PowerPoint 2007 doesn't play nicely with Visio 2007

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redhorse - 07 Jun 2007 02:57 GMT

I really hope I'm missing something, but it seems like the PowerPoint 2007
developers really blew it when it comes to integration with Visio 2007.

In the past, I could copy a Visio 2003 shape and paste it into PowerPoint
2003. The Visio 2003 shape would be recognized as an embedded object in
PowerPoint and would have a transparent background. I could then click on
'ungroup', and have it converted to an "Office Shape" which would then be
treated as a native shape in PowerPoint 2003 that I could edit just like any
other PowerPoint shape.

With PowerPoint 2007, it thinks anything I paste in from Visio 2007 is a
picture. This causes two major problems:
(1) It always has a white background
(2) I cannot ungroup the shape to convert it to a native PowerPoint shape.

If there is no way around this, I will be forced to go back to Office 2003.
Does anyone have any idea if this might be just a problem with my setup, or
did they really take a step backwards with 2007?

Also, in case any PowerPoint developers are watching, if you have a Visio
2002 embedded graphic in a PowerPoint 2007 slide, and you select that slide
in design view, PowerPoint will crash every time. This does not happen with
Visio 2003 graphics or those that I converted to "Office Shapes" as outlined
above. However, in presentation mode, the Visio 2002 objects display
correctly and PowerPoint doesn't crash.

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Echo S - 07 Jun 2007 03:31 GMT

Sorry, I don't have Visio installed on my system where Office 2007 is
installed, but what if you choose Paste Special instead of just a regular
paste? Does that give you any better options? (You can shortcut Paste
Special now! Ctrl+Alt+V)

Re the 2002 Visio objects crashing PPT -- that sounds really nasty. I'll
pass it along (since I'm not set up to test it here).

Signature

Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/

>I really hope I'm missing something, but it seems like the PowerPoint 2007
> developers really blew it when it comes to integration with Visio 2007.
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
> above. However, in presentation mode, the Visio 2002 objects display
> correctly and PowerPoint doesn't crash.

Reply to this Message

Echo S - 08 Jun 2007 16:50 GMT

To follow up here, it seems that Visio objects are an OfficeArt 1.0
application but PPT uses a newer OfficeArt format, so the objects get
converted into a different format when they're pasted -- but that format
isn't terribly flexible.

Hopefully Visio will be more compatible in future versions.

I'm hearing they can't repro the crash, though, so it may be something
machine-specific. I'd probably look to printer drivers and video drivers.
Maybe try turning down hardware acceleration (How to set graphics hardware
acceleration back http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00129.htm ). Can you boot into
Safe Mode and see if it happens then, too?

Signature

Echo [MS PPT MVP] http://www.echosvoice.com
What's new in PPT 2007? http://www.echosvoice.com/2007.htm
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/powerpointannoy/

> Sorry, I don't have Visio installed on my system where Office 2007 is
> installed, but what if you choose Paste Special instead of just a regular
[quoted text clipped - 37 lines]
>> above. However, in presentation mode, the Visio 2002 objects display
>> correctly and PowerPoint doesn't crash.

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