Pictures included in PowerPoint presentations created on the Macintosh do not always show up on Windows computers. [Example: check out Pete's boating pics] This is what I’ve learned… (if you have more/better information, please let me know.)
Graphics on PowerPoints created on the Mac often show up as white blocks with the message: "quicktime and tiff decompressor needed". This is neither an ASD computer problem nor a Quicktime problem. Evidently when graphics are copied from Safari to the clipboard to PowerPoint, they are automatically compressed in a format that Windows operating system cannot read. This problem can show up in Microsoft Word documents also.
To create PowerPoints on a Mac that are compatible on both platforms
Choose one of a number of methods:
Best Practices: (according to Pete) Create a folder for your PowerPoint project. Create a new PowerPoint presentation and save it in the folder. When you find a graphic that you wish to include, save it in the folder, then import it into your PowerPoint. This gives you the raw material in case you wish to use it again, later. Use any browser, including Safari.
Method 2: Use either Mozilla’s FireFox or Internet Explorer as your browser and copy and paste directly into PowerPoint. Evidently these browsers do not compress the graphics. For those of you not familiar with FireFox, it is an open-source (non-microsoft) browser that appears to work quite well. It is on our new Macintosh image. (If you do not have the image and want it, please let us know)
Method 3: Copy the graphic into another program, such as Macromedia’s Fireworks. Then copy it from there into PowerPoint. This also gives you the chance to edit the graphic as you see fit. For those of you not familiar with Fireworks, it is a powerful image-editing program (like PhotoShop) that we have a site-license to (and permission for teachers to put on their home computers for school work).
To repair PowerPoint presentations that do not work on Windows computers:
Best Practices: Create a folder for your project and save the project in the folder. Copy each graphic into a program such as Fireworks and then save it in your folder. (The default format for Fireworks is as a png (or ping) file – that’s ok). In PowerPoint, insert your picture. If you copy the graphic first, then create a new file in Fireworks, then paste, it will create the new file to be exactly the correct size for the image.
Method 2: Copy the graphic into a program such as Fireworks, then select it, copy it, and paste it back into your PowerPoint.
Method 3: As a quick, emergency solution, while on a Macintosh, you can save your PowerPoint as a Web Page. This page will open on a Windows computer, but the picture quality will suffer significantly.
There is no way that I know of that will allow you to repair a presentation while you have it open on a Windows computer.
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