KB188910 - MacPPT: Error Message When You Double-Click a Movie in Slide View

Article ID: 188910

Article Last Modified on 7/20/2007

APPLIES TO

Microsoft PowerPoint 2001 for Mac
Microsoft PowerPoint 98 for Macintosh

This article was previously published under Q188910

SYMPTOMS

When you double-click a movie in slide view, you may receive one of the following error messages:

This multimedia object is unavailable for playback because it is linked to a file on a different platform.

-or-

The server application, source file, or item cannot be found. You should reinstall the server application.

CAUSE

When you insert a movie into a slide, PowerPoint actually creates a link to the original movie file. For example, if you insert a QuickTime movie into a PowerPoint for Macintosh presentation, PowerPoint uses the QuickTime Extension to play the movie.

The error messages occur for one or both of the following reasons:

You copied the presentation to another computer, but you did not copy the movie files. Or, you copied all the files, but PowerPoint cannot find the movie files.

-or-
The type of link that is required to play the movie is not supported by PowerPoint or the operating system. For example, PowerPoint for the Macintosh cannot activate Windows Media Player objects.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem in Office 2001, please download and install the Microsoft Office 2001 Service Release 1 file from the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx?pid=download&location=/mac/download/office2001/update_905.xml&secid=10&ssid=25&flgnosysreq=True

To temporarily work around this problem, follow these steps:

When you copy your presentation between a Macintosh-based and a Windows-based computer, be sure to copy all the movie files as well.
Make sure that your movie files can be played on the destination computer.
Open the file on the destination computer.
For each movie object, follow these steps:
1. Delete the movie.
2. Reinsert the movie.
Save the presentation.

NOTE: PowerPoint for Macintosh can insert and play QuickTime movies but cannot insert or play Windows .avi files.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was corrected in Microsoft Office 2001 for Mac Service Release 1.

MORE INFORMATION

It is possible to convert .avi movies to QuickTime movies (and to convert QuickTime movies to .avi movies). There are several utilities available, some of them shareware, that can do this.

The following solution assumes you have Microsoft Video for Windows, version 1.1, installed on your Windows computer, or the Video for Windows 1.1 Utilities on your Macintosh:

AVI (Windows) to QuickTime (Mac)

Transfer the AVI file from Windows to the Macintosh.
Start the AVI To QT utility.
Locate the AVI file you want to convert.
Select the AVI file, and then click Add.
Click Convert. You have two options to save the file:
- Save Normally (dependency to AVI file)
- Save Self-Contained Movie
Make sure that Windows Compressors resides in the Extensions folder. The extension currently supports the following compression schemes:
```
      Microsoft Video 1
      Microsoft RLE
      Microsoft Full Frame
      Apple Cinepak
					
```
Delete the placeholder from your presentation.
Insert the converted movie.

REFERENCES

For additional information about the Office 2001 Service Release, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

294949 OFF2001: Readme for Microsoft Office 2001 for Mac Service Release 1 (SR-1)

Or, visit the Microsoft MacTopia Web site (http://www.microsoft.com/mac) for any additional updates.

Additional query words: ppt8 ppt98 m_powerpt w_powerpt quicktime quick time avi mov movie cross platform ppt2001 2001 98

Keywords: kberrmsg kbinfo kbinterop KB188910