Open File and Save As don't work

I am a Powerpoint 97 SP2 user. The problem I have is that neither the Open
button on the toolbar, nor the "File Open" command work. It does work if you
double click the file from windows explorer though. Also similarly "Save as"
doesn't work but 'Save' does. When I say doesn't work, I mean sod all
happens the button goes in but no window containing the files comes up.

Anyone have any ideas?

Do you use Norton Antivirus?

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

"David Evans" wrote in message
...
I am a Powerpoint 97 SP2 user. The problem I have is that neither the Open
button on the toolbar, nor the "File Open" command work. It does work if
you
double click the file from windows explorer though. Also similarly "Save
as"
doesn't work but 'Save' does. When I say doesn't work, I mean sod all
happens the button goes in but no window containing the files comes up.

Anyone have any ideas?

Nope -- it does have virus protection though -- it's on my work PC.. Not
sure what virus protection it uses. I'm sure that the functions must be the
same as the ones used by Word and Excel but these work fine so it's a bit of
a mystery.

but thanks for the reply anyway.

"Echo S" wrote in message
...
Do you use Norton Antivirus?

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

"David Evans" wrote in message
...
I am a Powerpoint 97 SP2 user. The problem I have is that neither the
Open
button on the toolbar, nor the "File Open" command work. It does work if
you
double click the file from windows explorer though. Also similarly "Save
as"
doesn't work but 'Save' does. When I say doesn't work, I mean sod all
happens the button goes in but no window containing the files comes up.

Anyone have any ideas?

Given that those functions work in Word and Excel, I'm guessing it's not
a virus (but that is just a guess). However, you mention that you're not
sure which virus protection you use, which leads me to believe that you
don't know the last time you updated the virus definitions, which means
that you might have virus definitions that are outdated, which means that
you might be highly susceptible to viruses.
--David

David M. Marcovitz, Ph.D.
Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology
Loyola College in Maryland
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.loyola.edu/education/PowerfulPowerPoint/

"David Evans" wrote in
:

Nope -- it does have virus protection though -- it's on my work PC..
Not sure what virus protection it uses. I'm sure that the functions
must be the same as the ones used by Word and Excel but these work
fine so it's a bit of a mystery.

but thanks for the reply anyway.

I rarely recommend this, but in your case it might be worth putting your
installation CD in the drive, run setup, and select "Reinstall" from the
menu. It's possible that something has become damaged and that might fix
it.
--
Sonia, MS PowerPoint MVP Team
Autorun CD software, templates, and tutorials
http://www.soniacoleman.com/

"David Evans" wrote in message
...
I am a Powerpoint 97 SP2 user. The problem I have is that neither the Open
button on the toolbar, nor the "File Open" command work. It does work if
you
double click the file from windows explorer though. Also similarly "Save
as"
doesn't work but 'Save' does. When I say doesn't work, I mean sod all
happens the button goes in but no window containing the files comes up.

Anyone have any ideas?

Hm. I was thinking that Norton AV's Office Plug-In might be the culprit
here. Seems not.

However, you might try temporarily disabling your antivirus program and see
if that helps. I know that there were a couple of programs (F-Prot was one,
I believe) which used to cause extreme delays when opening PPT files -- but
it didn't necessarily affect Word or Excel documents.

If disabling doesn't work, then re-enable it and make sure the virus
definition files are up to date as David suggested. Then run a virus scan to
make sure you don't have a virus. It's a bit odd that you can't do a Save
As, so a virus could be the cause of that behavior.

If *that* doesn't do the trick, then I'd reinstall PPT as Sonia suggested.

Before reinstalling, I'd run the registry eraser.
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00297.htm has a link to it.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

"David Evans" wrote in message
...
Nope -- it does have virus protection though -- it's on my work PC.. Not
sure what virus protection it uses. I'm sure that the functions must be
the
same as the ones used by Word and Excel but these work fine so it's a bit
of
a mystery.

but thanks for the reply anyway.

