1. How do I play sounds across multiple slides?

2. My sounds and movies play on my PC, why not on others? AKA: Why do links break when I move the presentation?

3. How do I make a CD that runs automatically even if the recipient doesn't have PowerPoint?

4. Free PowerPoint Viewers (where to download them).

5. Does a PPS (PowerPoint Show) need PowerPoint or a Viewer to play?

6. What can I do to recover a corrupt presentation file?

7. Why are my PowerPoint files so big? What can I do about it?

8. What's the best resolution for images in PowerPoint?

9. How can I batch-import lots of images into a presentation?

10. How can I password protect a presentation?

Solutions

1. How do I play sounds across multiple slides?

If you use PowerPoint 2000 (and PowerPoint 97 works much the same), choose Insert, Movies and Sounds, then click Sound From Gallery (or Sound From File or Play CD Audio Track or Record Sound).

In PowerPoint 97 you can use WAV, MID, and RMI sound files (though it can play MP3 sounds that have been added using later versions of PowerPoint).

PowerPoint 2000 and up can use WAV, MP3, MID, RMI, AIF, AIFC, AU, WMA, and AFS.

2. My sounds and movies play on my PC, why not on others? AKA: Why do links break when I move the presentation?

You create a presentation that includes linked images, sounds, or movies. Everything looks perfect, so you email the presentation to someone else, burn a CD of it, or just move it to a different folder on your own computer. Now nothing works right - PowerPoint displays a missing graphic icon instead of your pictures, and it won't play your sounds and movies.

There are two main reasons why images, movies and sounds might work on your computer but not on others:

• Broken links

• Missing CODECs

Avoid linking images if possible. If you already have linked images in your presentation, PC users can use the free demo version of PPTools FixLinks Pro to fix image links or embed the images so they won't break when the PPT file and images are moved to another computer.

Movies are always linked in PowerPoint. So are all sounds but WAVs.

WAV sounds are linked if they're above the maximum embedding size you specify in Tools, Options. But not always. See below.

To avoid linking problems:

• Pick (or create) the folder in which you want to store your presentation and movies/sounds. Save your presentation to that folder.

• Copy sound and movie files to the same folder.

• Insert the sounds and movies into your presentation from that folder.

• When you move the PPT file to another computer, be sure to move all the movie and sound files too. As long as you put them in the same folder as the PPT file, the links will usually not break.

By following these steps, you force PowerPoint to create "pathless links" -- links that point to just the linked file name, not the path. When PPT sees these, it looks for the linked file in the current folder, which is almost always the one where the PPT file itself lives. Result: the links don't break.

It won't work to copy the sounds/movies to the folder with the PPT file after you've inserted them.

If you've already added sounds and movies, either delete them then reinsert them from the folder where the PPT file lives or, if you use a PC, check out PPTools FixLinks Pro, which will de-path the links in your presentation automatically.

PPTools FixLinks Pro converts your links from fully pathed ones (for example links that point to C:\My Documents\Images\MyPhoto.JPG ) to pathless/relative links (MyPhoto.JPG only, no path or drive).

When PowerPoint runs into one of these pathless links, it looks for the linked file in the current operating system path, just as it does with links to files you've inserted following the instructions above.
 

Note: this is NOT necessarily the same as the location of the current PowerPoint file, though it often is. In order for your links to work, you need to understand where PowerPoint will look for them, even if you've ensured that they're relative. Here's what we've learned about it:

When you:	PowerPoint sets current path to:
Start PowerPoint; choose File, Open; choose a PPT or PPS file	Same folder as PPT/PPS file
Start PowerPoint; choose Open An Existing Presentation	Same folder as PowerPoint's main EXE file or default file location
Start PowerPoint; choose file from Most Recently Used list	Same folder as PowerPoint's main EXE file or same folder as PPT/PPS file
Double-click a PPT/PPS in Explorer	Same folder as PPT/PPS file
Start a PPT/PPS from command prompt	Current drive/folder
Start a PPT/PPS from a shortcut	Shortcut's Start-In folder, if set; otherwise, the same folder as the shortcut file

We've posted a test file in both PPT and PPS formats here (DRIVEPATH.ZIP, 18kb). Open it using whatever method you want to test, click the Click Me button, and it shows you the current drive and path.

Keep link paths short
If you don't need to make relative links (i.e., you'll always run the presentation from your own computer) you should still make sure that the full pathname to the linked file is less than 128 characters (including the drive letter, punctuation, spaces, and slashes). If links are too long, you may run into any of the following:

• Links don't work when the path or file name exceeds 128 characters

• Media files don't play

• A blank box appears on the slide where the media file should be

• You receive a "MMSYSTEM264: "Not enough memory" error message when you insert the file

• Other links in your presentation stop working (there's a limit to the total number of characters of link information PowerPoint can store; the longer your path and file names, the sooner you reach that limit).

