[waterbuck]

Hi
I frequently prepare talks on my Mac OSX.2 with Powerpoint X, and the line drawings (charts) look great on my Mac and are replaced by big red X's when I view the same file on a PC. This does not happen with other graphic items like JPEGs.
Anyone know how to avoid this problem?

[engaged]

Originally posted by waterbuck:
Hi
I frequently prepare talks on my Mac OSX.2 with Powerpoint X, and the line drawings (charts) look great on my Mac and are replaced by big red X's when I view the same file on a PC. This does not happen with other graphic items like JPEGs.
Anyone know how to avoid this problem?

Could it be that the actual charts are on your Mac, and the PowerPoint presentations only 'refer' to them - so when the file is shown on a PC it can't find them and hence shows the red X's?

[-Q-]

They discuss the problem at Macintouch but I don't remember if they resolved it or not...

[waterbuck]

Hi-
I can verify that the red X problem is not due to the Windows version "referring" to a file with the original data for the charts. I have saved the presentations as powerpoint files, as powerpoint packages (where all potentially required files are bundled together), and the red X problem persists.

[adrianl]

How are you preparing the charts, and what format are they when inserted into PowerPoint?

As another poster said there was a long discussion about this over at macintouch a couple of weeks back with many suggestions/solutions. Can't remember details but one solution involved re-opening and then closing the chart graphic in its native app. Also there were certain file types that couldn't cross platform in office docs. Do remember jpegs were ok as you've found.

Adrian

[waterbuck]

Hi
The Macintouch discussions looked possibly helpful. ONe person described selecting the graphic charts and saving as windows metafile, and then using the "insert file" command to reinsert them into the talk. Metafiles retain the vector-graphic properties, keeping them clean and sharp.

I'll mention that my problem-afflicted charts were prepared on Powerpoint X using the embedded chart creation functionality that is in Powerpoint itself. That is you select "new slide" and choose they type that has a "chart". Then you double-click on the miniature picture of a chart, and it opens up a Microsoft subprogram called "graph" and you input your data and slect what chart variety you wish to have. It generally works like an Excel chart creation, but it is entirely within Powerpoint. As long as I show the resulting Powerpoint on my Mac, the chart is fine. Transfer it to a Windows machine either by email, or on a disk, in any format, and what shows up is the big red X. It is the most egregious Mac-Windows incompatibility I have ever seen within Office. By the way, the converse problem really is rare. A powerpoint chart, prepared in PC and one that looks identical to the one I prepared on the Mac, can be shown on teh Mac without any fear of incompatibility.

[typ993]

I believe I was the one that started that whole thread on Macintouch and I followed up a few times with some workarounds.

The source of the problem appears to be that pasting a chart (picture) with any kind of rotated text from a Mac will result in a red X on a PC.

I have since discovered a (not completely foolproof) solution: copy the chart (picture) into PowerPoint on the Mac, convert it to an Office drawing object (right click, select Picture Object or Ungroup), then select all the different elements and regroup them. This will then show up correctly on a PC.

The problem with this is that some of the text may change in alignment with other objects (e.g., text in a legend box). So you may need to do some tinkering.

This is a real fscking pain when it comes to cross-platform compatibility and Micro$oft needs to get off their lazy monopolistic ass and fix it. If you don't need to distribute these slides as PointPoint files, don't. Use PDFs instead. That is what I've started doing as much as possible.

[waterbuck]

So, do you prepare the graph from within the Powerpoint program, then copy it to another slide and paste it as a picture?

Or do you prepare the graph/chart from your Excel program and then paste that into Powerpoint?

[adrianl]

Hmm,

I go through exactly the same process but using Office98 under OS 8.6. Never any probs with red Xs transferring them to PCs.

Literally today my copy of Office Vx arrived from Apple to go with new Powerbook (worryingly no sign of the powerbook, and I thought Apple didn't ship stuff separately - ordered Office as special deal with new Mac from Apple Store - so that's another thing to chase tomorrow with the never answered phone at Apple 'Service').

If (when/if PB arrives!) I find I get the red X problem too with Office under OSX then I'm afraid the whole lot gets returned/eBayed and I switch to horrid Windows. Business relies on complete compatibility and I got the PB so I could try out all this kind of stuff (desktop still OS 8.6 G3 but has served brilliantly).

So anyone else done what our friend has done ie created charts within PP and transferred files ok to Windows?

Nervously,

Adrian

[Cadaver]

While I have not created any charts in PowerPoint X and transfered them to the PC, I have created charts in PowerPoint 97 and 2000 and opened them to PowerPoint X without difficulty.

Make sure when making your chart on PowerPoint X you don't use any features that might be Mac/Quartz-specific (transparency, etc). That might be part of the problem, epsecially if you're making these charts in Excel then moving them to PowerPoint.

