Discussion:
PowerPoint Slide Shows do not open in IE - get blank screen and no error
(too old to reply)
Bam Bam Henry
2003-12-04 21:46:08 UTC
Permalink
We have several websites on our Intranet that utilize Power Point Presentations to enhance the sites. An example is an Organization chart, meeting presentations, and quality control documents. We have MANY people that can view the PPS and PPT files with no problems and others get just a blank screen when trying to display the page. We do NOT want people downloading ("Save As") the presentation to their own computers, since many of these documents are quality control documents. We need to insure that they always have the latest and greatest from the website. If we allow them to do a Save As, they will use the version on their computers, instead of the latest version on the web server

We have many Windows 98 and higher with IE 6.0 computers having the same problem.
The PowerPoint Presentations were created in both Office 97 and 2000. The presentations are stored to allow downward compatibility to insure the Office 97 users can view them, since most users have Office 97 on their computers.

We tried install the PowerPoint Viewer to see if that would resolve the issue and it did not

So we tried re-installing MS Office and it seems to work fine for a while and then stops again. Why does a reinstall of MS Office work for a while? Is there a better fix so that we do NOT need to keep re-installing office

The "Save As" is not an option as you have suggested

Please help!!
Steve Rindsberg
2003-12-05 02:08:33 UTC
Permalink
Post by Bam Bam Henry
We have several websites on our Intranet that utilize Power Point
Presentations to enhance the sites. An example is an Organization chart,
meeting presentations, and quality control documents. We have MANY people
that can view the PPS and PPT files with no problems and others get just a
blank screen when trying to display the page. We do NOT want people
downloading ("Save As") the presentation to their own computers, since many
of these documents are quality control documents. We need to insure that
they always have the latest and greatest from the website. If we allow them
to do a Save As, they will use the version on their computers, instead of
the latest version on the web server.

You do understand that the web browser IS downloading the PPT files, albeit
to a temp folder someplace, before displaying them? Most users won't know
that or how to grab the files, but it's something you might want to be aware
of. Also that anyone can generally rightclick a link and choose Save
Target As ... and get their own copy that way.
Post by Bam Bam Henry
We have many Windows 98 and higher with IE 6.0 computers having the same problem.
Do the computers with the problem all have Powerpoint or the viewer
installed?
What happens if they click Refresh after seeing the blank page?
How large are the PPTs and how fast a connection are the users on?
Have you compared the various permissions/security settings to see if there
are differences between the computers that can view PPTs and those that
can't?
Post by Bam Bam Henry
The PowerPoint Presentations were created in both Office 97 and 2000. The
presentations are stored to allow downward compatibility to insure the
Office 97 users can view them, since most users have Office 97 on their
computers.

Please explain "stored to allow downward compatibility"? If that means
using File, Save As and choosing one something other than normal PPT file
format, that might be part of the problem. PPT 97 and up uses the same file
format. There's no Save As PPT97 capability in PPT -- look more closely and
you'll see that it's a bit different than that.
Post by Bam Bam Henry
We tried install the PowerPoint Viewer to see if that would resolve the
issue and it did not.
Post by Bam Bam Henry
So we tried re-installing MS Office and it seems to work fine for a while
and then stops again. Why does a reinstall of MS Office work for a while?
Is there a better fix so that we do NOT need to keep re-installing office.
Post by Bam Bam Henry
The "Save As" is not an option as you have suggested.
Please help!!!
bam bam henry
2003-12-05 16:16:12 UTC
Permalink
Yes, we do know that it downloads the PowerPoint Presentation. We have cleaned up the Temporary Internet files and other files on the computers to insure their is enough hard drive space. We have also shut down unneeded applications. This did not help. Some of the presentations are only 2 pages long and others are big. They have problems with any size, small or large. We had the same thought and created a 1 page presentation with nothing in it and posted it to the site, and it still did not work.

Refreshing the presentation did not help.

The website is annonymous, so no special security is needed. In addition, these computers all have similar permissions. If we re-install office they all start working for a while.

The computers having problems all of Office installed on them with PowerPoint.

