PowerPoint communication failure...
August 7, 2012 10:47 AM Subscribe
I have PowerPoint X for Mac. I'm trying to send a bunch of presentations to someone with a PC, and the photos aren't showing up because they're too big. She was able to open them on another Mac in her office, and instructed me to save them with a "pptx" extension. For some reason this isn't an option. Any ideas?
That's about it. I did a bunch of PowerPoints for a freelance job and took them in on a jump drive. They'll open on her PC, and the text is there, but the pics don't show--they say something like "you need Quicktime and a decompressor" to see the photos.
Another person with a Mac in her office was able to open one, save it with a pptx extension, and email it to her. She instructed me to do that, but when I go to "save as," the pptx extension isn't an option.
Any ideas on how I can get these PPs to her? The person with the Mac is too busy to help.
That's about it. I did a bunch of PowerPoints for a freelance job and took them in on a jump drive. They'll open on her PC, and the text is there, but the pics don't show--they say something like "you need Quicktime and a decompressor" to see the photos.
Another person with a Mac in her office was able to open one, save it with a pptx extension, and email it to her. She instructed me to do that, but when I go to "save as," the pptx extension isn't an option.
Any ideas on how I can get these PPs to her? The person with the Mac is too busy to help.
This was a common problem for a while, a quick google search give this page with solutions.
posted by griseus at 10:54 AM on August 7, 2012
posted by griseus at 10:54 AM on August 7, 2012
PowerPoint X is an older version of PowerPoint and can't save in the now-standard .pptx format. That's why it's not an option for you. That said, pptx won't make any difference in her being able to view the images. What format did you save the images in? jpeg or png? If png, try converting them to jpeg and re-inserting them.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:21 AM on August 7, 2012
posted by Thorzdad at 11:21 AM on August 7, 2012
Response by poster: I used the images they provided, which are jpgs. I'm trying to avoid re-inserting anything, since there are a lot of presentations and a lot of photos, so we're talking substantial additional time. For some reason, another Mac in her office was able to view the presentations and the photos (at least one presentation, anyway) save them as pptx, and email them to her PC, and she could then open them.
posted by Ollie at 11:27 AM on August 7, 2012
posted by Ollie at 11:27 AM on August 7, 2012
For some reason, another Mac in her office was able to view the presentations and the photos (at least one presentation, anyway) save them as pptx, and email them to her PC, and she could then open them.
Upgrade your copy of Office from X to 2011. If she needs pptx files, that's probably going to be your best long-term solution.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:34 AM on August 7, 2012 [1 favorite]
Upgrade your copy of Office from X to 2011. If she needs pptx files, that's probably going to be your best long-term solution.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:34 AM on August 7, 2012 [1 favorite]
If she only needs to be able to see what they look like, not use slide functionality, can you save as PDF, or use a print-to-PDF utility?
posted by lakeroon at 12:17 PM on August 7, 2012
posted by lakeroon at 12:17 PM on August 7, 2012
Powerpoint X was released ten years ago. Support ended in 2007. If you are regularly producing slide decks for paying clients, you owe it to them to upgrade your software. You will also find that modern versions of Powerpoint have far fewer conversion weirdnesses from mac to pc than the old versions do. Unfortunately, you may have up grade your hardware as well, depending on the situation. That's another question though.
A possible solution for your current problem is to upload your slides to Google docs and then export them as a pptx. This can work well, or horribly, depending on the situation.
posted by rockindata at 1:32 PM on August 7, 2012
A possible solution for your current problem is to upload your slides to Google docs and then export them as a pptx. This can work well, or horribly, depending on the situation.
posted by rockindata at 1:32 PM on August 7, 2012
Microsoft has its own online office app called SkyDrive. The Power Point isn't as full featured as the desktop one, but you could see if it would work for this project. But, yeah, in the future, I'd suggest switching to the newest Office. My workplace is a mix of macs and pcs, and we have very few compatibility issues.
posted by bluefly at 4:31 PM on August 7, 2012
posted by bluefly at 4:31 PM on August 7, 2012
" but you could see if it would work for this project."
As in, see if you can import your presentation, save it as a .pptx file, and see if your client can open it on her PC.
posted by bluefly at 4:36 PM on August 7, 2012
As in, see if you can import your presentation, save it as a .pptx file, and see if your client can open it on her PC.
posted by bluefly at 4:36 PM on August 7, 2012
hydropsyche has it. You either need to re-insert the images without copying & pasting (this way for sure fixes the problem), or you need to save the file as a .pptx file (sometimes works, sometimes not).
You *might* be able to use the Open XML converter to save in the newer format. Or, you could download the 30 day trial of Office 2010.
posted by wearyaswater at 5:11 PM on August 7, 2012
You *might* be able to use the Open XML converter to save in the newer format. Or, you could download the 30 day trial of Office 2010.
posted by wearyaswater at 5:11 PM on August 7, 2012
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posted by hydropsyche at 10:53 AM on August 7, 2012