HUGE issue opening certain PPT slides in Powerpoint 2010

[gerardsweeney]

All..

 

Could someone with Office 2010 try to open this file?

 

We've moved from 2003 to 2010 (woo!), and the Staff here are having issues with certain Powerpoint slides taking yonks to open.

And when they do, it says it's blocking external content - there aren't any external references.

 

Atmosphere – Key Areas no WebText.ppt

 

This is an example. It's a copy/paste of one of the slides.

 

It's a single slide PPT with a picture, and some text.

Except 2010 says it has external content - and the external site in question no longer exists.

 

Is there some way of telling 2010 to just behave like 2003, and open the damn thing without (I assume??) checking for hyperlinks being valid?

 

 

Incidentally - this happens no matter where the PPT is saved - network drive, C: drive etc..

 

Any help MASSIVELY appreciated!!!

Edited August 15, 2014 by gerardsweeney

[Meldrew]

Getting the same very slow load times here with office 2010.

 

meldrew

[HC_Netman]

Same issue here with that file.

 

You could probably change some settings in the trust centre to get it to load faster by making the location of the pictures (if known) a trusted location. You could also turn protected mode off all together to see if that helps first but I wouldn't recommend leaving it off...

[6Foot2]

Opened here: Protected view: About a minute. Click 'Enable editing' and it gets stuck at 23% [Waited 3 minutes so far]

 

Edit: It has just opened. Long delay in opening but not one that I would consider unworkable. Just really slow for a single PowerPoint slide.

Edited August 15, 2014 by 6Foot2

[gerardsweeney]

Thanks for the feedback so far, folks.

 

The 3+ minutes is just an example. The original slide is over 100 slides big - so the thing takes about half an hour to load.

At least I know it's the document, and not our 2010

 

Now - how to fix the sodding thing!!?!

[jonawd]

The problem here is that the Image in the slide is linked to an External file which doesn't exist.

 

The reference is: http://envis.tropmet.res.in/images/atmosph.gif

 

Unfortunately though, the usual method of breaking external links isn't working in PowerPoint 2013.

 

I've used the 'gui' method (Info > Edit Links to Files) doenst work.

I've also tried to do it through VBA, and although it identifies the links, it cannot break them.

 

Sub BreakLinks()'Opens each shape in every slide, checks its type of Type 11
'and attempts to break the link


   Dim oSl As Slide
   Dim oShp As PowerPoint.Shape


   For Each oSl In ActivePresentation.Slides
       For Each oShp In oSl.Shapes
           If oShp.Type = 11 Then
              Debug.Print "Link Found, Source = " & oShp.LinkFormat.SourceFullName
              oShp.LinkFormat.BreakLink
           End If
       Next 'Shape
   Next 'Slide
End Sub

 

It's been a really long time since I used VBA in earnest, so there may be a better way of doing it.

 

From a little reading though you should be able to break them from PowerPoint 2007, but I don't have this any more so can't test it.

 

 

POSSIBLE WORKAROUND

Not really a viable option, but you can prevent PowerPoint from taking ages to open simply by blocking its access to the internet. (I just blocked POWERPNT.EXE)

You may be able to block access to the website that its linking to, which may get you around the issue.

 

Its not really fixing it, but it may be a quick hack to get it running.

[Arthur]

how to fix the sodding thing!!?!

I found another workaround...

 

1. Open the PPT, save it in ODP format, close PowerPoint.
    
   
    
    
   
2. Open the ODP file you just saved and save it as a PPTX.
   

I've tried it twice tried now using your PPT and after converting the file it opened instantly both times. Not sure why, but it does.

[rdk]

PowerPoint Mac 2011 opened it immediately.

 

After that I uploaded the file to Google Drive, converted to a Google presentation, then downloaded the presentation as PPTX. Here is is attached - has that process stripped out the troublesome link?Atmosphere - Uploaded & Downloaded.pptx

[gerardsweeney]

Thanks for the replies, folks..

I'd sussed the ODP option the other day, so it's nice to see great minds think alike!

 

I'm currently looking at Powerpoint automation in AutoIt to see if there's a way I can do save as ODP, load ODP, save as PPTX en-masse.

Unfortunately, work is mental just now, so it's still "pending"

 

Regards,

Gerard

[rdk]

If using Chrome you can upload folders to Google Drive: put all your ppts in a folder, upload the folder and go and have a coffee while the files are uploaded and converted. Then use Google Takeout to download all the converted presentations as PPTS. One upload, one download, and everything done.

[gerardsweeney]

Thanks for the Google Drive suggestion. I'm still looking for ways I can get Staff to self-help, and fix this (they're the ones who were naughty and copy/pasted direct - heh).

 

Best results so are are using DocsPal - Free online file Converter and Viewer

Convert from PPT to PPTX

 

Then open the saved PPTX in 2010

File, Info

Edit links

Change source for each link to point to a picture file saved somewhere

Once changed, click Break link

Save it off again

 

Bit tedious, but they can do it themselves

 

Hope this other suggestion is of help to anyone else in a similar state

[Chuckster]

File opened instantly for me - using Office 2010 on Windows 7. No issues.

[Daramaccoille]

We have the same issue with Publisher 2003 files doing the same. Thanks for the advice.

[bossman]

@gerardsweeney:

 

Came across this:

 

While unblock should work it is not really the answer as Files should open on protected view. To achieve this PowerPoint needs to create a sandboxed copy of the file and something is stopping this.

 

If you are fairly confident have a look here:

 

Type dcomcnfg into the windows search box and open dcomcnfg.exe

 

You should see a window with Console Root

 

Expand the entry "Component Services"

Expand the sub entry "Computers"

RIGHT click "My Computers" and choose Properties

Choose Default properties Tab

 

There are two settings here: Default Authentication and Default Impersonantion, third part programs can alter them.

 

If the settings are not Default and Identify that may be the problem. Don't mess if you are not confident you can put the settings back if it doesn't help!

 

Don't know if this is the answer but worth a try: found it here: Can't open .pptx files from 2007 in PowerPoint 2010 - Microsoft Community

[LeMarchand]

File opened instantly for me - using Office 2010 on Windows 7. No issues.

 

Same here 2013 on Win 8.1x64. Old Acer laptop, though I did bump RAM to 4GB.

Edited November 18, 2014 by LeMarchand
Missed capital

[Sheridan]

We had this issue a lot with PP 2003 and 2007, and it was always rectified by Breaking the Links - as some of the powerpoints were old and linked to websites that had long since disappeared.