Fixing a "serious error" message/situation with several PPT add-ins
Kip Gregory
me!
Several days ago I installed Shyam Pillai's Handout Wizard; Upon trying to
open PPT immediately afterward, I got a series of "serious error" messages
like the following - "PowerPoint experienced a serious error the last time
'PDFMakerA' was opened. Would you like to disable it?" - each for a
different PPT add-in (and unfortunately I was on an airplane at the time,
so, no, I didn't write them all down).
I DID however go ahead and disabled all of them (probably five or six); the
program opened, I worked briefly in it, then closed it down and reopened it
again to make sure it was functioning properly (but minus the add-ins). It
was.
Here's the problem: When I tried to "add back" the add-ins (using Tools,
Add-ins), I was able to browse to and select each of them ok -- but none of
them are showing up as Toolbar menu choices.
I called Placeware (the web conferencing vendor) about the situation because
one of the add-ins is theirs and I need it for a presentation I'm giving
early next week (it lets you create polling slides and other special slides
right from within PPT). With their help (I'm now at level 3 support with
them), I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the plug-in, checking the
Registry for errant entries, doing a PPT detect and repair, etc. but neither
it nor any of the other missing ones have shown up back on the menu.
The add-ins I know I'm dealing with are the one from Placeware , one for one
of the CrystalGraphics products that adds special effects to still pictures,
Adobe's PDFMaker (which I don't often use, but would like to have back) and
the Handout Wizard. There may be others.
The weird thing is not all of the add-ins on my system were affected - I
have one called "PowerSearch" from the people who make Presentation
Librarian; it's still present in the program and working fine (but, BTW, it
does not show up in the Add-in list under the Tools menu; it DOES however
appear on the Toolbar menu and on the screen).
I've Googled some related terms (serious error PowerPoint add-in/addin...)
and the only thing I could find that appears remotely related is a
suggestion to disable a setting in Norton AntiVirus 2002 to enable a
Microsoft Office Plug-in - but making that change doesn't seem to have done
anything.
So, here I sit having lost most of the day to tech support calls, numerous
reboots, uninstall/installs, etc. I'm at a loss and really hope someone can
help me. Any suggestions would be most welcome.
TIA
Kip Gregory
Kip Gregory
Echo S
file. This is the PPT toolbar, and it should be recreated upon startup.
--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com
Steve Rindsberg
... consider it rhetorical, then. <g>)
> Several days ago I installed Shyam Pillai's Handout Wizard; Upon trying to
> open PPT immediately afterward, I got a series of "serious error" messages
> like the following - "PowerPoint experienced a serious error the last time
> 'PDFMakerA' was opened. Would you like to disable it?" - each for a
> different PPT add-in (and unfortunately I was on an airplane at the time,
> so, no, I didn't write them all down).
>
> I DID however go ahead and disabled all of them (probably five or six);
the
> program opened, I worked briefly in it, then closed it down and reopened
it
> again to make sure it was functioning properly (but minus the add-ins).
It
> was.
>
> Here's the problem: When I tried to "add back" the add-ins (using Tools,
> Add-ins), I was able to browse to and select each of them ok -- but none
of
> them are showing up as Toolbar menu choices.
This'd be XP, right? They're not showing up because PowerPoint disabled
them when you said "OkeyDoke" on the plane.
Try Help, About Microsoft PowerPoint and click Disabled Items. Select the
one you want to enable and click Enable.
Until you do this, PowerPoint will, by design, keep the addin in the
"doghouse".
> The add-ins I know I'm dealing with are the one from Placeware , one for
one
> of the CrystalGraphics products that adds special effects to still
pictures,
> Adobe's PDFMaker (which I don't often use, but would like to have back)
and
> the Handout Wizard. There may be others.
Hunch: Try re-enabling all but the Crystal Graphics one. There have been
some argies between it and XP, or so people have reported here.
Kip Gregory
Thanks for your good suggestions. Tried them both. Here's an update. I'm
still having a problem, but thanks to a 90 minute IM session with Shyam that
went late into the evening, I at least have a better understanding of what's
going on.
Like you, Steve, Shyam suggested the Help Disabled items route and, sure
enough, I found the missing add-ins there and enabled them. The PROBLEM is
that PPT is not handling them (the add-ins) consistently. I went through a
series of opens and closes of the program and sometimes it works correctly
but other times it doesn't (meaning I'm still getting the serious error
messages). Shyam and I went through about every permutation we could think
of to isolate on "one" problem add-in, but it's still not clear to me what's
causing this.
At this point, what I have is a PPT program that sometimes launches
correctly and sometimes not. IF I don't disable the errant add-ins, they
don't appear (obviously), but then the next time I open the program they
just might and everything appears to work fine (during that open "session")
until the next time I close, when it's anybody's guess whether the d*mn
program will shut properly (or reopen properly for that matter).
Steve, as you know, I'm trying to get my book finished up, and irony of the
situtation is that I installed Shyam's Handout Wizard (which I really like,
by the way) so I could understand it in order to write about it credibly (as
I'm doing with virtually all the tools mentioned in the book). I have other
add-ins (including yours Steve) I want to work with, but am jittery now
because I've lost a lot of time and, worse, PPT doesn't seem like it's
exactly stable at the moment. So, I'm still seeking an answer as to WHY
this may be happening - to decide if it's safe to press ahead with some of
the other plug-ins I want to look at.
