OSX PPT CRASH HELP
February 9, 2008 2:17 PM Subscribe
HELP PLEASE OSX powepoint trouble
I amusing the trial version, my PPT doucment crashed now on a save attempt and now it cannot be opened! Error message says "may be corrupt, in use or af a type not recognized"
ARGHH!
So much for OSX and fewer crashes!
One crash and the document is trash: 20 hours of work?
Any solutions???
I have tried rebooting to no avail.
Are you running OSX 10.5 with Time Machine set up? If so, you can revert to an older uncorrupted file via Time Machine. (I'm guessing you're not if you're asking this question, but thought I'd throw it out there just in case.)
posted by teg at 3:00 PM on February 9, 2008
posted by teg at 3:00 PM on February 9, 2008
did you try to open it with keynote?
sounds like a microsoft office problem, not an osx problem.
posted by sero_venientibus_ossa at 3:04 PM on February 9, 2008
sounds like a microsoft office problem, not an osx problem.
posted by sero_venientibus_ossa at 3:04 PM on February 9, 2008
Have you tried keynote (which is part of a trial version of ilife which can be downloaded from apple's site and likely shipped on your machine?)
I'm pretty sure the mac & pc versions use the same format...you might find a PPT recovery tool here
posted by filmgeek at 3:06 PM on February 9, 2008
I'm pretty sure the mac & pc versions use the same format...you might find a PPT recovery tool here
posted by filmgeek at 3:06 PM on February 9, 2008
Response by poster: I see this
Method 4: Remove All Auto-Recover Files
One or more corrupted Auto-recover files may be on the system, and may be preventing PowerPoint from opening your presentation properly.
NOTE: Auto-recover files are not used by earlier versions of PowerPoint.
1. Switch to the System Folder.
2. Open the Preferences folder.
3. Drag all files called "PowerPoint temp file x," where x is a number, to the Trash.
4. Attempt to open your presentation.
how do i find the system folder?
posted by dougiedd at 3:11 PM on February 9, 2008
Method 4: Remove All Auto-Recover Files
One or more corrupted Auto-recover files may be on the system, and may be preventing PowerPoint from opening your presentation properly.
NOTE: Auto-recover files are not used by earlier versions of PowerPoint.
1. Switch to the System Folder.
2. Open the Preferences folder.
3. Drag all files called "PowerPoint temp file x," where x is a number, to the Trash.
4. Attempt to open your presentation.
how do i find the system folder?
posted by dougiedd at 3:11 PM on February 9, 2008
Response by poster: time machine: do i need a backup drive for that?
I tried keynote: smae problem
posted by dougiedd at 3:12 PM on February 9, 2008
I tried keynote: smae problem
posted by dougiedd at 3:12 PM on February 9, 2008
Response by poster: i tried porting it over to my pc and no luck; ant open it
posted by dougiedd at 3:39 PM on February 9, 2008
posted by dougiedd at 3:39 PM on February 9, 2008
Unfortunately, I don't think you'll find a way to unfuck-up a file that's been fucked up. Possibly someone will have an idea where Office stores temporary files and you might be able to find something in there. I was unable to locate this area, if it exists.
My best idea is to download TextWrangler and open the ppt with that. Right click "Open With" and select Other, scroll down to TW. You'll get what looks like a lot of gibberish but hopefully with some recognizable text in there. The best you can do with this method is salvage the raw text (copy and paste it into whatever program you want).
Time Machine does need another drive to backup with. The first time you connect an external drive (and maybe new internal) it will ask you if you want to use the drive for TM backups. After that it will automatically backup when the drive is connected. For future use you should get a drive to use for backups and keep it connected when doing critical work. TM stores hourly backups for the past day, then daily, weekly, monthly, deleting the oldest data if the drive fills up. So if you'd had a TM drive connected you'd have, at most, an hour's work lost.
posted by 6550 at 5:19 PM on February 9, 2008
My best idea is to download TextWrangler and open the ppt with that. Right click "Open With" and select Other, scroll down to TW. You'll get what looks like a lot of gibberish but hopefully with some recognizable text in there. The best you can do with this method is salvage the raw text (copy and paste it into whatever program you want).
Time Machine does need another drive to backup with. The first time you connect an external drive (and maybe new internal) it will ask you if you want to use the drive for TM backups. After that it will automatically backup when the drive is connected. For future use you should get a drive to use for backups and keep it connected when doing critical work. TM stores hourly backups for the past day, then daily, weekly, monthly, deleting the oldest data if the drive fills up. So if you'd had a TM drive connected you'd have, at most, an hour's work lost.
posted by 6550 at 5:19 PM on February 9, 2008
Just as an aside, douggiedd - sitting here hitting refresh and posting whining pleas doesn't exactly make people want to help you. If you use trial software for something important or mission-critical, you're a nong. If you blame the OS for it, you're a bigger nong.
