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Preventing and Fixing PowerPoint File Corruption


This article reprinted with permission from All 'Bout Computers. Let's face it, PowerPoint presentation files tend to be large. What's more, they get corrupted easily. Everyday we get posts on the PowerPoint newsgroup complaining that PowerPoint won't open a file. Fixing the problem is time consuming and scary. But preventing the problem is easy. Just follow these three pieces of advice and you are unlikely to have any corrupted files!

Number One: Turn off fast saves

Bring up the Options Window (Tools --> Options). Go to the Save Tab. The first check box is for Fast Saves. Un-check the box. If you had a file open, re-save it under a new name.   Go on - do it now - then come back - I promise I'll tell you why.

Now that Fast Saves are off, your files are much less likely to be corrupted. Fast Saves takes your PowerPoint presentations and periodically saves just the update information to your file. It doesn't save the whole file, just the actions that have been taken since the last Fast Save. When PowerPoint goes to re-create the file, it has to re-build the file from the steps taken. Fast Saves don't save unless you hit save, so even if they didn't corrupt files, they don't save much time.

Number Two: Save often

Save your files regularly. Don't just save them to the same name, save them to new names so that you have backups. This way, even if something does happen to your file, you won't have to start from scratch. You can just open the last saved version and work from there.

If you aren't able to remember to save frequently to a different name, check out the free Sequential Save Add-In from Shyam Pillai. It is available from his site or the PPT FAQ:

His site: http://www.mvps.org/skp/seqsave.htm   FAQ entry: www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00494.htm

This add-in will allow you to set up where you want the backup copies saved and how you want them named. Once you have the add-in set up, it is accessed by a new toolbar button conveniently located next to the Save button.

Number Three: Don't access files over a network

PowerPoint files and networks don't play well together. It is much safer to keep a local copy of your presentation and work on it. Use Windows to make a copy of the presentation on your local drive. Work with that copy. When you are done, copy the presentation back to the network drive.

Same thing applies to linked files. Since you really want all files in the same folder before you link to them anyway, copy them locally and then link to them. (If you link to a file that isn't in the same directory as your presentation, the links will break when you move the presentation back to the network drive.)

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What if the files are already corrupted?

If PowerPoint won't open your file, chances are it is already corrupted. Make a copy of the presentation and try these recovery tricks:

1) Open a new presentation and use Insert --> Slides --> From existing presentation to pull in the slides from the corrupted file. This works about 50% of the time.

2) Try using the Clone Me add-in from Microsoft. It may work, it may not.

3) Download OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org) and use Impress to open the file. It has an amazing track record for opening corrupted files.

4) Check the PPT FAQ entry (http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00108.htm) on file corruption for a list of Knowledge Base articles on this subject.

One other thing: Files that have a password applied by PowerPoint 2002 or later can't be opened in the earlier versions. Get the developer to remove the password protection and send you a new copy.