[I've got a great section in the book on all the wonderful things that you
MVPs can do to help - advice, products, tutorials, etc., but honestly, I'm
leery of talking about the plug-ins if I can't even get them to work myself
because my audience (brokers/advisors and others the financial services
community) have the attention span of a fruitfly to begin with; believe me,
they're not going to go through a bunch of hoops if something doesn't work -
and guess who'll get the blame... <g>? Moi.]
One final thing, if it matters. I told Shyam it seemed to me that the
problem I've described was more likely to happen if I opened and closed the
program quickly vs. giving the machine a chance to "rest" after opening or
closing, before moving on to the next step. Shyam thought that shouldn't
matter, but my gut tells me that maybe there's some kind of program routine
that gets completed (or cut short) that has an impact on what happens. Do
you think that's possible?
Any further ideas/suggestions? Steve if you're around your office, maybe we
could talk directly if you have a minute. Post a reply or shoot me a
message to let me know.
Thank you both.
Kip
"Echo S" <ec...@indy.net> wrote in message
news:3EA8B64A...@indy.net...
Steve Rindsberg
> correctly and sometimes not. IF I don't disable the errant add-ins, they
> don't appear (obviously), but then the next time I open the program they
> just might and everything appears to work fine (during that open
"session")
> until the next time I close, when it's anybody's guess whether the d*mn
> program will shut properly (or reopen properly for that matter).
Here's a thought: PowerPoint XP has at least one known bug that causes it
to self-destruct under a weird combination of circumstances (add-in has
created a toolbar in current session, user or add-in changes the starting
number in Page Setup and there's been a view change).
Some add-ins create a toolbar at startup *only* if it's not already there,
meaning that if XP's taking a dive because a new toolbar's been created, it
might only happen in the first session where the addin loads and not in
subsequent sessions. Acrobat, on the other hand, always creates a new
toolbar (deleting the old if necessary, if I recall correctly).
I'd try disabling it, ditching all toolbars and menu items and then hunt
down any *.PCB files and rename 'em. Look also for *.PIP files ... ISTR
that XP uses those instead. Rename 'em. I'd also leave Crystal Graphics
out of the mix, as there've been problems reported between their stuff and
PPT XP.
Then see if things get more stable.
> Steve, as you know, I'm trying to get my book finished up, and irony of
the
> situtation is that I installed Shyam's Handout Wizard (which I really
like,
> by the way) so I could understand it in order to write about it credibly
(as
> I'm doing with virtually all the tools mentioned in the book). I have
other
> add-ins (including yours Steve) I want to work with, but am jittery now
> because I've lost a lot of time and, worse, PPT doesn't seem like it's
> exactly stable at the moment. So, I'm still seeking an answer as to WHY
> this may be happening - to decide if it's safe to press ahead with some of
> the other plug-ins I want to look at.
I can count the number of people who've reported this problem either here or
via our support page or email on one hand. And have four fingers left over.
IOW, it seems to be a weird interaction between several of these addins that
nobody else has run into. I don't think you need to swear off add-ins in
general, and particularly not Shyam's. Keep in mind that you've got a
larger than usual number of them installed; that raises the odds against
you, but most people will never see this sort of problem. Between Shyam and
Brian and I, we must have our addins on tens of thousands of computers,
literally. If even a small percentage of them had problems this severe,
we'd be inundated with tech support problems. Not the case, I promise you.
> One final thing, if it matters. I told Shyam it seemed to me that the
> problem I've described was more likely to happen if I opened and closed
the
> program quickly vs. giving the machine a chance to "rest" after opening or
> closing, before moving on to the next step. Shyam thought that shouldn't
> matter, but my gut tells me that maybe there's some kind of program
routine
> that gets completed (or cut short) that has an impact on what happens. Do
> you think that's possible?
My head says "Shyam's probably right." My gut says "Yeah, but your head's
been wrong before, Steve." ;-)
Any chance you can try the same mix of addins in PowerPoint 2000? It's
nowhere near the fragile flower that XP is.
I'm in and out today, but in any case, I'd rather pursue it here where we
can get input from other folks.
Echo S
> nobody else has run into. I don't think you need to swear off add-ins in
> general, and particularly not Shyam's. Keep in mind that you've got a
> larger than usual number of them installed; that raises the odds against
> you, but most people will never see this sort of problem.
Just wanted to chime in and say that I have what seems a bazillion
addins installed on PPT XP, and I've not seen the kind of instability
you're seeing, Kip. I've got the RnR tools, Shyam's Handout Wizard,
another beta addin of Shyams, Articulate, Presedia, Impatica,
PresentationPro, Wanadu, and others I can't even remember. I disabled
the Acrobat PDF addin a long time ago. I don't have the Crystal Graphics
addin on this machine, either, although I've not seen any problems with
it on a PPT 2000 machine where I messed with its trial version a few
months ago.