Anyway, if you want to find your System folder to get rid of any auto-recover files:
- open Finder
- click your hard drive icon
- it's the third folder down.
Good luck.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 5:49 PM on February 9, 2008
Anyway, if you want to find your System folder to get rid of any auto-recover files:
- open Finder
- click your hard drive icon
- it's the third folder down.
Good luck.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 5:49 PM on February 9, 2008
You can try copying it and opening the copy - I don't know why, but that has worked for me in the past.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 6:27 PM on February 9, 2008
posted by The Light Fantastic at 6:27 PM on February 9, 2008
Response by poster: tried to copy and open: same thing.
I can use some of the expensive recovery software and see that it can be recovered in their free modes, but at 99$ ouch!
posted by dougiedd at 7:21 PM on February 9, 2008
I can use some of the expensive recovery software and see that it can be recovered in their free modes, but at 99$ ouch!
posted by dougiedd at 7:21 PM on February 9, 2008
This, unfortunately, along with the floppy disk that can't be read any more and the dead hard drive that wasn't backed up, is just one of the distressing lessons that every new computer user must go through on the way to Total Ultimate Mastery. It's why we suspicious old codgers tend to steer well clear of Save, and use Save As instead, with a new filename on each save. Especially with Microsoft products. Double especially with trial versions.
If it took you twenty hours to make the first version, it will probably only take you about ten to recreate it, since you will remember many of the decisions you made along the way.
posted by flabdablet at 7:22 PM on February 9, 2008
If it took you twenty hours to make the first version, it will probably only take you about ten to recreate it, since you will remember many of the decisions you made along the way.
posted by flabdablet at 7:22 PM on February 9, 2008
Unless you value your time at under $9 an hour I would say that the recovery software might be your best bet- I would make sure that the tool you purchase can do that which you desire. Or, go to the apple store in the morning and see if they can help you out.
posted by bkeene12 at 7:48 PM on February 9, 2008
posted by bkeene12 at 7:48 PM on February 9, 2008
how do i find the system folder?
Just gotta say... given your question history, do be very careful if you go digging around in your system folder, ok?
Those instructions aren't quite accurate, anyway; your preferences file is most likely in
/Users / {your home folder} / Library / Preferences /
or
/Library/Preferences/
...not /System/Library/Preferences. But if you can't open the file on your PC either, then the problem is with the file, not with the preferences, so don't bother this time around -- it'd be a waste of time anyway.
To your other question upthread: yes, you need a backup drive for Time Machine. I'd suggest you get one, as the problem you're having now is exactly what Time Machine is designed to solve.
posted by ook at 10:13 PM on February 9, 2008
Just gotta say... given your question history, do be very careful if you go digging around in your system folder, ok?
Those instructions aren't quite accurate, anyway; your preferences file is most likely in
/Users / {your home folder} / Library / Preferences /
or
/Library/Preferences/
...not /System/Library/Preferences. But if you can't open the file on your PC either, then the problem is with the file, not with the preferences, so don't bother this time around -- it'd be a waste of time anyway.
To your other question upthread: yes, you need a backup drive for Time Machine. I'd suggest you get one, as the problem you're having now is exactly what Time Machine is designed to solve.
posted by ook at 10:13 PM on February 9, 2008
Response by poster: thanks all: a bit of a learning lesson.
If I were to buy a backup drive, should i go with the new mac drives or is something less expensive AOK?
posted by dougiedd at 10:15 PM on February 9, 2008
If I were to buy a backup drive, should i go with the new mac drives or is something less expensive AOK?
posted by dougiedd at 10:15 PM on February 9, 2008
By "new mac drives" do you mean "time capsule"? That's for backup over wifi -- handy if you're backing up multiple macs, but probably overkill if all you've got is the one imac.
Really any hard drive will do; you're not locked into apple hardware. (I've had mixed success with LaCie drives; currently I'm using a Western Digital 'MyBook' which I'm pretty happy with. I'm pretty sure there have been a couple of askMes on the subject if you feel like searching.)
posted by ook at 8:31 AM on February 10, 2008
Really any hard drive will do; you're not locked into apple hardware. (I've had mixed success with LaCie drives; currently I'm using a Western Digital 'MyBook' which I'm pretty happy with. I'm pretty sure there have been a couple of askMes on the subject if you feel like searching.)
posted by ook at 8:31 AM on February 10, 2008
Response by poster: bought the Western Digital Book at Costco: 20$ off coupon came to 110 for 500gigs
posted by dougiedd at 8:06 PM on March 4, 2008
posted by dougiedd at 8:06 PM on March 4, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
I wonder: i had imported some old slides from Windows PPT presentation: cold that have done it?Is there anyway to get at this?
posted by dougiedd at 2:36 PM on February 9, 2008