PPT7: Saving as PowerPoint 4.0 Presentation Can Lose OLE Objects (137876)

SYMPTOMS

If you open a PowerPoint 4.0 presentation in PowerPoint 95 and then save it as a PowerPoint 4.0 presentation again, some OLE objects may be lost. This will happen if the OLE object in the original presentation contains corrupt information.

CAUSE

Corrupt OLE objects come into PowerPoint 95 as a generic OLE object placeholder with a picture of the original object. When you try to save this as a PowerPoint 4.0 presentation, PowerPoint 95 rejects this object.

You can check if an OLE object is corrupt by double-clicking it. If you receive the following error message, the object may be corrupt:

The server application, source file, or item cannot be found.
You should reinstall the server application.

If other OLE objects created by the same server application work correctly, you know this object is corrupt.

WORKAROUND

If this does occur, there is not much you can do to restore the OLE object to be recognized by its editing application. You can, however, prevent the object from being lost by converting it to a picture. To do so, follow these steps:

Select the object and click Cut on the Edit menu.
Click Paste Special on the Edit menu.
Choose Picture from the list of data types.

This enables the embedded object to remain as a picture, but it can no longer be edited.