If add anything to .ppt in a .pptx system whole thing borked

[woodsmoke]

Since it is the last day of classes I thought I'd experiment with the review a little and tweak it with some new images and also to see what Win7 would do with it.

Where, up until a month or so ago, it said the modified ppt had "errors" that could not be fixed, and "substituted some blank slides" for the ones with errors,

......

Now, it just blanks the WHOLE .ppt. even when saved as .pptx.

and DOJ is doing nothing about this.

Here is where MS sends one to "try to fix it". One might notice the large amount of saying nothing on the page.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967950

> >

woodsmoke

[DoYouKubuntu]

Re: If add anything to .ppt in a .pptx system whole thing borked

<rant>

Sorry, but I stopped reading the page as soon as it gave me this:

System TipThis article applies to a different operating system than the one you are using. Article content that may not be relevant to you is disabled.

Good old micro$oft, deciding FOR ITS USERS what they can and can't see/do. Gee, what if you're a sysadmin at a company and one of your users [on windoze] tells you about this problem, and you [on your *nix box] go to the page seeking its solution?

For the two seconds I was on their page I felt...dirtied...exasperated...ugh...couldn't get out fast enough. Reminded me of when I had the displeasure of supporting some windoze desktops at my last job. Constantly going, huh?!, what?!, what do you mean I can't do THAT?!

</rant>

[woodsmoke]

Re: If add anything to .ppt in a .pptx system whole thing borked

I showed it to our IT person just a while ago and he said, "You need to get with the program"....for the second time(first was several months ago) and walked out.

In other words, I am now required, or not, I do not HAVE to do it, as part of my employment, to purchase the "teacher's edition" of MS office.

The absolute easiest thing for me to do would be to print out the slide handouts and photocopy several tons of paper, hand them to the students and sit and visit about football. >


woodsmoke

[SteveRiley]

Re: If add anything to .ppt in a .pptx system whole thing borked

Notice the sequence.

1. During development, Microsoft anticipates that Office 2007 and OOXML might have compatibility problems and codes an error dialog into the software encouraging people to download a converter.

2. Microsoft releases Office 2007.

3. This converter obviously never gets developed. Instead, a KB article is published, boldly stating "No converter is provided to open the file" and implies that Office 2010 is the better way to accomplish the goal.

Analysis of motivations behind the sequence, particularly the apparent failure between steps 2 and 3, as an exercise for the reader

[woodsmoke]

Re: If add anything to .ppt in a .pptx system whole thing borked

you are way too logical SR!

woodsmoke

[Detonate]

Re: If add anything to .ppt in a .pptx system whole thing borked

The problems with Office 2010 compatibility are well know. I think we discussed the problems in an earlier thread. I have convinced the people I work with to stay with the previous version of MS Office if they are adamant about using MS Office. Most are now using OpenOffice. I just came back from the yearly conference I attend for our tax preparation program, and no one had problems downloading and viewing the PowerPoint slides this year. like they did last year, where they were done in Office 2010. Three solid days of PowerPoint presentations. I'm glad that's over.

[de_koraco]

Re: If add anything to .ppt in a .pptx system whole thing borked

Three solid days of PowerPoint presentations. I'm glad that's over.

[GreyGeek]

Re: If add anything to .ppt in a .pptx system whole thing borked

..... Three solid days of PowerPoint presentations. I'm glad that's over.

http://www.vividepiphany.com/blog/20...r-organization

Powerpoint doesn’t kill brain cells…. people kill brain cells. Much like a gun and its ability to harm, Powerpoint provides a very effective method for making people stupid.

Here’s why – it provides the means and mechanism for dumping (some might call it vomiting) lists of facts (bullet points) all over the audience. This is not an effective way of disseminating information or learning. First and foremost, it’s boring. Boredom shuts down the brain. And, real learning requires involvement in the experience. Which means that it requires an experience.

