B Exchanging files with PowerPoint
This chapter covers some issues that arise when your coworkers use PowerPoint without think-cell installed.
B.1 Loading files from think-cell in PowerPoint
Any files created by PowerPoint with think-cell installed are 100% compatible with PowerPoint. This means that coworkers or customers who do not have think-cell installed, can open and edit the files without noticing any difference. The smart-elements (“think-cell shapes”) created with think-cell appear as regular PowerPoint shapes such as textboxes and Microsoft Graph objects.
Although think-cell requires PowerPoint XP or later to run, files that have been created using think-cell can be opened in PowerPoint 97 Service Release 1. If rows of quotation marks appear in some textboxes, then Service Release 1 or later must be installed. Find the latest updates for Microsoft Office installations at:
http://office.microsoft.com/officeupdate
B.2 Reimporting smart-elements from PowerPoint
Consider the following scenario:
- 1.
- A presentation has been created using PowerPoint with think-cell installed, and contains smart-elements.
- 2.
- The same presentation has been edited in PowerPoint without think-cell, and some of the shapes that are part of a smart-element have been altered.
- 3.
- Now, you want to use think-cell again to further modify the smart-elements.
In this scenario, when you attempt to select a smart-element that has been altered without think-cell, the software will recognize the smart-element as inconsistent and display the following message box:
In order to proceed, you will need to decide whether to continue using the PowerPoint edited version without think-cell functionality or to reimport the smart-element to think-cell.
You should carefully consider the following consequences before making your decision:
- Manually carry over changes to think-cell : Reimporting the smart-element to think-cell restores the intelligent smart-element functionality, but discards all changes made without think-cell. If you wish to preserve any of the changes then they must be manually re-applied to the smart-element.
- Continue editing without think-cell functionality : Continuing to use the PowerPoint edited version ensures that all changes are preserved. The intelligent smart-element functionality, however, is lost and standard PowerPoint tools must be used to further edit these shapes and objects.
If you decide to Manually carry over changes to think-cell, then the following toolbar is displayed, letting you compare slides containing the alternative versions of the smart-element:
The toolbar lets you quickly and easily view the slides containing the PowerPoint and think-cell versions of the smart-element.
You may want to compare the smart-element with the PowerPoint version and compare and copy, for example, data values to reflect any changes that you wish to preserve in the think-cell version.
Having made any necessary changes, click the Done button to remove the PowerPoint version from the presentation and end the reimport process.
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