Keynote opens pps attachments with no sound

I can't answer the part about no sound, because I just made a PP (.pptx) with sound, and when I opened it with KN, the sound worked fine. So my guess is that the attachment you've been sent has been sent without the sound file. To be able to play a PP doc which includes media (audio, video) on any computer other than the one on which it was created, whether Mac or Windows, whether opened with PP or KN, it must be saved as a package (which is a folder containing the PP doc plus the media file), and the whole package must be moved (whether by email or memory stick) to the new computer. The same thing is true with KN docs, BTW.

Moving on: If, on a Mac, you're clicking on a PP doc but it opens in KN, that's probably because you don't have PP installed. Is that the case? If you don't have PP, but want to view a PP doc in PP, or, in any case, not in KN: there used to be a Microsoft app "PowerPoint Viewer for Mac", but that doesn't work with OS X, and there's no update. If you don't want to buy PP, I believe NeoOffice, which is free, will open PP docs, and even allow you to work on them. Obviously, buying PP (MS Office) is the surest, but most expensive solution.

Now then: If you do have PP on your Mac, but your PP docs nevertheless open in KN, it sounds as if the default app for opening PP's has been reset wrong. Correct this by: "Get info" on that file; halfway down the window which opens is an "Open with:" drop-down, where you can set the default app back to PP, and click below that to apply this change to all files like this.

Just out of curiosity: what do you mean by "working version, not the finished product"? Is the difference only the missing sound, or is there more to it than that?

Good luck.

OK.

How to "Get Info": when a file is highlighted, in the Finder Menu > FILE > Get Info (the keyboard shorcut for all this is "Command-I" ("I" as in "eye")). A window will open, and about halfway down is an "Open with" dialog box. In your case, since you've highlighted a PP doc, it likely needs to be reset to PowerPoint (which should be the default), and you should also click the option to change this for all files of the same type.

BTW: If you simply want to open, or try to open, a file in an app other than the one which created it, arguably easier than "Get Info" is this, with a slightly different result: Open the app you want to try to use (so if you have a WORD doc, and you want to try to open it with PAGES, first open PAGES). Then, in PAGES > FILE > OPEN (or, with PAGES open, simply press "Command-O" (that's "oh"), and navigate to the desired file. If the app can open it, it will. It will not change the default app for files of that type; if you save the file, the original WORD file ("My First Tooth.doc") will remain in place as a WORD doc, and a new file will be added "My First Toot.pages", which will always open in Pages.

PP X for Mac isn't that old, and should work fine on today's Macs. You might want to check for updates, though: (<http://support.microsoft.com/ph/2524>).

Before I give you a bunch of possibly useless troubleshooting, do this and report on your results, then we'll move on, step by step.

OK. Now there are a few things to clear up.

1. My guess is that the PP docs you can't open are in the newer Office format; the older PP suffix was ".ppt", the newer one is ".pptx". Your PP should have no problem with the former. For a solution allowing you to open the newer format, go here <http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968200/en-us?spid=2524&sid=global>. The reason this would be important is that we could see whether the PP you have is truly functional, i.e., has functional audio in it.

2. When you say NeoOffice "works pretty well", what does that mean; specifically, does it mean that the audio plays fine?

3. Does KN have the same audio problem with KN files, or does KN only have this problem with PP files? You can test this out by making a KN with audio and a PP with audio, seeing how each one plays on its native app, and then seeing how they play on the alternative.

Re-reading your last post, an afterthought: the PP files you refer to have the suffix ".pps", which are a little different than the more usual ".ppt" files (both of them are from the same era). Try this: make a copy of your file, and simply change the suffix of that copy to ".ppt" and save it. Then see how PP and KN deal with this new file.

Separate issues:

1. Did you get the Open XML File Format Converter, which you may need to open the file in PP? Does it help you open and play it with PP? Is the audio there?

2. You want to find out if one or more audio files are present. Here's one way I know (others may know a more direct method): Open the original PP file you got with KN, save it as a KN file, then quit KN. Control-click on the KN file and select "Show Package Contents". In the window which opens, do you see any media files which are .mp3, .mov, or both, or anything similar? If not, the audio files are absent. If they're present, what happens when you try to open them? If they're complete, they should play. If they don't, they may be corrupt. But it may also be that a couple of apps (shareware and freebie) which could help you (background apps you ought to have on your Mac anyway) are missing, "Perian" (<http://perian.org/>) and "Flip4Mac MWV" (<http://www.telestream.net/flip4mac-wmv/overview.htm>). I'm not sure if these apps are, in fact, essential to play your file, or if having them will solve your problem, but that could be the case.

I'm quickly approaching the end of my limited expertise. If none of this resolves your problem, I'm hoping someone with more know-how will chime in about now.