This "was" working and now I can't seem to figure out why an SWF will auto delete itself from the slide at Preview or Publish.
Very basic setup. I've inserted a 'Flash Movie' several different ways using the available options to advance when users clicks next, advance automatically, independent of slide, and sync with slide in every combination there is.
When I save the PPT file, close, and reopen its still there. When I Publish its gone and going back to the PPT it has magically deleted itself.
Have you moved the swf after inserting? Have you renamed the ppt outside of ppt?
The only times i have had it happen is when I have moved the swf or renamed outside of ppt or moved the ppt file
Is the swf on a network drive or usb? I know our system dynamically names the drives so sometimes the drive letter changes and we lose the swf.
Actually I have had this happen, when I moved all my files onto another machine the swf was visible prior to publish and then disapeeared on publish, I think it was becasue the ppta became disassociated at some point, I edited the swf properties in ppt to relink (I thouhght) and the swf played in ppt, but when I published there was no swf
I sorted it by deleting and reinserting the swf, sorry about the nonsense I am thinking faster than I can type
No moving of SWF files after inserting. No renaming the PPT file. The project resides on the C:\ drive of my PC. (I've dealt with USB and 'portable' projects in the past, too)
I even deleted the PPTA file thinking it may be corrupt, but that didn't fix it either.
I did however create a new presentation and inserted the SWF and it works. So that tells me the main PPT project file may be somehow corrupt. It is looking like I'm going to have to rebuild this entire project from scratch again
If you still have an earlier published version--or encounter the issue again--you can look inside your data/swf folder for the inserted Flash file. Most likely it won't be there, but it would be good to verify the file was never included at publish rather than published but not included.
I have the earlier version when it 'did' work. There have been several versions and edits since then. I needed to make a few edits, and a new audio file, and replace one of the animations. Now, ALL (20) animations have been removed and trying to reinstall them result in them auto-deleting when I either try to Preview 'that' slide or publish the entire package.
Very weird indeed!
To test, I opened a blank presentation with one slide > inserted the same animation > Preview. It worked. Next, Publish and it worked. I even Published the test with the project files on a portable drive and it worked. So this all leads me to think the main project file is corrupt in some way.
With that test, the solution would be to rebuild from scratch. Not copy/paste, but actually rebuild each slide one at a time. About 4 hours worth of work but I am NOT looking forward to it!
I've seen this in the past as well. Sometimes my quizmaker files or engage elements refuse to publish. Occasionally these elements are removed from the slide but more often than not they just choose not to export. I've seen this a time or two with SWF's as well, though it's less common than the QM disappearing act.
I hurl expletives at the machine in an attempt to wound its soul. That usually works.
You might try half-stepping into a new deck. Copy slides from one deck into another one half at a time. Then a half of the remaining half, and so on until you find the slide or slides that carry the problem. That could reduce your rebuilt load to a slide or two.
I ended up going back two versions (exactly why I make a new copy often) where it worked. Seems the previous version was corrupt, too and didn't realize it. Fortunately, all the SWF's worked and instead of having to reload all of them, I simply had to get that version up to date with the content edits. Phew!
Still weird that SWFs would auto-delete themself at run time. Never did figure out why it was happening.
Example: Slide with footer graphic holding page reference info and navigation. Rest of slide is blank. Insert the SWF and all looks fine and even plays in PPT view mode. If however, you select Preview This Slide, it will render as normal but when the preview window opens, there is no SWF. When you close the Preview window, the SWF is no longer on that slide. Same scenario happens when Publishing, too.
I was able to rebuild it and it works fine, but its not something I've ever encountered before and have absolutely no idea what is causing it or how to solve it. I kept that 'corrupted' version to go back and see if I could look into it when I have more time
10 Replies
Hi Kevin
Have you moved the swf after inserting? Have you renamed the ppt outside of ppt?
The only times i have had it happen is when I have moved the swf or renamed outside of ppt or moved the ppt file
Is the swf on a network drive or usb? I know our system dynamically names the drives so sometimes the drive letter changes and we lose the swf.
Actually I have had this happen, when I moved all my files onto another machine the swf was visible prior to publish and then disapeeared on publish, I think it was becasue the ppta became disassociated at some point, I edited the swf properties in ppt to relink (I thouhght) and the swf played in ppt, but when I published there was no swf
I sorted it by deleting and reinserting the swf, sorry about the nonsense I am thinking faster than I can type
PHil
Hey Phil,
Yep, thought of all that.
No moving of SWF files after inserting. No renaming the PPT file. The project resides on the C:\ drive of my PC. (I've dealt with USB and 'portable' projects in the past, too)
I even deleted the PPTA file thinking it may be corrupt, but that didn't fix it either.
I did however create a new presentation and inserted the SWF and it works. So that tells me the main PPT project file may be somehow corrupt. It is looking like I'm going to have to rebuild this entire project from scratch again
Hey Kevin,
If you still have an earlier published version--or encounter the issue again--you can look inside your data/swf folder for the inserted Flash file. Most likely it won't be there, but it would be good to verify the file was never included at publish rather than published but not included.
I have the earlier version when it 'did' work. There have been several versions and edits since then. I needed to make a few edits, and a new audio file, and replace one of the animations. Now, ALL (20) animations have been removed and trying to reinstall them result in them auto-deleting when I either try to Preview 'that' slide or publish the entire package.
Very weird indeed!
To test, I opened a blank presentation with one slide > inserted the same animation > Preview. It worked. Next, Publish and it worked. I even Published the test with the project files on a portable drive and it worked. So this all leads me to think the main project file is corrupt in some way.
With that test, the solution would be to rebuild from scratch. Not copy/paste, but actually rebuild each slide one at a time. About 4 hours worth of work but I am NOT looking forward to it!
I've seen this in the past as well. Sometimes my quizmaker files or engage elements refuse to publish. Occasionally these elements are removed from the slide but more often than not they just choose not to export. I've seen this a time or two with SWF's as well, though it's less common than the QM disappearing act.
I hurl expletives at the machine in an attempt to wound its soul. That usually works.
Hurling expletives. Haven't tried that yet!
You might try half-stepping into a new deck. Copy slides from one deck into another one half at a time. Then a half of the remaining half, and so on until you find the slide or slides that carry the problem. That could reduce your rebuilt load to a slide or two.
Thanks for the suggestion, Steve.
I ended up going back two versions (exactly why I make a new copy often) where it worked. Seems the previous version was corrupt, too and didn't realize it. Fortunately, all the SWF's worked and instead of having to reload all of them, I simply had to get that version up to date with the content edits. Phew!
Still weird that SWFs would auto-delete themself at run time. Never did figure out why it was happening.
Kevin is the rest of the slide blank as well? Ppt will delete all content off a slide if it suspects corruption
Phil
Oddly, no. Only the SWF.
Example: Slide with footer graphic holding page reference info and navigation. Rest of slide is blank. Insert the SWF and all looks fine and even plays in PPT view mode. If however, you select Preview This Slide, it will render as normal but when the preview window opens, there is no SWF. When you close the Preview window, the SWF is no longer on that slide. Same scenario happens when Publishing, too.
I was able to rebuild it and it works fine, but its not something I've ever encountered before and have absolutely no idea what is causing it or how to solve it. I kept that 'corrupted' version to go back and see if I could look into it when I have more time
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