The people having problems cannot view a presentation no matter if it was created in Office 2000 or Office 97. These are very basic presentations with no animations. Just a few pictures and words. They are not fancy presentations using new office 2000 features, like some of the transitions. That is what I meant about downward capability. We are keeping them simple.

I hope this helps clear it up.

By the way, HTML is not an option here. The system used to upload documents to these Quality Departmental websites, only allow for 1 file to be uploaded. The HTML versions create many images and html pages, so this is not an option. Sorry I forgot to mention this before.
Steve Rindsberg
2003-12-06 03:57:34 UTC
Permalink
Thanks for the thorough reply!

I found a couple MS articles that may have a bearing here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;148897&Product=ppt

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;317804&Product=ppt



--
Posted to news://msnews.microsoft.com
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PowerPoint FAQ - www.pptfaq.com
PPTools - www.pptools.com
===============================
Post by bam bam henry
Yes, we do know that it downloads the PowerPoint Presentation. We have
cleaned up the Temporary Internet files and other files on the computers to
insure their is enough hard drive space. We have also shut down unneeded
applications. This did not help. Some of the presentations are only 2 pages
long and others are big. They have problems with any size, small or large.
We had the same thought and created a 1 page presentation with nothing in it
and posted it to the site, and it still did not work.
Post by bam bam henry
Refreshing the presentation did not help.
The website is annonymous, so no special security is needed. In addition,
these computers all have similar permissions. If we re-install office they
all start working for a while.
Post by bam bam henry
The computers having problems all of Office installed on them with PowerPoint.
The people having problems cannot view a presentation no matter if it was
created in Office 2000 or Office 97. These are very basic presentations
with no animations. Just a few pictures and words. They are not fancy
presentations using new office 2000 features, like some of the transitions.
That is what I meant about downward capability. We are keeping them simple.
Post by bam bam henry
I hope this helps clear it up.
By the way, HTML is not an option here. The system used to upload
documents to these Quality Departmental websites, only allow for 1 file to
be uploaded. The HTML versions create many images and html pages, so this
is not an option. Sorry I forgot to mention this before.
bam bam henry
2003-12-08 15:36:11 UTC
Permalink
THANK YOU!!!! That worked perfect!!!

----- Steve Rindsberg wrote: -----


Thanks for the thorough reply!

I found a couple MS articles that may have a bearing here:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;148897&Product=ppt

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;317804&Product=ppt



--
Posted to news://msnews.microsoft.com
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PowerPoint FAQ - www.pptfaq.com
PPTools - www.pptools.com
===============================
Post by bam bam henry
Yes, we do know that it downloads the PowerPoint Presentation. We have
cleaned up the Temporary Internet files and other files on the computers to
insure their is enough hard drive space. We have also shut down unneeded
applications. This did not help. Some of the presentations are only 2 pages
long and others are big. They have problems with any size, small or large.
We had the same thought and created a 1 page presentation with nothing in it
and posted it to the site, and it still did not work.
Post by bam bam henry
Post by bam bam henry
Refreshing the presentation did not help.
The website is annonymous, so no special security is needed. In addition,
these computers all have similar permissions. If we re-install office they
all start working for a while.
Post by bam bam henry
Post by bam bam henry
The computers having problems all of Office installed on them with PowerPoint.
The people having problems cannot view a presentation no matter if it was
created in Office 2000 or Office 97. These are very basic presentations
with no animations. Just a few pictures and words. They are not fancy
presentations using new office 2000 features, like some of the transitions.
That is what I meant about downward capability. We are keeping them simple.
Post by bam bam henry
Post by bam bam henry
I hope this helps clear it up.
By the way, HTML is not an option here. The system used to upload
documents to these Quality Departmental websites, only allow for 1 file to
be uploaded. The HTML versions create many images and html pages, so this
is not an option. Sorry I forgot to mention this before.
Steve Rindsberg
2003-12-08 22:15:15 UTC
Permalink
FAAAANNNNNTastic. Thanks for letting us know, Henry.

