PPT4: Troubleshooting Damaged PowerPoint Presentations (Mac)
  
PSS ID Number: Q153136
Article last modified on 07-08-1998
 
MACINTOSH:3.0,4.0,98
 
MACINTOSH
 

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The information in this article applies to:
 
 - Microsoft PowerPoint for the Macintosh, versions 4.0
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SYMPTOMS
========
 
If you are experiencing unexpected behavior when working with a
PowerPoint file, your presentation may be damaged or corrupted. Symptoms 
of a corrupted presentation include the following:
 
 - Type 11, Type 1, or Bad f-line errors when you open or work with a
   presentation.
 
 - A message that says "This is not a PowerPoint presentation" when you
   attempt to open a presentation.
 
 - Out of memory errors when you attempt to open a small presentation.
 
 - PowerPoint, or your Macintosh hangs, and stops responding.
 
If this unexpected behavior is exclusive to one presentation, the
presentation may be corrupted.
 
NOTE: It is also possible to receive the above symptoms for other
reasons.
 
RESOLUTION
==========
 
After you determine that the presentation has been corrupted, try the
following methods to attempt to recover the damaged file. The methods
listed below are split into the following sections:
 
 - General Troubleshooting
 - If You Are Unable to Open a Presentation
 - If You Are Able to Open a Damaged Presentation
 
Follow the procedures in the General Troubleshooting section first.
 
General Troubleshooting
=======================
 
Method 1: Rebuild the Desktop
-----------------------------
 
If you are running System 7.5.x, perform a clean rebuild of the desktop
using the following steps:
 
1. Disable all extensions and control panels except Macintosh
   Easy Open in the Extensions Manager control panel.
 
2. Restart the computer while holding down the OPTION and
   COMMAND keys.
 
   This should bring up a dialog box with a message similar to
   the following:
 
      Are you sure you want to rebuild the desktop file on the
      disk <name of your hard drive>?
 
3. Click OK to proceed with the rebuild.
 
4. Once the desktop has been rebuilt, open the Extensions
   Manager control panel and turn all of the extensions and
   control panels back on.
 
Method 2: Start the computer with Extensions Disabled
-----------------------------------------------------
 
Restart the computer while holding down the SHIFT key. You should see
the following message:
 
   Welcome to Macintosh.
   Extensions Off.
 
NOTE: On some systems, PowerPoint will not start when you start with the
SHIFT key held down. The computer types that are known to have this
behavior are the PowerPC Performa models. With these systems, use the 
following steps to disable the extensions.
 
These steps assume you are running System 7.5.x.
 
1. Switch to the System Folder.
 
2. Open the folder called Startup Items. Temporally move any
   items that appear in this folder to a different location.
 
3. Click Control Panels on the Apple menu. Start the
   Extensions Manager control panel.
 
4. Save the current extension set. Check the title of the extension
   set. (The title is displayed to the right of "Sets" in the
   upper-right corner). If you see "Custom" this is an indication
   that the current extension set has not been saved. Use the
   following steps to save the current extension set:
 
   a. Click and hold the mouse button on the extension set
      title. This should reveal a drop-down list of options.
 
   b. Click the Save Set option.
 
   c. Type in a name for the extension set.
 
   d. Click OK to save the extension set.
 
5. Change the extension set to All Off. This should remove all
   the check marks from the extension list.
 
6. Turn on the following extensions:
 
      Microsoft OLE Extension
      Shared Code Manager
 
7. Turn on the following control panel:
 
      Macintosh Easy Open
 
   NOTE: Macintosh Easy Open is required by PowerPoint 4.0 when
   running on Macintosh Performa computers.
 
8. Restart the computer.
 
Try to open the file. If the file opens, an extension, control
panel, or start up item was preventing normal operation.
 
If You Are Unable to Open a Presentation
========================================
 
Method 1: Drag and Drop the File
--------------------------------
 
1. Arrange the windows on your desktop so that you can see the file you
   are trying to open and the PowerPoint program icon.
 
2. Click the presentation and drag its icon on top of the PowerPoint
   program icon.
 
Method 2: Open PowerPoint and then Click Open on the File Menu
--------------------------------------------------------------
 
If you cannot open the presentation from the Open dialog box, the
thumbnail image may be damaged. After you click a presentation in
the PowerPoint Open dialog box, PowerPoint displays a thumbnail of
the first slide. If this thumbnail is damaged PowerPoint may not be able to
open the file using this method. Try a different method.
 
NOTE: PowerPoint 98 does not display a thumbnail of the first slide
of a Windows PowerPoint presentation.
 
Method 3: Double-Click the PowerPoint Presentation
--------------------------------------------------
 
In the Finder, double-click the presentation file you want to open.
 
Method 4: Attempt to Insert the Slides into a Blank Presentation
----------------------------------------------------------------
 
1. On the File menu, click New.
 
2. Click the Blank Presentation button in the New Presentation dialog
   box, and then click OK.
 
3. If the New Slide dialog box appears, click OK.
 
   Your selection from this dialog box does not matter; after you
   re-create the presentation, you can delete this slide.
 
4. On the Insert menu, click Slides From File.
 
5. In the resulting dialog box, locate the damaged presentation.
 
6. Click the presentation and then click the Insert button.
 
   If successful, this operation inserts all of the slides from
   the damaged presentation, omitting the master, into the blank
   presentation you just created.
 
7. Save the presentation.
 
Method 5: Apply the Damaged Presentation as a Template
------------------------------------------------------
 
If your presentation does not look the way you expect, try
applying the damaged presentation as a template. To do this:
 
1. Make a backup copy of your presentation.
 
2. On the Format menu, click Apply Design.
 
   NOTE: In some versions of PowerPoint this feature is called
   Presentation Template.
 
