I was seeing.

Thanks for the help!

Carl

 

[Jim Gordon Mac MVP]

Jim,

No offense, but that's exactly what I did.

As I said in my original post, the .potx "thing" (referenced in my
original post) I downloaded and uncompressed is a file folder with
something like 20 different items in it -- all xml. I had originally
moved this FOLDER called "PitchBook.potx" into the spot you suggested.
When I open Project Gallery in PowerPoint and go to "My Templates" I see
an item called "PitchBook.potx". When I select it I see 5 different
Excel spreadsheets -- opening any of those generates an error that says
"This workbook contains content that is not supported by Excel 2008 for
Mac."

Again, the template in the link is supposed to be a PowerPoint template.

I fully realize I may have done something wrong here, but it's not at
all obvious. I trashed the original download and repeated the process
with the same result. Take a look at the link and tell me what you think.

FYI I have downloaded and used other templates before with no problems.

Any other suggestions for me to try?

Carl

Hi Carl,

Do not decompress the .potx file. The file extenion .potx indicates you
have a PowerPoint template.

Although it is possible to see the contents of the .potx file by
decompressing, that's useful only if you understand XML and HTML and
wish to hand-edit the code.

If you have a utility (Stuffit Expander, perhaps?) that is automatically
decompressing the .potx file, then throw away the resulting folder and
keep just the .ptox file. It's the .potx file that is the template.

-Jim

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

When you select it ... how exactly?

What happens when you start PowerPoint then use the normal File, Open command to open the file
rather than doubleclicking it (assuming you're doubleclicking to open it now, that is)?

Steve,

That fixed it. thanks for the help. Just to close this out, here's
what happened:[/QUOTE]

In case it sheds any light, PPTX, POTX AllMS'LittleXFiles are all
really ZIP files.

In some cases the MIME types at the server end aren't configured
correctly, so the file comes down as a ZIP. That wouldn't be the
problem here, or I'd have received it as a ZIP also.

In other cases, the browser either doesn't understand the mime type the
web server provides or it "knows better" and sniffs the innards of the
file, sees the first few bytes and realizes it's a ZIP file. Which it
is, but which the browser shouldn't do. Sigh.

You might be able to change your browser settings to make it do what
it's told rather than what it thinks is best for you.