Another thing I've noticed is that PowerPoint for Windows doesn't seem to like Mac .tiff files. Make sure you're not using any. On the off chance the chart you're making gets saved internally as a tiff (again, if you're making it in Excel), see if you can export the image of the chart as a .jpg file, then add it to your PowerPoint file as you would any other graphic.

Also, one last suggestion. Check PowerPoint X's Save preferences. Perhaps you should try saving the files in a PowerPoint 97-compliant format. Experiment with the Save preferences; this can affect cross-compatibility. Sorry I can't be more specific on exactly all the options listed - I don't have my Mac with me at the moment.

I live on PowerPoint as well, and I must say the only times I get the red X is if I use a picture format that the PC doesn't like (especially TIFFs, PNGs, etc).

[adrianl]

Originally posted by Cadaver:
While I have not created any charts in PowerPoint X and transfered them to the PC, I have created charts in PowerPoint 97 and 2000 and opened them to PowerPoint X without difficulty.

Make sure when making your chart on PowerPoint X you don't use any features that might be Mac/Quartz-specific (transparency, etc). That might be part of the problem, epsecially if you're making these charts in Excel then moving them to PowerPoint.

Another thing I've noticed is that PowerPoint for Windows doesn't seem to like Mac .tiff files. Make sure you're not using any. On the off chance the chart you're making gets saved internally as a tiff (again, if you're making it in Excel), see if you can export the image of the chart as a .jpg file, then add it to your PowerPoint file as you would any other graphic.

Also, one last suggestion. Check PowerPoint X's Save preferences. Perhaps you should try saving the files in a PowerPoint 97-compliant format. Experiment with the Save preferences; this can affect cross-compatibility. Sorry I can't be more specific on exactly all the options listed - I don't have my Mac with me at the moment.

I live on PowerPoint as well, and I must say the only times I get the red X is if I use a picture format that the PC doesn't like (especially TIFFs, PNGs, etc).

This is very helpful, especially tip about trying saving as an older Windows version.

TIFF comes in mac and Windows order where byte order changes I think, so yes images should be fine as jpegs.

Specific concern raised though is with charts made within Powerpoint Vx using MS Graph. Has anyone else tried this and transferred OK? They're perfect with me using Office 98 on an old Mac (but I notice charts sent to me in Windows files with rotated text labels have unreadable text, but that's the only problem), but some of us are nervous that there's some specific problem with going from Office X to Windows.

Any reassurance out there or must we wait for a MS fix (in their interest not to show any urgency I expect!).

Adrian

[mishakim]

just doing a quick test, I didn't get a red X, but there was one minor problem:

first, I just used the default data that Powerpoint uses when you first create a graph (it's a vertical histogram with 3D bars). Copying that to my PC, running Office 2000 and Win XP Pro, it opened just fine.

Back on the Mac, I rotated the x-axis labels 51 degrees and copied to PC again. This time, the chart's still there, but only the first label on the x-axis is visible, the rest were MIA. When I double-clicked to edit, they appeared and remained.

I'd say there may be some detail that OS X allows that breaks it on windows, and you just have to figure out what that is and avoid it or use some of the work-arounds that have been mentioned. Start with the most basic version of your graph, then add details until it breaks.

[waterbuck]

All my troubles involve the use of the little "graph" program embedded within Powerpoint X. These do not generate Tiffs or Jpeg, although it may be possible to copy and paste as a jpeg. They ordinarily generate vectorized data. I have only had this problem with line drawings with an x and y axis and points used to create little line graphs. There is no transparency or 3-d rotation whatsoever so I don't imagine it to be a quartz issue.

[adrianl]

Originally posted by mishakim:
just doing a quick test, I didn't get a red X, but there was one minor problem:

first, I just used the default data that Powerpoint uses when you first create a graph (it's a vertical histogram with 3D bars). Copying that to my PC, running Office 2000 and Win XP Pro, it opened just fine.

Back on the Mac, I rotated the x-axis labels 51 degrees and copied to PC again. This time, the chart's still there, but only the first label on the x-axis is visible, the rest were MIA. When I double-clicked to edit, they appeared and remained.

I'd say there may be some detail that OS X allows that breaks it on windows, and you just have to figure out what that is and avoid it or use some of the work-arounds that have been mentioned. Start with the most basic version of your graph, then add details until it breaks.

That's very reassuring!

Interesting that olnly glitch involved rotated text, which was only area where I've had problems when opening poerwpoint chart presentations sent from PC. Wonder what Office is actually doing to create rotated text labels and why this should cause problems across platforms (though I think the charts sent to me used a font I didn't have and the charts where pasted from Excel, so I couldn't open them to change font/rotation).

Now the mystery is why our friend can't send charts which you've copied over OK! OSX seems prone to voodoo like this...!

[Sarc]

I had this with word x last week, my problem was that I didn't install the graphics filters from the CD after I fresh installed panther.
I installed the component from the CD and problem solved.

hope it helps