When is a link not a link and when is it?
Say what? Well, yeah, that sounds like gibberish, but it's the kind of thing that PPT leaves us wondering all the time. Take sounds, for example.

If you Insert, Sounds, From File and choose a WAV file of say 50kb, it will be linked to your presentation.

But if you first went to Tools, Options, and set Link Sounds With File Size Greater Than: to more than 50kb, PowerPoint would embed the WAV and you wouldn't need to worry about the link breaking because there'd BE no link.

BUT: If you set Action Settings to Play Sound and choose a sound file other than the default built-in sounds PowerPoint shows you, the sound will always be embedded in your presentation, no matter what you've set Link Sounds With File Size Greater Than: to be.

The same is true of sounds you attach as page transitions.

Though PowerPoint will ordinarily embed only WAV sound files, a user on the PPT newsgroup has discovered that if you bring sounds into the Clip Organizer first and then move them into PowerPoint, the sounds seem to be embedded.

Other things that make links break:

Grouping: If you apply links and action settings to shapes in PowerPoint 2000 (or later) and then group the shapes, the links still work in slide show view. When you play the same presentation back in PowerPoint 97 or the 97 Viewer, the links don't work. Neither PPT97 nor the Viewer can "see" links within groups.

CODECs
If your linked sounds or movies won't play on another system, it might be that you're using a file format or CODEC not supported on the other system. A CODEC (COder/DECoder) is software that compresses sound and movie files. The ones you use on your system to create the files must also be present on the system that plays them back.
 

3. How do I make a CD that runs automatically even if the recipient doesn't have PowerPoint?

Obtain the Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 Viewer

To obtain the PowerPoint 2003 Viewer, visit the following Microsoft Office Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=428D5727-43AB-4F24-90B7-A94784AF71A4&displaylang=en

Download and install the viewer.

Note: The supported operating systems are Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 3, Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me), Microsoft Windows Server 2003, and Microsoft Windows XP.
 

Prepare a slide show

1. In Microsoft PowerPoint 97, Microsoft PowerPoint 2000, or Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, use the Pack and Go feature to package one or more presentations to a folder on the hard disk drive.
   
   In the Pack and Go Wizard, when you are prompted to include the Viewer, click Don’t include the Viewer. For more information about using Pack and Go, see the links in the "Reference" section.
   
    

2. Start Microsoft Windows Explorer, and then locate the packaged presentation.
   
    

3. Double-click the Pngsetup.exe file.
   
    

4. In the Pack and Go Setup dialog box, specify the location where you want to unpackage the packaged file, and then click OK.
   
   When you are prompted to run the slide show, click No. This location is referred to as the unpack folder.
   
    

5. Copy the contents from the PowerPoint Viewer 2003 folder to the unpack folder.
   
   The PowerPoint Viewer 2003 folder can be found at the following location:
   
   C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\PowerPoint Viewer
   
    

6. Use the Notepad.exe file to add the following two-line file to the unpack folder where playlist.lst is the name of the playlist file that Pack and Go created and unpacked to the unpack folder:
   
   7. [autorun]
   
   open=pptview.exe /S /L playlist.lst
   
   Save the file with the name autorun.inf.
   
    

7. Use Notepad.exe to add the following one-line file to the unpack folder:
   
   @pptview.exe /S /L playlist.lst
   
   Save the file with the name play.bat.
   
    

8. If you created the Pack and Go package by using PowerPoint 2002, use Notepad.exe to edit the Playlist.lst file.
   
   Remove the /S that comes in front of the file names in the play list, remove the quotation marks around the file names, and then put each file name on a separate line. For example, if the original playlist contains the text
   
   /S "Greeting.ppt" "Presentation1.ppt"
   
   modify the file as follows:
   Greeting.pptPresentation1.ppt
   
    

9. Verify the contents of the unpack folder by starting the Play.bat file.
   When you start the Play.bat file, the Viewer should start and show the presentations that are listed in the Playlist.lst file.
   
    

10. Burn the contents of the unpack folder to a CD-ROM by using the Windows XP Write to CD feature or any third-party software.

4. Free PowerPoint Viewers (where to download them).

Here are download links for the current crop of free PowerPoint viewers:

PowerPoint 2003 Viewer (Windows), PowerPoint 97 Viewer (Windows), PowerPoint 98 Viewer (Mac OS9.x or Classic under OSX), PowerPoint 97 Batch Converter

Please see the addition notes about each viewer below also.

PowerPoint Viewer 2003
PowerPoint Viewer 2003 supports the new animations and many other features introduced in PowerPoint 2002 (part of Office XP) and continued in PowerPoint 2003.

