Summary
When attempting to open PowerPoint presentations from Moodle/SharePoint, users may encounter an error "Sorry, we can't open this presentation because we ran into a problem. To view or edit this presentation, open it in Microsoft PowerPoint". This article provides a potential solution for Instructors/users encountering this with their presentations.
Body
Introduction
When attempting to open PowerPoint presentations from Moodle/SharePoint, users may encounter an error "Sorry, we can't open this presentation because we ran into a problem. To view or edit this presentation, open it in Microsoft PowerPoint", with a button to continue that states "Open in Desktop App". This issue may be caused because the file-type of the presentation is out-of-date and needs to be saved with a modern extension.
Issue Explanation
Many course materials (including Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and other Microsoft Office documents) have been created in older versions of Microsoft Office. This may be because the course material was created a while ago, or the device it was created on had an older version of Microsoft Office installed. Depending on how the file was saved originally, the file-type may not be able to open within PowerPoint Online, however the error message doesn't provide helpful information indicating that.
Warning!
If the file also fails to open in the desktop application it may be corrupt, try re-downloading it from the source, or contact the creator of the file for a working copy.
Resolution: Save the presentation with a modern file-type.
- Open the presentation in the Microsoft PowerPoint desktop application
- Select File
- Select Save As
- In the file-type drop down, choose PowerPoint Presentation (*.pptx)
- If your presentation has embedded media you may need to save it as a PowerPoint Macro-Enabled Presentation (*.pptm). A warning will alert you if there is macro media that requires this file-type.
- Re-upload the file to SharePoint