Preventing and Fixing PowerPoint File Corruption
~~Kathryn
Jacobs, PowerPointAnswers
Let’s face it, PowerPoint presentation files
tend to be large. What’s more, they get corrupted easily. Everyday we get
posts on the PowerPoint newsgroup complaining that PowerPoint won’t open a
file. Fixing the problem is time consuming and scary. But preventing the
problem is easy. Just follow these three pieces of advice and you are
unlikely to have any corrupted files!Number One: Turn off fast saves
Bring up the Options Window (Tools --> Options). Go to the Save Tab. The
first check box is for Fast Saves. Un-check the box. If you had a file open,
re-save it under a new name. Go on – do it now – then come back
– I promise I’ll tell you why.
Now that Fast Saves are off, your files are much less likely to be
corrupted. Fast Saves takes your PowerPoint presentations and periodically
saves just the update information to your file. It doesn’t save the whole
file, just the actions that have been taken since the last Fast Save. When
PowerPoint goes to re-create the file, it has to re-build the file from the
steps taken. Fast Saves don’t save unless you hit save, so even if they
didn’t corrupt files, they don’t save much time.
Number Two: Save often
Save your files regularly. Don’t just save them to the same name, save
them to new names so that you have backups. This way, even if something does
happen to your file, you won’t have to start from scratch. You can just open
the last saved version and work from there.
If you aren’t able to remember to save frequently to a different name,
check out the free Sequential Save Add-In from Shyam Pillai. It is available
from his site or the PPT FAQ:
His site:
http://www.mvps.org/skp/seqsave.htm
FAQ entry:
www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00494.htm
This add-n will allow you to set up where you want the backup copies
saved and how you want them named. Once you have the add-in set up, it is
accessed by a new toolbar button conveniently located next to the Save
button.
Number Three: Don’t access files over a network
PowerPoint files and networks don’t play well together. It is much safer
to keep a local copy of your presentation and work on it. Use Windows to
make a copy of the presentation on your local drive. Work with that copy.
When you are done, copy the presentation back to the network drive.
Same thing applies to linked files. Since you really want all files in
the same folder before you link to them anyway, copy them locally and then
link to them. (If you link to a file that isn’t in the same directory as
your presentation, the links will break when you move the presentation back
to the network drive.)
What if the files are already corrupted?
If PowerPoint won’t open your file, chances are it is already corrupted.
Make a copy of the presentation and try these recovery tricks:
1) Open a new presentation and use Insert --> Slides --> From existing
presentation to pull in the slides from the corrupted file. This works about
50% of the time.
2) Try using the
Clone Me add-in from Microsoft. It may work, it may not.
3) Download OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org)
and use Impress to open the file. It has an amazing track record for opening
corrupted files.
4) Check the PPT FAQ entry (http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00108.htm)
on file corruption for a list of Knowledge Base articles on this subject.
One other thing: Files that have a password applied by PowerPoint 2002 or
later can’t be opened in the earlier versions. Get the developer to remove
the password protection and send you a new copy.
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Kathryn Jacobs,
Microsoft MVP, PowerPoint and OneNote
Get PowerPoint answers at
http://www.powerpointanswers.com
Get OneNote answers at
http://www.onenoteanswers.com/
Cook anything outdoors with
http://www.outdoorcook.com
Kathy is a trainer, writer, Girl Scout, parent, and whatever else there is
time for.
I believe life is meant to be lived. But, if we live without
making a difference, it makes no difference that we lived.
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