Unable to import PowerPoint presentation

[Start4Life]

Hi,
since upgrading to Professinal Version I get an Error Message while attempting to import a Powerpoint file.

“Unable to import PowerPoint presentation. Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component.”

What am I to do?

[alain]

That’s annoying.

-> Which version of Powerpoint do you use?
-> Can you try to import a small powerpoint file (1 slide with one text) and tell me if it works.
-> Can you try to export as Powerpoint, to check if it works.

[Start4Life]

Sorry Alain,
I tried just a simple Textslide and used Powerpoint 2007 and Powerpoint 2000. I just tried the export feature, which will bring up the Error Message “Unable to export PowerPoint presentation. Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component.”

What else can i do?

[alain]

Please download the following file:

https://www.slide-effect.com/tmp/check_ppt.exe

Then run it and send me back the text output.

[Start4Life]

Hi Alain,
this is what the check_ppt.exe printed out:

output:
Check CURRENT_USER…
Found nothing
Check LOCAL_MACHINE…
Found something: C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~4\Office12\POWERPNT.EXE
Check if file exists
Found.
Check version
major: 12
minor: 0

Sincerely
Janez

[alain]

Ok. Now can you do the following:

– Open Start menu.
– Go to Slide effect Shortcut, then right click and choose “Properties”
– Click on button “Open Target Directory” (or something similar)
(An explorer will open on Slide Effect directory)
– Check if the following files are listed (and if their size are correct):
-> office.dll 219kb
-> Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.dll 219k

If these files are not available or if the size is not the same, please download again 1.7.5 and re-install it.

If these files are ok, let me know and I will send you a program to diagnose a bit more what’s going on (by tomorrow).

[Start4Life]

Hi Alain,
if have checked the files and found them both in the SlideEffect directory in the assigned size. Nevertheless I have reinstalled the 1.7.5 also, but nothing changed regarding the Error Messages. So we need to go on with this.

Let me know, what you suggest next.

Sincerely
Janez

[alain]

Well, I just enhanced the small diagnose tool, please download it, uncompress it, and then double-click on “check_ppt.exe” and give me back the result here.

download link: https://www.slide-effect.com/tools/checkPPTex.zip

[Start4Life]

Hi Alain,
here is what check_PPT.exe has printed out:

output:
Check CURRENT_USER…
Found nothing
Check LOCAL_MACHINE…
Found something: C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~4\Office12\POWERPNT.EXE
Check if file exists
Found.
Check version
major: 12
minor: 0
Connect to PPT DLL
Connected to PPT DLL
Connect Error
System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80004005): Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component.
at Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.Presentations.Open(String FileName, MsoTriState ReadOnly, MsoTriState Untitled, MsoTriState WithWindow)
at check_ppt.Form1..ctor()
Error HRESULT E_FAIL has been returned from a call to a COM component.
at Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.Presentations.Open(String FileName, MsoTriState ReadOnly, MsoTriState Untitled, MsoTriState WithWindow)
at check_ppt.Form1..ctor()

I also used the attached DLL-Files to overwrite the ones currently present in the Slide-Effect directory. The Error messages while importing or exporting are still the same. I also attempted to import the attached test.ppt with the same Error Messages like before. This must be a living bug – lets use some BugExSpray. What am I to do next?

Sincerely
Janez

[alain]

Ok, I think I found the issue:

It seems you did not install VBA (Visual Basic For Application) when installing Powerpoint.

So, if it is possible for you, please do the following:

– Open Start Menu
– Open Control Panel
– Click “Add or Remove Program”
– Choose Microsoft Office on the list of installed programs, and click “Change” button.
– Then an office dialog should open asking you what changes you want to do: select “Add or Remove Features”
– On the tree, select “Office Shared Features” then “Visual Basic for Applications”: change it to “Run from my computer”
– Click Continue and wait until office has finished to install.. reboot and try again to import a PPT presentation on Slide Effect.

I really think it comes from something missing on your Powerpoint installation.

Really hope it resolves your issue.

[Start4Life]

Hi Alain,
that was it. Problem solved. Thanks so much.

[alain]

Good to hear! thanks for your patience.

[superlee1117]

Hi Alain,

I am now meeting with the similar problem as Start4Life was.

My error message is the same with his. I debugged my code and this error reports when it comes to this line of code (C#).

m_presentation = (PowerPoint_Class.Application)m_pptAp.Presentations.Open(m_originalFileName,
MS_FALSE, MS_FALSE, MS_FALSE);
Please ignore the grammer issue of this line of code. It does not look good since I only copied it from the whole cs file of my project.

I also tried your checkPPTex.zip and following output is printed.

output:
Check CURRENT_USER…
Found nothing
Check LOCAL_MACHINE…
Found something: C:\PROGRA~1\MICROS~2\Office12\POWERPNT.EXE
Check if file exists
Found.
Check version
major: 12
minor: 0
Connect to PPT DLL
Connected to PPT DLL
Presentation Opened
Slide Number: 3
Slide Index: 0
Shape Count: 3
Shape Index: 0
Shape Is Text
Text is:tralala
Slide Index: 1
Shape Count: 3
Shape Index: 0
Shape Is Text
Text is:Title.
Shape Index: 1
Shape Is Text
Text is:Pouet
pouet
Slide Index: 2
Shape Count: 3
Shape Index: 0
Shape Is Text
Text is:zomg
Shape Index: 1
Shape Is Text
Text is:It is not working

Could you please give me some guide on this problem? Thanks in advance.

If you need more information besides above, please let me know and I can try to collect more findings.

[alain]

Well, as I understand, you are not using Slide Effect, it is a pure c# problem?

Here follow the code snippet where I open the PPT file:

try
{
result += "Connect to PPT DLL\r\n";
PP.Application pp = new PP.Application();
result += "Connected to PPT DLL\r\n";
PP.Presentation p = pp.Presentations.Open("test.ppt", Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoFalse, Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoFalse, Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoFalse);
result += "Presentation Opened\r\n";
}
catch (Exception e)
{
result += "Connect Error\r\n";
result += e.ToString() + "\r\n";
result += e.Message + "\r\n";
result += e.StackTrace + "\r\n";
}

If you want, I can send you the source code of CheckPPT so you can fully compare your code to my code to find the differences.

[superlee1117]

Thank you Alain. But is your code invoking Office PPT 2007 APIs? I found the new PP.Application() is so different from mine (PowerPoint_Class.Application app).

And what is my ppt application opening is the html files because I am using it to re-save the html files to ppt file.

If your code can handle opening html to ppt, I can send you my original ppt file. You can first save it to html format and then use your code to re-save it to ppt, then you should find there is a problem.

Is there a button to attach a file here?

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