[Issue] Save As... 97/2000/XP *.ppt corrupts file

[ppetree]

I have OO version 3.0.0 running on Vista Home Premium and when I open an existing .ppt make a modification and either Save or Save As... the following happens:

1) The file grows in size from 79K to 127K (despite the fact one slide is deleted)
2) The newly saved file has lost virtually all of its content.
What remains is:
A) The presentation format
B) The slide titles

What is gone is:
A) All remaining slide content

What is in its place:
A) The slide content is replaced by a duplicated slide title.

Here is the original slide created in MS ppt:


Here is the slide using the Impress Save As... function:

[TheGurkha]

Hi and welcome to the forums.

Strange, I've never had this happen and I work with PowerPoint original files all the time. Can you attach the original one-slide PowerPoint file so that we can try?

[Forum] How to attach a document here.

[ppetree]

Cant post the one slide as I had someone add a slide onto the original and email it to me.

I can, privately, email you the original.

[TheGurkha]

Does this only happen with one file, or can you reproduce it with a new file?

Until recently the .doc, .xls and other Microsoft binary formats were a locked proprietary secret and so the OOo developers had to basically reverse engineer them, so it isn't a surprise that these types of incompatibility arise every so often.

[ppetree]

I can duplicate this through several slide decks, not just one... and nothing tricky in these either.

[TheGurkha]

Sorry, I didn't express that very well. I meant can you start a new presentation and create the problem? If so can you create a short dummy presentation and attach that?

[ppetree]

To duplicate this bug under Windows Vista Home Premium running OO 3.0.0:

1) Open this file using Impress 3.0.0
2) Click on the 2nd slide
3) Delete the last line of the 2nd slide
4) Click on File, Save As...
5) Choose 97/2000/XP ppt as the file type, make sure enable auto extensions is checked
6) Save the file by appending " - brief" onto the file name
7) Exit Impress
8) Check the file size difference of the original file as compared to the "brief" version
9) Restart Impress and load in the "brief" brief version.

Sample_Company_Media.ppt

(20 KiB) Downloaded 198 times

[TheGurkha]

Yes, thanks, now I see the problem. I see the same behaviour you describe, on XP SP3 with OOo 3.0.0.

Until recently the .doc, .xls and other Microsoft binary formats were a locked proprietary secret and so the OOo developers had to basically reverse engineer them, so it isn't a surprise that these types of incompatibility arise every so often.

However, I did find a workaround. In Step 5 of your last post Save As .odp. Then open that .odp and Save As .ppt. You get a working .ppt file and it is about 17K.

Sample_Company_Media_Gurkha.ppt

Final working version of .ppt

(79 KiB) Downloaded 163 times

[ppetree]

Speaking as an old coder, I think if they can read the file and display it properly, save it as odp, read that in and save it back out as a proper ppt then its not a file format issue but a logic issue.

Hopefully this one will get reported, fixed and included in the next release.

Thanks for the work around!

[TheGurkha]

Yes, that's what I meant. Because they had to reverse engineer the file formats and the filters, there is a logic error in there somewhere.

To report bugs, you can do as described here: [Tutorial] Reporting bugs or suggestions.

[ppetree]

This issue has been reported: http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=100021