Office Open XML PowerPoint in Keynote?

I just downloaded the test drive for Keynote in iWork '08 as I was told it would open PowerPoint files. I tried to open a PowerPoint file, and it did not open. There was no error message or anything to explain why it wouldn't open. Even though the file had the .ppt extension and I followed all instructions in the help section, Keynote acted as though nothing happened whenever I selected the .ppt file to open. It was very strange; I tried every different way to open the file and none of the usual ways to open a file worked. I couldn't even open it to look at it, much less edit the file. I don't know what to think... I was hoping to purchase this program to work on power point files.

Any one else have a similar issue or solution? Thanks,
Jennifer

Well, I asked friends to email me some more attachments to open. I am able to open 2007 office files, but not older ones (2003 or 2004?). So at least now I know it can open new files. It was funny though, that when I worked on the file, and saved it as PowerPoint file to present later on someone else's computer, the timing and transitions (dissolve smoothly) didn't work. I had to reset them again on the Windows computer. After seeing the same presentation on both a Mac and a PC, I have to say, "I love my Mac!"
The keynote is so much easier to use, way less cluttered than the new Powerpoint. Even though I had used the older PowerPoint with my old PC laptop, I couldn't navigate through all the mess in the new Powerpoint software to find certain settings that I was previously used to. I'm so glad to have an easy-to-use display on Keynote.

Thanks to all who helped with this discussion - I find the discussion boards to be a valuable resource!

This problem bit one of my Mac users, and it took me a little while to figure out what was going on.

In Office 2008 for Windows, there are two new types of file formats. One type ends with an 'x', the other with an 'm'. Both are OOXML-based ("Office Open XML"), but the latter is "macro-enabled". For some reason, Keynote and Pages (and possibly Numbers?) seem to be unable to open or import the 'm' files, but AFAIK all are capable of importing the 'x' files.

I'll refrain from expressing my opinion on Microsoft's choice to invent and use this new "standard" format, but it seems the fact that it's XML-based seems to work in our favor here. On a whim, I tried changing the extension of an unopenable .pptm presentation to .pptx (without making any further modifications) and opening it in Keynote. And boom! It imported smoothly.

I'm not sure if this works the same with other types by converting .docm to .docx or .xlsm to .xlsx, but it's worth a try. Post your results here, I'm curious.

Keynote '08 does open PPTX files, but that does not mean they turn our usable. ANything with more than the basic features in PPTX slides gets broken when opened in KeyNote. The best example is the new Smart Shapes available in PowerPoint - SOmething that's quite powerful to use in PowerPoint, but does not easily convert to Keynote

Uh, that's one of the selling points for iWork 08. The new version of Keynote should open them.

Your situation appears to be a unique one. Keynote'08 should open any version of Powerpoint presentation (.ppt or .pptx) without any issue. Have you tried opening another file?