[AnnD]

I helped a friend by editing her PowerPoint presentation, then saved it under a new name. (We're both running Windows XP.) When I emailed it to her, the file extension had another period added at the end, (xx.ppt.), and it wouldn't open. So, I saved it to a flash drive, carried it to her computer, and the same thing happened. I tried renaming the file again, removing the extra period, but to no avail.

However, other people are able to open and view the file from the flash drive. Is this a problem with my email program (gmail), my version of PowerPoint, or my friend's computer? How to solve this? Thanks!

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A lot may be caused by the versions of Powerpoint being used.
A lot of Office 2007 documents do not open in earlier versions of Office by default, though for Office 2003 it is possible with an add-in.
Microsoft Publisher, just to add a full solution, is the biggest pain in this regard because nothing saved in a newer version will ever be readable by an older version, so if you save Publisher 2007 files, they'll only ever open in Publisher 2007. The only program that can open Publisher files is Publisher, nothing else will read them.

Getting back to the original question, what version of Powerpoint is on your computer and what version of PowerPoint is on hers?

[Neil Jones]

A lot may be caused by the versions of Powerpoint being used.
A lot of Office 2007 documents do not open in earlier versions of Office by default, though for Office 2003 it is possible with an add-in.
Microsoft Publisher, just to add a full solution, is the biggest pain in this regard because nothing saved in a newer version will ever be readable by an older version, so if you save Publisher 2007 files, they'll only ever open in Publisher 2007. The only program that can open Publisher files is Publisher, nothing else will read them.

Getting back to the original question, what version of Powerpoint is on your computer and what version of PowerPoint is on hers?

[AnnD]

My version of Powerpoint is 9.0.0.2176, part of Office 2000. She is using Office 2003, and she thinks that the version is 11. She's already downloaded the add-in for Office 2003, but it didn't help.

[Mark D]

Howszit?

I just picked up your thread from the waiting room. Just so I understand, the problem is on your friends computer? Yours can open the show? Can she open the original that she brought to you? Sorry for all the questions but need info.

[123Runner]

The versions should not be the problem. I routinely create power points on my desktop (MS office 2000/ PPT version 9.0.0.2176) and open them on the company laptop (MS office Powerpoint 2003 version 11.8110.8122) without a problem.

Try right clicking the power point you want to open and and choose "open with". Reassociate it with the program.

[Neil Jones]

The versions should not be the problem. I routinely create power points on my desktop (MS office 2000/ PPT version 9.0.0.2176) and open them on the company laptop (MS office Powerpoint 2003 version 11.8110.8122) without a problem.

You can open older files in newer versions of a program with no problem. Otherwise nobody would ever upgrade anything.
Problems tend to occur when you open files created in newer versions of the programs into an older version.

[Mark D]

I've recently had a case where power point viewer 2007 could not open older power point shows, (just gibberish when it opened), To fix that I had the client roll back to Power point viewer 2003.

Here we have a PPT that will not open, but does elsewhere?

AnnD, What error message displays on the system when you attempt to open it? Or is nothing happening at all?

[AnnD]

Thanks for the responses to date. To clarify--my friend sent me an original file created in version 11. I made changes and saved it on my computer using version 9. The only computer that won't read the file with the changes is my friend's. We tried both via email and directly from a flash drive. When we tried to open it at her house, the file mysteriously had an extra period at the end of the extension (.ppt.) and wouldn't open.

Both of us can still open the original file that she sent to me, though, on both of our computers. It's only the updated file that won't open.

As for this advice: "Try right clicking the power point you want to open and and choose "open with". Reassociate it with the program."--I did try that. I received an error message that the file type wasn't recognized. I also renamed the file, omitting the extra period, and it still wouldn't open. You can see that there's information there, but it still won't open, even after reassociating it with PowerPoint.

I used both my husband's and my son's laptops (each with a newer version of PowerPoint--10 and 11), and their computers were able to open it. So, my best guess is that it's something going on with my friend's computer, but I don't know what else to try.

OR, as Neil suggested, since the original file was created in a newer version, then changes made in an older version, maybe that's why hers cannot open it. But why, then, would it open allright on two other laptops?

Additionally, I ran numerous spyware and antivirus scans on my computer, just in case there was something along those lines corrupting the file, but all was clean. Any other suggestions would be really appreciated.

[Mark D]

Allrighty then,

You modified a PPT that was generated by PowerPoint 2003 using your Power Point 2000. After which an extra "." was at the end of your file name...
And the only two systems that can not open this are yours and your friend's. Still this is very odd. Did either of your systems give an error message when you try to open the file?
If not, perhaps it's opening on a Window behind your powerpoint main window(???)

If you're not getting an error message, hold down the Alt key while pressing your tab key. See if there's a power point show active...

Hope this helps..

[AnnD]

Mark,
You've got it mostly right, although I AM able to open the updated file on my computer. No extra "." appears in the file extension on any computer at my house. I'll call my friend this evening and have her check for a different error message, and to try the Alt+Tab trick. I'll let you know what I find out.

[AnnD]

I think we've finally tracked down the problem. My friend had a trial version of Office 2003 pre-installed when she purchased her computer. Then she upgraded to the full version online. We worked together over the phone tonight, and found that PowerPoint recognized the file but couldn't read it. Apparently there's a cab file missing from when she upgraded to the full version.

Microsoft's Knowledgebase has articles about this: "You receive an "Installation Error: File not Found" error message when you try to convert the Office 2003 trial program to the full product version of Office 2003" at http://support.micro....com/kb/896301/.

She's already tried to fix the problem by following the steps in "Method 1," and is now going to send away for the disks. Hopefully, once she's uninstalled Office 2003 and reinstalled it, the problem will magically disappear!

Thanks to all for your help, and I DO hope that you won't hear from me again about this same probem.