--
Posted to news://msnews.microsoft.com
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PowerPoint FAQ - www.pptfaq.com
PPTools - www.pptools.com
===============================
Post by bam bam henry
THANK YOU!!!! That worked perfect!!!
----- Steve Rindsberg wrote: -----
Thanks for the thorough reply!
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;148897&Product=ppt
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;317804&Product=ppt
Post by bam bam henry
--
Posted to news://msnews.microsoft.com
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PowerPoint FAQ - www.pptfaq.com
PPTools - www.pptools.com
===============================
Post by bam bam henry
Yes, we do know that it downloads the PowerPoint Presentation. We have
cleaned up the Temporary Internet files and other files on the computers to
insure their is enough hard drive space. We have also shut down unneeded
applications. This did not help. Some of the presentations are only 2 pages
long and others are big. They have problems with any size, small or large.
We had the same thought and created a 1 page presentation with nothing in it
and posted it to the site, and it still did not work.
Post by bam bam henry
Post by bam bam henry
Refreshing the presentation did not help.
The website is annonymous, so no special security is needed. In addition,
these computers all have similar permissions. If we re-install office they
all start working for a while.
Post by bam bam henry
Post by bam bam henry
The computers having problems all of Office installed on them with
PowerPoint.
Post by bam bam henry
Post by bam bam henry
The people having problems cannot view a presentation no matter if it was
created in Office 2000 or Office 97. These are very basic presentations
with no animations. Just a few pictures and words. They are not fancy
presentations using new office 2000 features, like some of the transitions.
That is what I meant about downward capability. We are keeping them simple.
Post by bam bam henry
Post by bam bam henry
I hope this helps clear it up.
By the way, HTML is not an option here. The system used to upload
documents to these Quality Departmental websites, only allow for 1 file to
be uploaded. The HTML versions create many images and html pages, so this
is not an option. Sorry I forgot to mention this before.
Karl
2003-12-05 02:34:22 UTC
Permalink
I recommend the following for your situation:
Save your presentations AS HTML documents, then post them on your websites.
You should use powerpoint 2000 or above to convert your presentations, the
viewers only need IE installed to view the presentaions.

Regards,

Karl
Synchronize powerpoint with video,flash. No learning curve.
http://www.presentersoft.com
Post by Bam Bam Henry
We have several websites on our Intranet that utilize Power Point
Presentations to enhance the sites. An example is an Organization chart,
meeting presentations, and quality control documents. We have MANY people
that can view the PPS and PPT files with no problems and others get just a
blank screen when trying to display the page. We do NOT want people
downloading ("Save As") the presentation to their own computers, since many
of these documents are quality control documents. We need to insure that
they always have the latest and greatest from the website. If we allow them
to do a Save As, they will use the version on their computers, instead of
the latest version on the web server.
Post by Bam Bam Henry
We have many Windows 98 and higher with IE 6.0 computers having the same problem.
The PowerPoint Presentations were created in both Office 97 and 2000. The
presentations are stored to allow downward compatibility to insure the
Office 97 users can view them, since most users have Office 97 on their
computers.
Post by Bam Bam Henry
We tried install the PowerPoint Viewer to see if that would resolve the
issue and it did not.
Post by Bam Bam Henry
So we tried re-installing MS Office and it seems to work fine for a while
and then stops again. Why does a reinstall of MS Office work for a while?
Is there a better fix so that we do NOT need to keep re-installing office.
Post by Bam Bam Henry
The "Save As" is not an option as you have suggested.
Please help!!!
bam bam henry
2003-12-05 16:21:05 UTC
Permalink
HTML is not an option. The system that allows the users to upload documents to their sites, only allows 1 file to be uploaded.

I forgot to mention this. Sorry!

We have a specialized quality control web based system that keeps versions of documents for audits. So, only 1 document can be loaded by a customer. Saving a ton of images and html pages are not an option in this quality control system. We do NOT allow our users add documents directly to our webservers. Many of these people are not Internet trained. In addition, copying files directly to the servers do not allow the versioning to happen, which is required for audits.

We really need to post PPS and PPT files ONLY!

HTML would be a WONDERFUL solution, but not capable for this controlled system.

Thank you!
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