I’ve also noted the Powerpoint culture, in which the information and content is key. ”We have to make sure we cover all the points” as opposed to “We need to make sure we’re all fully engaged, committed and understand the message.” In some organizations, if you don’t have a Powerpoint, the unconscious belief is that it isn’t a “real” meeting. These are usually the same organizations who complain having too many meetings and ineffective meeting, and will, in the same breath, defend their beloved Powerpoint slides to the bitter end.

There are some brain studies that many corporate-types are so habituated to Powerpoint that their brains automatically shut off as soon as it is turned on. If you want to read a great article on this, check out Edward Tufte’s “Powerpoint is Evil.”

The equivalent in education to the Powerpoint presentation is the lecture. It appeals to some teachers desire to pontificate, they rarely update their lectures to incorporate new findings, and after a while they are so bored presenting it that the boredom infects the students. The standard cartoon is the lecture hall attended only by tape recorders. I had one teacher in grad school who used as his lecture notes the class notes he took while he was in grad school a few decades earlier. He used to walk back and forth in front of the class, looking down at the floor and never making eye contact with us, with his hands folded behind his back reciting his notes from memory. At certain points he even had jokes written in and a notation to pause for laughter. No one ever laughed when I was in his class. One day, while walking to class I saw a woodpecker making a hole in a dead tree limb. When I got to class I asked him "How can woodpeckers repeatedly strike with their heads and not suffer brain damage?" His response after a few moments of careful reflection was "Woodpeckers can take care of themselves". While walking out of class one classmate remarked "Hear that, Kreps? Peckers can take care of themselves!"
I later found out how they "take care of themselves": http://wild.enature.com/blog/how-do-...d-brain-damage


Mediocre teachers "cover" the subject matter. Good teachers uncover the subject matter.

[SteveRiley]

Re: If add anything to .ppt in a .pptx system whole thing borked

In some organizations, if you don’t have a Powerpoint, the unconscious belief is that it isn’t a “real” meeting. These are usually the same organizations who complain having too many meetings and ineffective meeting, and will, in the same breath, defend their beloved Powerpoint slides to the bitter end.

PowerPoint, despite people's desire, is not a word processor. When I see a speaker hauling completely full slides for every presentation they give, then either the speaker or the slides are redunant. Guess which one.

I later found out how they "take care of themselves": http://wild.enature.com/blog/how-do-...d-brain-damage

This example implies important knowledge can be found with a simple "how to" search on Google, which I suspect is not what you mean. Your earlier examples of requiring students to pass oral exams illustrate the true value of effective teaching.

[ScottyK]

Re: If add anything to .ppt in a .pptx system whole thing borked

Next month our organization is doing two entire days of training, so they can combine all the yearly training stuff into one giant mass training event. Then everybody is signed off for the year.

Problem is that it's two entire days of Death By Powerpoint. And the worst ones are the people who feel the need to READ the slides to the crowd.

At least I upgraded to a new Android My Touch phone a couple of months ago, so I'm ready for the meetings. Just sit somewhere in the middle of the auditorium, and I can play on the phone until the battery dies.

Incidentally, the most entertaining briefing of the weekend is the sexual harassment one. Nothing like having an audience yelling out one liners and innuendos to keep the mood lively.

[SteveRiley]

Re: If add anything to .ppt in a .pptx system whole thing borked

play on the phone until the battery dies

If they set up wi-fi, configure it in your phone and switch off mobile data. Your battery will last longer. On most Android devices, the wi-fi radio consumes less power than the GPRS/3G/4G radio.

Incidentally, the most entertaining briefing of the weekend is the sexual harassment one. Nothing like having an audience yelling out one liners and innuendos to keep the mood lively.

Don't think about...elephants!

[woodsmoke]

Re: If add anything to .ppt in a .pptx system whole thing borked

Lol
I love the comments about powerpoints! And all of them are...."dead" on!!

I never did "presentations" until I went to the college. I always did labs with a little lecture and lots of interaction instead. By far the best way to get kids to learn science.

