Urgent: Suddenly can't open old presentations in 2007 and 2003

[SilviaLaura]

Sometime in the last week I lost my ability to open my old powerpoint files.
I tried to open them on my work computer running xp and office 2003, and also
on my home computer with vista and 2007. The error message is: "PowerPoint
can't open the type of file represented by... (file address)" They are all
8-10 years old, so created in whatever version was around back then.

This is highly disturbing, I have more than a hundred old files I use all
the time. I never saved them in a newer format because I wanted to preserve
the original create date so I could find files by date.

HELP!! I ran Office diagnostics and found no problems, and submitted a
ticket to my work help desk, but they don't have a clue either.

 

[Glen Millar]

Hi,.


Have a look at this and let us know how you get on. It might pay to burn
your presentations to disk as a back up so you still have original copies.
Just because I hate mucking with stuff that is important originals.

PowerPoint can't open the type of file represented by [FILENAME]
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00135.htm


--

Regards,
Glen Millar
Microsoft PPT MVP

Tutorials and PowerPoint animations at
the original www.pptworkbench.com
glen at pptworkbench dot com

 

[John Wilson]

As well as Glenn's link if you have installed SP3 on 2003 some file types are
now blocked. See http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=938810 for a
way to unblock them.
--
Amazing PPT Hints, Tips and Tutorials

http://www.PPTAlchemy.co.uk
http://www.technologytrish.co.uk
email john AT technologytrish.co.uk

 

[SilviaLaura]

The problem is clearly that opening the files is being blocked by the
registry settings, so didn't see anything in the link that would help.
Thanks.

Hi,.


Have a look at this and let us know how you get on. It might pay to burn
your presentations to disk as a back up so you still have original copies.
Just because I hate mucking with stuff that is important originals.

PowerPoint can't open the type of file represented by [FILENAME]
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00135.htm


--

Regards,
Glen Millar
Microsoft PPT MVP

Tutorials and PowerPoint animations at
the original www.pptworkbench.com
glen at pptworkbench dot com
------------------------------------------

Sometime in the last week I lost my ability to open my old powerpoint
files.
I tried to open them on my work computer running xp and office 2003, and
also
on my home computer with vista and 2007. The error message is:
"PowerPoint
can't open the type of file represented by... (file address)" They are
all
8-10 years old, so created in whatever version was around back then.

This is highly disturbing, I have more than a hundred old files I use all
the time. I never saved them in a newer format because I wanted to
preserve
the original create date so I could find files by date.

HELP!! I ran Office diagnostics and found no problems, and submitted a
ticket to my work help desk, but they don't have a clue either.

 

[SilviaLaura]

I was very excited because it seemed this article was going to give me the
answer. Unfortunately I checked on both my home Vista computer with Office
2007 and my work XP SP3 computer with Office 2003, and neither of the
registry keys for Powerpoint exist on either machine. Do you know where else
in the registry the files could be blocked?

And do you know why Microsoft would block opening the files? I can see
blocking saving them in an old format. I swear, Microsoft hates me.

Here is what I tried
To enable Office 2003 to open files that are saved in previous PowerPoint
formats, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click one of the following registry subkeys
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\11.0\PowerPoint\Security\FileOpenBloc
• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\PowerPoint\Security\FileOpenBlock
Note This registry subkey may not be present. If the subkey is not present,
you must create it.
3. Double-click the FilesBeforePowerPoint97 registry entry, type 0 in the
Value data box, and then click OK.

 

[SilviaLaura]

Also, I searched the registry on both computers (Vista and XP) for the phrase
FileOpenBlock and it wasn't found...

 

[Enric Mañas [PowerPoint MVP]]

SilviaLaura,

The explanation

http://blogs.msdn.com/david_leblanc/default.aspx

and a new

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938810

with the updates to re-enable all file types...

Cordialmente

Enric