PPT presentations will not load completely from Dropbox to iPad

Question

PPT presentations will not load completely from Dropbox to iPad

I would like to use my iPad primarily to review and edit PPT presentations that I keep in Dropbox. When I access these files (sizes range generally between 20 MB and 50 MB), they do not load completely--about half of the images come through, but on the remaining slides, text/labels come through, but no images. I've tried, per several suggestions, to load into GoodReader first (though I don't have a clue what I would do next), but the same thing happens when I bring the files into GoodReader: about half of the images won't come through. Converting to PDF files first, as also suggested, would be cumbersome, as I need to edit directly on the iPad. Another suggestion, to save a file from Dropbox as a Favorite before viewing doesn't work: the file loads immediately before I can even make it a Favorite. The files on Dropbox are complete: I see all images and slides when I load the PPT on my MBP or iMac.

I've emailed support at DB repeatedly, but no response. This is the one thing that will make my iPad useful to me, as there presently isn't anything I can do on the iPad that I can't do equally well on my iPhone (same problem with PPT files on the iPhone, I should add). If I can't make this work, I will probably return the iPad.

Any help out there?

MBP 15", 2 GHz Intel Core Duo, 2 GB RAM, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Oct 6, 2010 2:31 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 6, 2010 2:31 PM in response to Darryl Ohlenbusch1

Also, the PPT loading problem on iPhone is the same whether I'm using 3G or Wi-Fi connection. The iPad is Wi-Fi only.

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Answer 2

varjak paw

Level 10

170,200 points

Oct 6, 2010 2:37 PM in response to Darryl Ohlenbusch1

What are you using to open and edit the presentations? Pages? If so, have you tried, as a test, loading the presentations by synching from iTunes to verify that the presentations will load correctly that way? That would be an indication as to whether it's a problem with Pages or with Dropbox.

If you're not using Pages, what app are you using?

Regards.

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Answer 3

Oct 6, 2010 2:50 PM in response to varjak paw

Currently, I am loading as .ppt directly from Dropbox (works fine for extremely small PPT files), but will be getting the iWork suite for iPad (if this problem can be solved), and then will do everything in Keynote (importing/exporting from PPT as necessary). I work from three locations: my MBP via campus wi-fi, my school-issued PC on the school network, and the wi-fi iPad, and would need to edit (and then 'store' in Dropbox) from any of the three. If I synch from iTunes (not sure how I would do that), and then edit on the iPad, it would seem that I would have the edited version only on the iPad (worthless, since I show the PPT's in class from the PC on the school's network).

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Answer 4

Oct 6, 2010 2:51 PM in response to Darryl Ohlenbusch1

If there's ever a PPT version for iPad, I'd obviously use that instead of Keynote, since the school computers are all PCs.

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Answer 5

varjak paw

Level 10

170,200 points

Oct 7, 2010 7:42 AM in response to Darryl Ohlenbusch1

Without an app of some sort, you can only view PPT files, you can't edit them. I know that you can open presentations from Dropbox in Keynote, but I'm not sure you can save them back to a Dropbox. Since you don't yet have iWork, I'd suggest you look at Documents To Go Premium. While I haven't tried it myself, the web page says that it can open and save files directly to Dropbox. In addition, it's less expensive than buying all three of the iWork apps. That seems to me to be to be your best option, though someone else here may have direct experience with DTG and Dropbox and can offer more detailed advice.

Regards.

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Answer 6

Oct 8, 2010 4:54 PM in response to Darryl Ohlenbusch1

I had a similar problem. But I resolved it by opening the PDF with the Preview application, then resaving it. It appears on iPad with all images in tact

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Answer 7

Oct 30, 2010 6:40 AM in response to Darryl Ohlenbusch1

anyone else with this problem?

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Answer 8

Nov 13, 2010 8:46 AM in response to varjak paw

Docs to Go Premium does very well at opening MS Office apps as well as some editing capability. It also connects directly to DropBox or you can open files from the DropBox app and then "Open in" Docs to Go Premium. The Docs to Go folks have an excellent track record of updating their apps.

However, some fonts and graphics from PowerPoint do not transfer over. Also, the Mac office suite (Numbers, Pages, Keynote) do not open ppt, doc or xls any better in iPad. And, the Apple iWork, iDisk, and MobileMe connection to Numbers, Pages, and Keynote is poor at best. (No connection to DropBox and no fluid open/close directly from cloud.)

This is a gap and, from a corporate perspective, Msft would do us all a service by creating Word, PowerPoint, and Excell apps for the iPad/iPhone to pair with their Office.

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