3. Locate the damaged presentation.
 
4. Click the presentation and then click the Apply button.
   This operation replaces the master of the new presentation
   with the master of the damaged presentation.
 
NOTE: If you start to experience unexpected behavior, after applying
the template, this may indicate that the template is corrupted. In that
case, use the backup copy and recreate your master slide.
 
Method 6: Try opening the Presentation with PowerPoint Viewer
-------------------------------------------------------------
 
If you are able to a open the presentation, this may be an indication
that your PowerPoint program is damaged or that you have some corrupted
objects within the presentation.
 
Method 7: Try Opening the Presentation on Another Computer
----------------------------------------------------------
 
Move the file to a computer running another operating system, such as 
Windows 95.
 
In some cases, moving the PowerPoint file to a different operating
environment may allow you to open the presentation. If you are able to
open the file, search the slides for any blank object place holders and
delete them. Re-save the presentation and then return the file to its
original operating environment.
 
You Are Able to Open a Damaged Presentation
===========================================
 
Method 1: Insert the Slides into a Blank Presentation
-----------------------------------------------------
 
NOTE: Use this method with PowerPoint 4.0 and later only.
 
Insert the slides into a blank presentation, and then apply the damaged
presentation as a template to preserve the master.
 
1. On the File menu, click New.
 
2. Click the Blank Presentation button in the New Presentation dialog
   box, and click OK.
 
3. If the New Slide dialog box appears, click OK.
 
   Your selection from this dialog box does not matter; after you
   recreate the presentation, you can delete this slide.
 
4. On the Insert menu, click Slides From File.
 
5. In the resulting dialog box, locate the damaged presentation.
 
6. Click the presentation and then click the Insert button.
 
   This operation inserts all of the slides from the damaged
   presentation, except the master, into the blank presentation
   you just created.
 
7. Save the presentation.
 
   If your presentation does not look the way you expect, try applying
   the damaged presentation as a template. To do this:
 
Method 2: Attempt to Apply the Damaged Presentation as a Template
-----------------------------------------------------------------
 
1. Create a backup copy of the presentation.
 
2. On the Format menu, click Apply Design.
 
   NOTE: In some versions of PowerPoint this feature is called
   Presentation Template.
 
3. Locate the damaged presentation.
 
4. Click the presentation, and then click the Apply button.
 
   This operation replaces the master of the new presentation
   with the master of the damaged presentation.
 
NOTE: If you start to experience unexpected behavior after applying
the template, this may indicate that the template is corrupted. In that
case, revert to a backup and recreate your master slide.
 
Method 3: Paste the Slides from the Damaged Presentation to a New One
---------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Use a copy and paste operation to move the slides from the damaged
presentation to a blank presentation. To do this, follow these steps:
 
1. Open the damaged presentation.
 
2. On the File menu, click New.
 
3. Use the same master as the damaged presentation by clicking
   the Current Presentation Format button.
 
4. Change the view of the damaged presentation to Slide Sorter view by
   clicking Slide Sorter on the View menu.
 
   If you receive errors when you change the view of the damaged
   presentation to Slide Sorter view, try changing to Outline View
   instead.
 
5. Select a slide to copy.
 
6. On the Edit menu, click Copy.
 
   It is possible to copy more than one slide at a time. The number
   of slides you can copy at one time directly relates to the amount
   of available RAM on your computer.
 
7. Switch to the new presentation and click Slide Sorter on the
   View menu.
 
8. Paste the copied slides into the new presentation.
 
9. Repeat steps 5 through 8 until the entire presentation is
   transferred.
 
NOTE: In some situations one damaged slide can cause a problem for the
entire presentation. If you notice odd behavior within the new
presentation after copying a slide to it, that slide is most likely
corrupted. Either re-create the slide or copy portions of the slide to a
new slide.
 
Method 4: Save the presentation as RTF (Rich Text Format)
---------------------------------------------------------
 
If the corruption is throughout the presentation, saving as RTF
may be the only option to recover any data. This method, if successful,
recovers only the text that appears in Outline view. To do this, follow
these steps:
 
1. Open the corrupted presentation.
 
2. On the File menu, click Save As.
 
3. Select Outline (RTF Text) from the Save File As Type drop-down list.
 
4. Name the file, pick a location to store the file, and then
   click Save.
 
NOTE: When you open this RTF file, to continue working, select
All Readable Outlines or All Files from the List Files of Type
drop-down list. RTF files will not appear when the Presentations
option is selected.
 
MORE INFORMATION
================
 
For additional information, please see the following articles in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base:
 
   ARTICLE-ID: Q143221
   TITLE     : WD6x: "Bad F-line Instruction in MacWord with Older Extensions
   Extensions
 
   ARTICLE-ID: Q105509
   TITLE     : MXL Err Msg: Bad F-Line Instruction
 
   ARTICLE-ID: Q130155
   TITLE     : Err Msg: "Sorry There Was an Error 253 Accessing the
   File"
 
   ARTICLE-ID: Q141522
   TITLE     : PPT4: Error Opening PowerPoint 7.0 Files in Mac PowerPoint
 
   ARTICLE-ID: Q135820
   TITLE     : PPT: Error -192 When Double-Clicking a Presentation Icon
 
   ARTICLE-ID: Q141845
   TITLE     : PPT4: Read-Only Message When Opening PowerPoint Presentations
 
Additional query words: 4.00 m_powerpt powerpnt power point corrupt damaged
broken missing tshoot trouble shoot
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Keywords          : kbenv kbdta
Version           : MACINTOSH:3.0,4.0,98
Platform          : MACINTOSH
Hardware          : MAC
Issue type        : kbinfo
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Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1998.