Amazing reverting formatting

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jennifer Gan
  • Start date Start date
J

Jennifer Gan

I hope someone here can help with this problem that is driving me mad.

Recently I assisted at a medical meeting and one of the doctors had some
slides that had a mix of fonts in them. I was changing the fonts to be
consistent, but some of the slides kept reverting to the original font
whenever I closed PowerPoint and opened it again. (I had to keep closing and
reopening PowerPoint as I had to load lots of slides into a master set, from
lots of different thumb drives. I couldn't safely stop and remove the thumb
drives without closing PowerPoint, for some annoying reason)

The font was Garamond, and whenever I changed it to Arial, saved it, closed
PowerPoint and then reopened it again, the font would revert to Garamond.
This was incredibly annoying as the layout of some of the slides was
stuffed with Garamond. Of course, all this was happening 5 minutes before
the start of a major medical meeting.

I had pasted the slides into a master set and selected "keep source
formatting". However, the changes I made to these particular slides AFTER
that, would not stick.

Anybody know why this would happen? I thought I was going mad, as I KNEW I
had changed the font four times!!!!

Thank you
Jennifer
 
It's a bug.

There's a bug in PPT 2003 (and probably 2002 also) in how PPT handles
multiple masters. Basically, PPT is reapplying the slide master -- or the
first master in the list of slide masters or something -- when you save the
file. I can't remember the specifics. :-)

Microsoft recommends opening master view and moving the slide master so it's
the first in the list of masters. I don't particularly like that option,
because it seems to me that you're then running the risk of screwing up
other slides in the presentation. So what I do is copy the placeholder and
delete the original placeholder. Since copying the placeholder divorces it
from the master and makes it a regular textbox, it won't be affected any
longer by the slide masters when you save the file. The drawback is, if you
*want* the placeholder to remain tied to the master so it updates properly
when you make a change to the master, well...that doesn't happen.

The upshot is, you're not crazy. :-)
 
Thank you SO MUCH! It's nice to hear "it's a bug" - it's PowerPoint and not
me who's crazy!

Is there any logic behind which slides it affects? It doesn't seem to happen
all the time.

Thanks for the workaround and explanation,
Jennifer
 
Jennifer Gan said:
Thank you SO MUCH! It's nice to hear "it's a bug" - it's PowerPoint and
not
me who's crazy!
Click to expand...

Trust me, I know the feeling!
Is there any logic behind which slides it affects? It doesn't seem to
happen
all the time.
Click to expand...

Probably. But I've never been able to determine what it is. :-)
Thanks for the workaround and explanation,
Click to expand...

You're welcome.
 
Fixed in 2007? Maybe. I suspect so, since the templates and layouts work
differently now.

Fixed in 2003 and earlier versions? No.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/

Lee said:
I just asked this on an older post (Powerpoint's amnesia regarding font
size)
but thought I would do so here as well.

Does anyone know if this bug has been fixed?
"Text formatting is lost when you save, close, and then reopen your
presentation in PowerPoint 2002 or PowerPoint 2003"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/827759/en-us

thanks


Echo S said:
Jennifer Gan said:
Thank you SO MUCH! It's nice to hear "it's a bug" - it's PowerPoint and
not
me who's crazy!
Click to expand...

Trust me, I know the feeling!
Is there any logic behind which slides it affects? It doesn't seem to
happen
all the time.
Click to expand...

Probably. But I've never been able to determine what it is. :-)
Thanks for the workaround and explanation,
Click to expand...

You're welcome.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for checking...will report back when/if I upgrade to 2007!

Echo S said:
Fixed in 2007? Maybe. I suspect so, since the templates and layouts work
differently now.

Fixed in 2003 and earlier versions? No.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/

Lee said:
I just asked this on an older post (Powerpoint's amnesia regarding font
size)
but thought I would do so here as well.

Does anyone know if this bug has been fixed?
"Text formatting is lost when you save, close, and then reopen your
presentation in PowerPoint 2002 or PowerPoint 2003"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/827759/en-us

thanks


Echo S said:
Thank you SO MUCH! It's nice to hear "it's a bug" - it's PowerPoint and
not
me who's crazy!

Trust me, I know the feeling!

Is there any logic behind which slides it affects? It doesn't seem to
happen
all the time.

Probably. But I've never been able to determine what it is. :-)

Thanks for the workaround and explanation,

You're welcome.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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