PPT2000: Some Fills Lost When Saving to PowerPoint 4.0 (212479)

SUMMARY

When you create a presentation that contains texture fills, two-color shaded fills, or preset shaded fills, and save the presentation as a PowerPoint 4.0 presentation, the fills change.

Texture fill effects from either a Presentation Design template or an individual slide convert to the default fill color of the presentation. Two-color shaded fill effects convert to one-color shaded fills. Preset shaded fill effects convert to the default fill color of the presentation, or into grouped, complex polygon stacks. In addition, not all pattern fills are supported in PowerPoint 4, and may change to an approximate supported pattern.

Texture fill effects, two-color and preset shaded fills, some pattern fill effects, and semi-transparent fill effects are not supported in PowerPoint 4.0. Therefore, if you save a PowerPoint presentation in PowerPoint 4.0 format, these features will not be retained.

To save a PowerPoint presentation in PowerPoint 4.0 format so that texture fill effects and special shaded fill effects are retained, follow these steps:

Select the object that contains one of the fill effects previously mentioned.
On the Format menu, click Cut.
On the Format menu, click Paste Special. Paste the object as a Picture.

For some gradient fill effects, you may need to convert the autoshape into a bitmap. To do this, follow these steps:

Select the object that uses the Gradient Fill effect.
On the Format menu, click Cut.
On the Windows Start menu, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and click Paint.
On the Image menu, click Attributes. Set the Width and Height to 1, and then click OK.
On the Edit menu, click Paste.
When Paint notifies you that the bitmap must be enlarged, click OK .
On the File menu, click Save.
Import the new bitmap into PowerPoint. On the Insert menu, point to Picture, then click From File. Browse to your bitmap file, and click OK.
Once you have verified that the shape has been properly imported, you can safely delete the original.

When you save your presentation in PowerPoint 4.0 format, the fill colors should be correct.

MORE INFORMATION

Some Presentation Design Templates make extensive use of the fill effects listed in the Summary portion of this article. The fill effects may be changed on the Master Slide. To view the Master Slide, on the View menu, point to Master, then click Slide Master.

To manipulate the objects on the Master Slide, or any other objects to which you apply this method, you must ungroup any objects that are grouped with other objects. The fill effects on Master Slides used by Design Templates are usually grouped. To ungroup an object, click on the object to select it, then click Draw on the Drawing Toolbar, then click Ungroup.