PowerPoint Viewer 2003 works with these versions of Windows:

• Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition. Important: NOT Windows 98. It may install in Windows 98, but it won't work unless it's Windows 98 SE

• Windows Millennium Edition

• Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3

• Windows XP

• Windows Server 2003

5. Does a PPS (PowerPoint Show) need PowerPoint or a Viewer to play?

Yes, you need either PowerPoint or the PowerPoint viewer to play back PPS files.

The difference between PPS (PowerPoint Show) and PPT (PowerPoint presentation) files is this:

___________________________________________________________

One ends with an "S". The other ends with a "T".

PP T
PP S

_________________________________________________________

That's it. Otherwise, they're identical files.

A PPS is just a PPT file with a different file extension that tells PowerPoint "Open me directly into slide show view, not editing view." You can "convert" from one to the other simply by renaming the files. You need the same software to view either one.

6. What can I do to recover a corrupt presentation file?

If you're getting messages like "PowerPoint cannot open the type of file represented by .ppt" when attempting to open a PPT file, it's likely that:

• Your file was password protected in PowerPoint 2002 (XP), but you're opening it in an earlier version of PowerPoint; earlier versions can't open password protected files and will give this scary error message when you try. Mac versions of PowerPoint through 2004 are also unable to open these presentations.

• Your presentation file has become corrupted.

If it's a PPT XP file and you're opening it in an earlier version of PowerPoint, have the file's owner open

it again in XP and save again without the password protection.

Otherwise, getting a corrupt presentation back seems to be pretty much a crapshoot. If you have an earlier version or a backup of the file, dig it up now. If not, you can try some of the things listed below.

Whatever else you do, make a backup copy of your presentation and work on it. Never try any of these recovery techniques on your only copy of a presentation.

Things to try:

1. If you run Windows XP and have installed SP1, see Files open as Read-Only after installing Windows XP SP1, Other file/path related problems

2.Open a blank presentation (You can apply the template used for the damaged file, if applicable. That might help cut down on reformatting.)

3. Insert, Slides from File

4. Try to insert slides individually if you're not able to insert the whole thing

Sometimes you can get some of your work back that way.

If your file corrupted during, say, a computer crash, you can sometimes locate a temporary version of the file in your TEMP directory. If so, you can try the aforementioned Insert, Slides From File and browse to that file. Or you can try renaming the extension to PPT and see if you can open it from within PowerPoint using File, Open. You could also do a search for *.TMP files on the off chance that it's not in your TEMP directory.
 

7. Why are my PowerPoint files so big? What can I do about it?

Embedded Objects
When you embed (or in some cases link) an object, what you see in PowerPoint is a Windows Metafile (WMF) picture of the actual object. WMFs can include bitmap images, but only as uncompressed BMPs, so if an embedded or linked object's WMF includes any bitmap data, your PPT file bloats.

Embedded objects are easy enough to deal with. Once you know you don't need to edit the presentation any further, ungroup then immediately regroup any embedded graphics, spreadsheets, charts, etc. That converts them to PowerPoint objects and discards all the data behind the object. It's best to do this on a COPY of your original in case you have to edit it again later.

Raster Graphics (scans, photos, screen shots, and similar images)
If you're creating a presentation that'll be viewed as a screen show, your images should be sized to match the resolution of the computer where you'll play the show.

In other words, if you'll play the show on a laptop running at 800x600, your full-screen images should be 800x600 pixels. Anything bigger than that will make your files needlessly large, will slow down the screen show, and won't add a thing to image quality in most cases.

Images that take up less than the full screen can be proportionally smaller in size.

And speaking of size, pixels is all you need to know. Ignore DPI, ignore size in inches, and pay no attention to the size at which PowerPoint inserts the images. Size them correctly in pixels before you import them, scale them to full screen in PowerPoint if need be and that's that.

Stuff on masters, etc.
When you check your presentation for oversize images and embedded OLE objects as explained above, check the Slide and Title Master(s) and Notes and Handouts Masters as well as the individual slides.

Also check each Notes page in Notes view (graphics on the Notes pages don't appear in the Notes pane in Tri-Pane view in PowerPoint 2000 and later).

Saving as PowerPoint 95-compatible PPT files
PowerPoint 97 and later compress images. Earlier versions of PowerPoint don't. If you Save As to any format that includes PowerPoint 95 in the name, your PPT file sizes will get very large if they include images.

Fast Saves
If you want to keep your file sizes down and avoid problems with corrupted files, disable the Allow Fast Saves option. Choose Tools, Options (or Tools, Preferences on the Mac). On the Save tab, remove the checkmark next to Allow Fast Saves.

Once you've disabled Fast Saves, choose File, Save As and save it again under a new name.
 

