Opening, Converting Old .ppts

  • Thread starter Thread starter Frank Haber
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Frank Haber

This is moderately embarrassing, since I'm fairly expert with computers, but a
near-newbie on PP. I'm getting a stack of old HDs in from a charity, and have
volunteered to retrieve some old Powerpoint presentations from them before I
sanitize or drive a spike through the disks, for disposal.

My questions:

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?

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

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?

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?
 
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?
Click to expand...

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.
 
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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