PPT97: Cannot Play Movies from PowerPoint 98 Files

ID: Q183918

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft PowerPoint 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

When you open a PowerPoint 98 Macintosh Edition presentation that contains movie objects in PowerPoint 97 for Windows, the movie objects will be missing. For example, you will see the following caption rather than the bitmap poster frame image:

   QuickTime(tm) and a Video decompressor are needed to see this picture.

Double-clicking this caption does not generate any error message or action.

CAUSE

When you insert a movie into a slide, PowerPoint actually creates a link to the original movie file, and inserts a bitmap poster frame image to represent the movie object. Because the QuickTime format is not a published format, PowerPoint for Windows cannot determine the movie file name or location.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, follow these steps:

1. Copy the original movie files to the computer where PowerPoint 97 is

   installed.

2. Open the presentation in PowerPoint 97 and delete all movie objects.

3. Reinsert each movie object. You can insert movie objects in any of the

   following formats:

    - QuickTime.

    - MPEG.

    - Audio Video Interleave(AVI).

All inserted movies will be linked to your presentation. If you show your presentation on a different computer, remember to also copy the movie file when you copy the presentation. If you don't, you will just have a picture of the poster frame of the movie.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q183919
   TITLE     : PPT98: Cannot Play Movies from PowerPoint 97 Files

Additional query words: powerpoint ppt97 8.0 plays playing movies clip motion mpeg mpg avi media player nothing happens error show slide slideshow click action settings animation builds

Keywords          : kbinterop kbdta kbconversion
Version           : WINDOWS:97
Platform          : WINDOWS
Hardware          : x86
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: November 25, 1998