For past several years have had no problems running .wav, .mp3, or .wma clips
in PPT 2003 under XP Pro.
----
Workplace has now switched my laptop to office 2007, and so I changed
computers to a Dell xps 410 running Vista Ultimate and office 2007.
--PPTs have the traditional "ppt" extension and the top of screen indicates
I am in  [compatiblity mode]"
--I then "publish | package for cd" without viewer as my laptop already has
office 2007 installed.
--Noticed that my audio-video clips now get prefaced with the software used
to open and play. Have been using Ashampoo Photo Commander 5 for trims and
sorts and see "APC.MP3," or "APC.AVI," or "APC.WMA" in the type column. Set
default to be Windows media player, and designations went away, but audio
clips will still not play.
--Video clips .AVI, .MPG, and, of course, .WMV all play fine alone and
within PowerPoint.
==============
--Some .WMA clips play and others do not
--NO .MP3 clips play whatsoever. I have tried delete and then insert but no
success.  
--ALL clips were recorded prior to 1920, so should be no DRM issues.
--Am on cable broadband and notice that if I double-click on an mp3 clip
within File Explorer, there is a delay of 4 seconds, then Net activity, then
begins playing at the ten second mark. Assume this is consistent with checked
box to "download codecs automatically."
--Do NOT see same Net activity after "packaging for CD" on the Vista Dell
and then running on the XP Pro laptop, but MP3s and WMAs no longer play back.
==============
--a friend suggested to me that office 2007 is VERY strict as to the "legal
nature" of media clips and I may have some .MP3 clips that were created under
the lame codec which he thought Microsoft office would not recognize.
--He suggested that I dl the Fraunhofer codec which Office 2007 supports,
along with the MS Media Encoder and then run all of my audio through the
Media Encoder to ensure the "Fraunhofer seal of approval" from PPT.
--I purchased the Dell with Vista Ultimate already installed, along with
Media Player 11.0.6000.6324, so when I went to the MS website to dl Media
Converter I was informed this would be version 9 and sent Vista owners to
"article 929182 in the Microsoft Knowledge Base" for the hotfix to the issue
of running under Vista. Tried to dl and install, but is in a loop requiring
me to pre-install some other program first, then keeps coming back to the
first program: Net result is NO install.

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Can anybody help?  I am already a week behind on several PowerPoint
presentations. There is NO online help I can locate (aside from this forum),
and am wondering if I should dump Vista and go back to XP Pro and office 2003
?