Opening, Converting Old .ppts

Don't be embarrassed. I think it's smart of you to ask these questions,
actually.

1. PPT 95 was in use in 1996. Yes, the extension was *.ppt.

2. I would recommend Office (PowerPoint) 2000 to open the 95 files. Here's
why:

a. PPT 2007 won't open PPT 95 files
b. PPT 2003 is very different than PPT 95
c. PPT 2000 is different than PPT 95, but it's not as different as 2003 is.

When you open a 95 file in a newer version of PPT (97, 2000, 2002, 2003),
you'll probably get a "converting file" message. That's because there was a
file format change from 95 to 97. (97-2003 share the same format.)

When you save the file, you'll want to save it as a Presentation.PPT file.

Do not save as PowerPoint 95 (*.ppt)
Do not save as PowerPoint 97-2000 & 95 (*.ppt)

Just save as Presentation (*.ppt). This is the format that 97-2003 use. It
omits the "and 95 part" of the save, which you do not need unless you need
to share the file with someone who only has PPT 95 available. That software
is 13+ years old, though, so it's time to move into the 21st century,
wouldn't you say?

3. common file formats
Hm. I used images (embedded), videos (linked), sounds (embedded and linked),
and occasionally Excel worksheets at that time. You might encounter both
embedded and linked graphics, yes.

PPT 95 did not maintain the internal compression of images, so files with
images could get very very large very quickly. It wasn't unusual to link
them because of that.

> o What were the common file formats for embedded graphics in PP in 1996?
> Might I encounter both embedded and linked graphics? Can I export embedded
> slides entire (for display in anyone's thumbnail/slideshow program),
> and/or the pix within them in my modern version? Most stuff was 16-bit in
> those days, yes?

I'm not sure what you mean by exporting embedded slides entire. You can
choose File | Save As and select an image type -- PNG usually works best --
to save images of your slides. PPT 2000 will do that, as will all the other
versions.

4. I don't recall ever seeing CGM format, but it's hard telling what you'll
run into. I know I used to use index-colored TIFs a lot (because of the
whole image compression thing), but that shouldn't cause problems. If the
graphic displays on the slide, then it should be okay, right?

I did often see charts from SAP, SPSS, and such, but those should just show
up as images. You won't be able to edit them or anything.
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> o Most of the old computers were Win95, and hadn't been booted for years.
> What version of PP was current in 1996? Was the extension .ppt?

PowerPoint 95 would've been current but it's possible they may've been using
earlier versions like PowerPoint 4 as well. Other than the most recent version,
2007, all PowerPoint presentations will have either PPT or PPS extensions (and
the only real difference between PPS and PPT is the extension, so you can just
rename *.PPS to *.PPT if that makes things easier).

> o I have Office 2000, 2003 and 2007 here. Which one would you recommend to
> browse old PP files?

2000 would be likeliest able to read the oldest files. I'd go with that.

Also have a look here:

Batch re-save presentations; update older presentations to newer PowerPoint
version
[URL="http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00740.htm"]http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00740.htm[/URL]

The macro code there will allow you to put all the files you find in a single
folder and update them to a newer format at one go.

> o What were the common file formats for embedded graphics in PP in 1996?

You could import any number of formats, but internally they'd be stored as
WMF/EMF, PNG, JPG or GIF.

> Might I encounter both embedded and linked graphics?

Yes, but linked graphics are not that commonly used. Unreliable as all getout.
If you have the original images, broken links can be fixed though. Yell if it
comes up.

> Can I export embedded
> slides entire (for display in anyone's thumbnail/slideshow program), and/or
> the pix within them in my modern version?

You can open the presentations and choose File, Save As, pick the image type you
want to save and let PPT make an image of each slide. We also have an
inexpensive add-in that does better quality exports than native PPT, lets you
choose the name/numbering format and resolution of the exported images.
[URL="http://www.pptools.com/imageexport/"]http://www.pptools.com/imageexport/[/URL]

In 2003, you can rightclick pretty much anything and choose Save As Picture to
export a picture of the selected shapes.

> Most stuff was 16-bit in those
> days, yes?

PPT 95 was 32-bit; prior versions were 16-bit. But I don't think that will make
a whit of difference to what you're doing. The graphics formats havent' changed.

> o A couple of presentations may in turn have imports from Harvard Graphics or
> other antediluvian programs. Am I likely to find cranky old graphics formats
> in these, like cgm?

It wouldn't matter ... if there are HG graphics/charts in the PPT files, they'd
either have been converted to PPT format or would be OLE obects that you couldn't
access w/o also having HG on the computer; the graphics would be embedded in the
HG object but again, HG would have converted the CGM or whatever to its own
internal format.
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Thanks, everyone for the quick answers.

One clarification, please, needed because my query was fuzzy:

I didn't expect problems from 16 vs. 32-bit PP program files. I *meant*,
"Might I expect problems from screen color depth in the "thousands"
(Applespeak) (or worse yet, indexed 8-bit color and tricky rotating
pallettes)?" Will anything look weird on today's 24- or 32-bit graphics
displays, or will it just map?
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In article , Frank Haber wrote:
> Thanks, everyone for the quick answers.
>
> One clarification, please, needed because my query was fuzzy:
>
> I didn't expect problems from 16 vs. 32-bit PP program files. I *meant*,
> "Might I expect problems from screen color depth in the "thousands"
> (Applespeak) (or worse yet, indexed 8-bit color and tricky rotating
> pallettes)?" Will anything look weird on today's 24- or 32-bit graphics
> displays, or will it just map?

These sneakie proggies always have new tricks up their sleeves, so I won't
give you a flat "No worries" answer. But now that I've done the obligatory
CYA ... I've used PPT regularly since version 3 or so, ran a slide service
bureau for years, so we saw a LOT of PPT files. Can't say that I ever saw
any problems with indexed color graphics. And PPT still uses them (GIF
format is an 8-bit indexed format; so are some PNG variants).

* CYA = Cover Your Avenue_of_Escape, of course. Why? What did you THINK it
meant?
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