Yet another Windows / Mac compatibility question

[Dan Gauger]

I've reviewed some of the previous posts, and the linked-to websites, in an
attempt to find guidance on this one but without any luck. I use Word,
Excel and, to a lesser degree, Powerpoint intensively on both PCs (Win2K)
and my Mac (OS X). I rarely have compatibility issues with Word or Excel
but have huge problems with Powerpoint. More often than not, I find that if
I create a PPT file on a Mac some of my embedded Excel or Chart graphics
don't display when opened on a PC. I've also had several situations where I
create the presentation on the PC, then open it on the Mac and make minor
changes, only to find that embedded Excel or Chart objects just display as
big red Xs when I re-open the file on the PC. These problems occur often
enough that I basically feel I have NO cross-platform compatibility. I
occasionally have similar problems with Word's handling of graphics
metafiles, but not often enough to be a real concern.

I'm running PPT service release 1 on the Mac. Any suggestions? Is there
something stupid I'm doing when I import Excel or Chart objects or other
graphics?

Thanks in advance,
Dan

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Dan,

Does this article address the problem?
MacPPTX: Excel Chart Is Displayed as a Red X in a PowerPoint Presentation
<http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;325191&Product=maco
ffx>

Try creating your graphs within PowerPoint by using (from the PowerPoint
menu) Insert > Object > Microsoft Excel Chart

 

[Dan Gauger]

Thanks for the try but that doesn't explain the problem. The charts in
question were not created with smoothed lines, etc. Also, I believe I've
had problems with graphics inserted as you suggested.

I'm about to take a breath then another run at this. I'll try to note
carefully what seems to lead to problems.
dan

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Dan,

As you can tell from the article that I posted that getting these to fail
reliably is not easy to do.

In the past I've asked people to send files to me that would not display
objects properly and almost every time they displayed fine.

In your testing, some things are important to make note of. Be sure to note
the exact version of the programs involved (both Mac and Windows), the
updates installed for Office and the OS, and some hardware things such as
how many dots per inch are being used, what kind of monitor, and anything
else that could influence how PowerPoint is trying to display.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

All responses should be made to this newsgroup within the same thread.
Thanks.

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