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Export to powerpoint fails

I've just created a small keynote presentation. When I try to export to powerpoint I get "Export Error: Unknown error occurred"

When I export simpler presentations, it works fine. I've narrowed down the issue to the kind of master (title, bullets, photo). With a simpler master, it works fine. But I need the non-simple master!

I can export to quicktime fine.

thanks,

diddles

iMac Intel duo, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on Sep 1, 2007 9:57 PM

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Posted on Sep 3, 2007 9:06 AM

Make sure the following fonts are enabled

Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro
Hiragino Kaku Gothic Std
Hiragino Maru Gothic Pro
Hiragino Mincho Pro

I have no idea why these fonts need to be active to export to Powerpoint but enabling them worked for me.
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Sep 3, 2007 9:06 AM in response to diddles1234

Make sure the following fonts are enabled

Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro
Hiragino Kaku Gothic Std
Hiragino Maru Gothic Pro
Hiragino Mincho Pro

I have no idea why these fonts need to be active to export to Powerpoint but enabling them worked for me.
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Sep 3, 2007 5:26 PM in response to Jim Kahler

The fonts you mentioned had been uninstalled; I copied them back using Pacifist and the original CDs. But still no joy with export; but because the export feature seems so finicky (*), I think you may be onto something in general terms. I also found that my fonts seem to be in 3 different locations:
User/system/library/fonts
Harddisk/library/fonts
Harddisk/system/library/fonts
The fontbook application didn't seem to recognise the fonts in the 2nd of these. So I copied and now fontbook does acknowledge all the fonts you mention.
I checked apple's site for other 'crucial' fonts [http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301332], and found several not appearing in Fontbook, such as Keyboard.dfont; but curiously I can see the file using the finder. I have no clue about fonts. Each application I install seems to add a whole collection of more (usually overlapping) fonts, in different folders. But that's another story.

(*) the export to PPT works with some keynotes that I make, but not with others. Finding the decisive factor is proving very difficult!

thanks,

Diddles.
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Sep 3, 2007 8:05 PM in response to diddles1234

A few important things...

Leave the System/Library/Fonts folder alone, unless you really know what you're doing in there. Mess all you want in the other 3 locations, but leave that one alone (you can tank your system by removing things from that folder if you're not careful).

Also, it doesn't surprise me that some of the system fonts don't show in Fontbook, I think they're simply system level fonts that you can't normally use to type with.

Here's a quick rundown, just so you won't be confused 🙂

System>Library>Fonts
This is the system level folder, and you should always be careful of what you remove from this folder. Don't ever add anything to this folder...heck, just forget it's there.

Library>Fonts
This is the top level fonts folder. No matter how many users you set up on your machine, they will ALL always see this folder. On my machines, this is the folder I use for my fonts (well, now I use Font Agent Pro to manage them, so there's nothing in that folder).

User>Library>Fonts
THis is the user fonts folder. If you have more than one user, installing fonts in one users folder means the other users won't see them. I tend to empty this folder and move those fonts into the Library>fonts folder just so I don't have overlap (which the system doesn't seem to mind though).

hope that helps!
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Sep 5, 2007 2:08 AM in response to Brian Peat

Thanks v much for the fonts info. I'll tidy them all up now.

I've now determined the real reason the export failed. It was because I had created a non-standard master, viz one with a title and two body text regions.

Powerpoint has a limited number of particular 'layouts'; to this you can apply modifcations using a design template; the combination of layout and design template is roughly equivalent to what Keynote calls a master (which is not quite how Ppt defines 'master') and you must adhere to one of these. My Keynote master wasn't one of those, hence the export error.

It is interesting that Keynote, too, assumes (see the inspector) that the basic elements of a master slide consist of at most once instance of each of the following: title, body, object placeholder, slidenumber. This is too restrictive for me!


Diddles.
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Oct 13, 2007 6:34 AM in response to diddles1234

Hi all,

This has been very frustrating for me, since I am surrounded by Powerpoint users. Unfortunately, I just tried re-configuring my Keynote 08 presentation with a standard master slide from the theme chooser. I worked through each and every slide and reconfigured them to the master slide.

I then exported to Powerpoint.

When I attempt to open the file in Powerpoint 2007, it just attempts to opens the file and then stops, without offering any feedback.

I have not yet found any way to report this error to Apple! Help? Anyone?
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Oct 30, 2007 10:09 AM in response to Stereokid

I'm having the same issues. I'm using the trial of iWork 08 that came with my MacBook and am working on a presentation. I tried to export the presentation to a PowerPoint format and send it to someone for them to review.

PowerPoint 2007 cannot open it, it just opens the program and then nothing happens. I've tried it on several different machines and none of them can open it. It opens fine in PowerPoint 2003.

My presentation is EXTREMELY basic, using a standard template, and that's pretty much it, all my slides are either heading with bullet list, just a text box, or the heading with two column bullet list. Haven't changed any of the fonts.

It's wierd that it opens in 2003, but not 2007, if anything I would've expected the opposite.
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Nov 6, 2007 7:33 AM in response to Stereokid

Yep, me too – powerpoint 2007 launches but sometimes doesn't open the file, and gives no warning.

I've spent a tedious afternoon gradually exporting more and more of a presentation, to try and narrow down the offending slides. When I find a slide that breaks the export, I copy and paste the text into an original master slide, and that usually then works.

I've found the following elements which break exporting:
Moving a body field off the visible page
Changing the background colour of an individual slide (not the master)
Deleting the bullets field on a slide that is linked to a "Title & bullets" master
Changing the font on some masters (could be because Keynote fonts inherit from the top master?)
And after all that, when I added presenter notes, those too broke the export. Sigh.

Basically, the more you mess with the original master, the more chance it'll break in powerpoint 2007.

Instant alpha, reflections and masks all seem to work fine though.
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Export to powerpoint fails

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