Openoffice Impress Issue

Whenever I try to open a .pptx file using Impress, I get mainly blank screens. The pictures show up, but none of the sentences appear, and the background shows up white. This happens with any .pptx file, and I need to be able to open these for school. I tried googling but I couldnt find any information about this issue. Anyone have any ideas? All the other OO applications work fine (Writer, Draw, Calc, etc)

BTW, this is on arch64

 

I assume you're using 3.0?

The main problem right now is compatibility. The new formats haven't been out long enough to be completely backhacked.

 

Yeah Im using OO 3.0. So its just an issue with the program itself that I will have to wait out?

 

I'm afraid so. Just make sure to keep yourself updated, and the issues will just work themselves out. Microsoft isn't exactly helpful in this matter, as you might understand.

P.S. ARCH ROCKS!!!

 

Any chance you could get them to "Save As" a plain .ppt file? pptx is only for Office 2007 and later, which is a very expensive and annoying piece of software for most people, especially since 2003 has been working fine for most. Maybe you could use a school computer to convert them?

 

All the school computers got converted to Office 2007, so Im out of luck. I did find a nice site online that will convert .pptx to .ppt. Its called http://www.zamzar.com/ if anyones interested. It will also convert docx to doc and all that good stuff.

And arch does rock

 

The folks in charge of the computers could set office 2007 to save as .doc as the default.

I'm seeing that problem a lot around the college here. A lot of people have 03 still ... and the people that have 07 are usually save as .*x and that's causing problems.

There is a converter available from MS also I believe.

 

You can use Office 2007 to convert to the 2003 format. It's called "Save as..."

 

This is true, but usually I download the powerpoints and notes from home, where I run just arch on my computer so I dont have office 2007

 

That's why we said the workaround was to use the school computers to download and save them as a format you CAN read on your Arch machine (Office 2003 or earlier format). Just get a USB drive, and when you need them, swing by a computer lab, open them on the school computer and save them to your USB drive, and you're set. Not quite as easy as just downloading them, but about your only option other than buying Office 2007 and trying to get it to run under Wine or Crossover Office or something.

 

I'm absolutely certain he's already thought of our suggestions, Pitabred.

The original question has already been answered, I think.