"Echo S" wrote in message
...
Do you use Norton Antivirus?

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

"David Evans" wrote in message
...
I am a Powerpoint 97 SP2 user. The problem I have is that neither the
Open
button on the toolbar, nor the "File Open" command work. It does work
if
you
double click the file from windows explorer though. Also similarly
"Save
as"
doesn't work but 'Save' does. When I say doesn't work, I mean sod all
happens the button goes in but no window containing the files comes
up.

Anyone have any ideas?

my work PC runs on a network and the virus software is checked and updated
every time that I log on to our network so it is as up to date as it could
be. We use McAfee I think -- it's the one that leaves a shield icon in the
system tray. I have also run a virus scanner but that found nothing.

Thanks for the reply the mystery continues!

"David M. Marcovitz" wrote in message
48.16...
Given that those functions work in Word and Excel, I'm guessing it's not
a virus (but that is just a guess). However, you mention that you're not
sure which virus protection you use, which leads me to believe that you
don't know the last time you updated the virus definitions, which means
that you might have virus definitions that are outdated, which means that
you might be highly susceptible to viruses.
--David

David M. Marcovitz, Ph.D.
Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology
Loyola College in Maryland
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.loyola.edu/education/PowerfulPowerPoint/

"David Evans" wrote in
:

Nope -- it does have virus protection though -- it's on my work PC..
Not sure what virus protection it uses. I'm sure that the functions
must be the same as the ones used by Word and Excel but these work
fine so it's a bit of a mystery.

but thanks for the reply anyway.

You know, we've seen a couple of instances here on the ng of dialog boxes
not showing up. I'm not positive of the fix for your situation, but maybe
have your IT people try this (if you don't have access to the registry, that
is):

The following is from an old post -- maybe this will resolve the
problem.

This resolved another issue with slide finder dialog (insert/slides from
file) not showing up for some users. I've suggested it for a couple of other
"missing dialog" posts, but I don't think any of those posters has gotten
back to tell us if it worked or not. So I've no idea if it will help here or
not, but it sure won't hurt to try. Be sure to back up the registry before
trying this!

Click Start, Run, Regedt32, OK
Allow full control to users of the following keys:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0
Security - Permissions - check "Allow inheritable permissions" - Allow
full control to all users.

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

"David Evans" wrote in message
...
my work PC runs on a network and the virus software is checked and updated
every time that I log on to our network so it is as up to date as it could
be. We use McAfee I think -- it's the one that leaves a shield icon in the
system tray. I have also run a virus scanner but that found nothing.

Thanks for the reply the mystery continues!

"David M. Marcovitz" wrote in message
48.16...
Given that those functions work in Word and Excel, I'm guessing it's not
a virus (but that is just a guess). However, you mention that you're
not
sure which virus protection you use, which leads me to believe that you
don't know the last time you updated the virus definitions, which means
that you might have virus definitions that are outdated, which means
that
you might be highly susceptible to viruses.
--David

David M. Marcovitz, Ph.D.
Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology
Loyola College in Maryland
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.loyola.edu/education/PowerfulPowerPoint/

"David Evans" wrote in
:

Nope -- it does have virus protection though -- it's on my work PC..
Not sure what virus protection it uses. I'm sure that the functions
must be the same as the ones used by Word and Excel but these work
fine so it's a bit of a mystery.

but thanks for the reply anyway.

In article , David Evans wrote:
Nope -- it does have virus protection though -- it's on my work PC.. Not
sure what virus protection it uses. I'm sure that the functions must be the
same as the ones used by Word and Excel but these work fine so it's a bit of
a mystery.

They're different programs that virus checkers may affect differently. And of
the three, the PowerPoint virus scanner's likely to have had the least thorough
testing.

Try disabling the anti-virus software temporarily to see if that makes a
difference.


--
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
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