Although I have always been a "teacher", I never thought of myself as "teaching" stuff. I don't know that anyone really can "teach" stuff one rather, I think, creates a situation within which the students "thinks that he or she can learn" and then when I "teach" stuff it just seems to "come naturally" to them.

The college, however, is a whole 'nother beast.

Because of something that happened in the Navy, back in the sixties, I somehow knew that, eventually, I would be doing something like "presentations". I didn't know how or when, but I always just knew it.

When I walked into the college the first time to talk to my supervisor, I immediately saw that it really is VERY much state of the art, really, in terms of the really useful and the best of equipment.

When we walked into a classroom I saw a projector hanging from the ceiling and I asked something like: "would it be ok to use that?" And he literally grabbed me and HAULED me to the main building which has HUGE lecture halls, that will hold several hundred people and monstorous screens.

He said, "Here is your playground....because no faculty member, aside of myself, in the science department uses the capability."

So...I promptly went out and bought Powerpoint 2003 and never looked back.

The BOOK for Powerpoint was at once two things.....a) NOTHING.....there were no instructions.... and b) the BEST book that Microsith ever made....because it was about "design" and "use".

In that book, they referenced exactly what SR and GG said above.

a) DO NOT....fill the slides up with text.
b) One idea per slide and put ENGAGING images on it to motivate the listener to ...um...listen....
c) do not repeat what is on the slide except to reference it...

what Microsith did not say but should have is....

you can have a jillion slides.... it is not an overhead projector and it does not need an eraser.

The rest of the teachers when they DO use powerpoint, ....use the CANNED ones that come with the book....

So to repeat what GG said...... why is the teacher even there?

Powerpoint has a timer function. He, or she, could just set it to advance the slides every two minutes, or one, and be working on another computer on grades or checking the stock ticker while the students watch, or sleep.

Yep, the best thing MS ever did was produce that "non-instruction" book, it is just too bad that nobody paid attention to what it had to say.

I make my presentations from scratch, using public domain material, or not public domain, I can use that for one presentation, then I delete and replace with new.

A second big influence for me in how to make and use presentations is Marshal McLuhan's trio of books:

the Gutenberg Galaxy
Understanding Media
the Medium is the Massage

great comments on presentations and meetings and stuff folks very enjoyable!!

woodsmoke

[ScottyK]

Re: If add anything to .ppt in a .pptx system whole thing borked

play on the phone until the battery dies

If they set up wi-fi, configure it in your phone and switch off mobile data. Your battery will last longer. On most Android devices, the wi-fi radio consumes less power than the GPRS/3G/4G radio.

That is the idea of the day. I didn't know that wifi uses less battery power! A lot of times it detects open networks, but I don't bother connecting because I have the 4G connection. Thanks!!

[de_koraco]

Re: If add anything to .ppt in a .pptx system whole thing borked

So skip PowerDeath completely: https://opensource.conformal.com/wiki/slideml

[GreyGeek]

Re: If add anything to .ppt in a .pptx system whole thing borked

.....

I later found out how they "take care of themselves": http://wild.enature.com/blog/how-do-...d-brain-damage

This example implies important knowledge can be found with a simple "how to" search on Google, which I suspect is not what you mean. Your earlier examples of requiring students to pass oral exams illustrate the true value of effective teaching.

True. A friend who is an ornithologist clued me in on Woodpeckers!

As far as the Internet goes, I view it as a library filled with digital books published by everyone and anyone, from geniuses to fools. The art in doing "research" on the Internet, just like in the library, is to select properly vetted sources in order to separate the wheat from the chaff. The best sources usually are on *.edu or *.gov domains, and the best authors have earned degrees from accredited schools. Many formerly paper journals are now online and available for research as well, as are "unpublished" monographs, theses, etc. Google has an "app" for scholarly research on the Internet! That keeps one from being annoyed by modern day snake oil salesmen and their "over unity" machines.

I wish that the Internet was available when I was going to college. I would have been like a kid in a candy shop!