Pasted or Drag/Dropped Graphics
When you do paste or drag & drop graphics into PowerPoint, you get a metafile or embedded OLE object in PowerPoint. PowerPoint can't compress these, and in fact, it may have to expand the graphics to its full uncompressed size.
Instead, save your image as a JPG, PNG, or other file type, then use Insert, Picture, From file to bring it into PowerPoint.

Once the image is in PowerPoint, it's ok to copy and paste it to other slides within the same or other presentations. In fact, doing this can help keep your file size down.

Clip Gallery pictures
One user has reported that images inserted via the Clip Gallery into PowerPoint 97 cause a much larger file size jump than do the same images inserted via Insert, Picture, From File.

Ungrouping then regrouping the pictures will probably help reduce the file size.

Mysterious, unseen elements
On the Slide or Master where you suspect there's something that's making the file size grow

Choose Edit, Select All from the menu bar or press Ctrl + A. That selects everything on the slide.

• De-select the elements you know you want to leave alone (Shift + Click each element you want to de-select).

• Press the Delete key to remove anything that's left selected, visible or not.

Another approach: Zoom out, then press TAB repeatedly to select each of the shapes on the slide/master in order. If you see something off the slide or something you can't identify become selected, delete it and resave the presentation.

Embedded Fonts
When you embed a font in your presentation, the presentation may grow by as much as the size of the font file. Before you decide to embed, check the size of the font file. Some of the new Unicode fonts are enormous!

If you think this might be the cause of your problem choose File, Save As. Next:

If you use PowerPoint 2000, choose File, Save As, click Tools and remove the check mark next to Embed TrueType Fonts. Then give your presentation a new name and click Save.

If you use PowerPoint 2002 (XP) or 2003, choose File, Save As, click Tools, click Save Options, remove the check next to Embed TrueType Fonts, click OK, then give your presentation a new name and click Save.

8. What's the best resolution for images in PowerPoint?

If your computer is set to a display size of 1024 x 768, then that's the size you want your full-slide images to be.

If the image occupies only half the width and half the height of the slide, then it should be 1024/2 or 512 pixels wide and 768/2 or 384 pixels high.

The DPI of the image is irrelevant, confusing, meaningless, probably misleading and assuredly useless information in this particular situation. Ignore it. Ignore anybody who tells you you need images of XXdpi.

If the show will be projected with a video projector, it doesn't matter how large or small the screen will be; the display resolution of the computer and that of the projector will have to be matched up, so you still match your images to the computer's display resolution.

9. How can I batch-import lots of images into a presentation?

If you have PowerPoint XP (2002) or higher you can choose Insert, Picture, From File and select multiple picture files.
When you click OK, they'll all be inserted at one time onto the current slide.
 

10. How can I password protect a presentation?

PowerPoint 2002 (part of Office XP) and later can apply password protection that allows you some control over who can open and/or edit/print your presentations. You can password protect your presentations so they can be opened only by those who have the password, or allow anyone to open them, but protect them against modification.

You can't password protect presentations in versions of PowerPoint prior to 2002, and these versions can't open password protected files from later versions. Instead, they display a message saying that the PowerPoint file is corrupted and can't be opened.

Making the new PowerPoint Viewer available might well solve this problem.

Here are a few alternatives that may work for you depending on the level of protection you need:

Create a standalone EXE version of your presentation with optional password protection.
You can create a self-installing package that includes the PowerPoint viewer and a PPT file.

Distribute a show file instead of a presentation file
Rename your presentation from .PPT to .PPS
This doesn't change the presentation in any way, nor does it really secure it, but when naive users double-click it, it starts PowerPoint directly in Slide Show mode. They won't have the opportunity to edit the file. Experienced PPT users know that all they have to do is start PowerPoint then File, Open to open either PPT or PPS files.

Distribute a show within a show

• Create and save your presentation as a PPS file.

• Open a new presentation, click on Insert, Object, Create From File and select the PPS file you just created. Do not check the link or icon box.

• Resize your embedded PPS (PowerPoint show) to cover the whole screen.

• Use the custom animations setting to make it run automatically, etc., however you want it to appear.

• Make sure your Multimedia setting is set to SHOW.

• Save your new file as PPS. You may have to experiment a little to get the exact results you want.

A really knowledgeable PowerPoint user may still be able to get around this trick, but it should work quite well in most cases. And it's simple. And free.

Zip it
Distribute your presentation inside a password-protected ZIP file or self-extracting EXE created from a ZIP file.

Don't distribute your real presentation
Distribute a presentation that contains only pictures of your presentation. Export each slide in your presentation to a WMF or bitmap (JPG, PNG, etc.) file, then import each of these files into a new presentation and scale them up to fill the slide. WMF will usually make for a smaller presentation, but can be ungrouped and edited to some degree; bitmap files can't be edited but will make your presentation file size larger.

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