Editing projects created in an older version of PPT

Oct 29, 2012

I created two very large projects in PPT 2003 a few years ago.  I need to make some updatesto the projects, but now use PPT 2010.  When I make the presentation writeable (to PPTX), it appears that I lose the audio.

Are there any existing tutorials or blogs re: the conversion of presentations from 2003 to 2010?   

5 Replies
Christine Hendrickson

Hi Amber! Welcome to E-Learning Heroes!

First, it sounds like the sound file that was used for the original PowerPoint project may have been linked to the project, but not embedded. If that's the case, it may be that PowerPoint cannot find the sound file. 

Make sure you have access to the audio file. Also, make sure (if you can access the file) that the sound file is not hidden. To do this, navigate to the sound file, right-click and click on "Properties". Under the General tab, toward the bottom, check the Attributes to ensure "Hidden" is not checked.

Are you still able to access the original file and hear the audio?

Thanks!

Christine

Amber D'Aloise

Thanks for your response, Christine.  When I open the originally saved project (vs. the version that I save to make writeable), I am still able to hear the audio.  However, I am not sure how to access the sound file. 

When I search in the zipped folder contents (data, lms or player), I don't find any .wav or .mp3 files. I'm guessing that this is very basic knowledge which I'm lacking..  Would you please advise me on how to locate the sound file?

Christine Hendrickson

Hi Amber!

Thanks for the additional information. I'm not extremely familiar with PPT 2003, but I'm sure there's a way to find the location or file name of the audio in the file. 

There is a knowledge base article that covers quite a few things that may be related to the issue with the audio. If you take a look at it here, you can read through and see if any of these steps helps resolve the issue.

One thing in the article that stood out to me was this:

"If you have a PPT (2003 or earlier) and PPTX (2007 or later) file in the same folder with the same name: If you have a PPT and PPTX file in the same folder with the same name, Presenter will want to name the PPTA file the same regardless of which file you are working on.  If there is already a PPTA file in the folder that is not associated with the PowerPoint file you open, Presenter will change the name of the file to -old.ppta and create a new (empty) PPTA file for the opened PowerPoint presentation."

Also, this may help:

How do I restore the audio from an -old.ppta file?

In the event that an -old.ppta file is generated, you can easily reconnect it with your PowerPoint file, which will restore your missing audio resources.  Here’s how:

  1. Close PowerPoint.
  2. Rename or delete the new (empty) PPTA file to break its link with the PowerPoint file.
  3. Ensure that the PowerPoint file and the original PPTA file (i.e., the -old.ppta file) are located in the same folder.
  4. Remove “-old” from the PPTA file name, so that it has the same file name as the corresponding PowerPoint file.

As long as the PowerPoint file and the original PPTA file are located in the same folder and have the same file name, they will re-link, and your audio will be restored.

If the above doesn't solve the problem, please try to look at the other information on the knowledge base article. I know there's a lot of information there, but hopefully one of these steps will fix this problem for you.

Let me know if this helps!

Thanks!

Christine

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