[v7 General Discussion] PowerPoint process freezes

We’ve been having issues the last couple of weeks with EasyWorship not transitioning from the last song to the PowerPoint file that has our ads and sermon notes. I have to have our PowerPoint person kill EasyWorship and the PowerPoint process in task manager and relaunch to get the presentations to show. Anyone have any idea of how to resolve this? Switching to the presentation builder in EasyWorship isn’t an option since the files are built off site by a volunteer and emailed.



Windows 10

EasyWorship 7

Office 2016

Are you using powerpoint PPT files and not PPTX? We found this was an issue.
You will need to create a ticket so that we can help you. Here is a link https://support.easyworship.com/support/tickets/new]Create a ticket
allanb - We are using .pptx files, but still having the issues.



Terry - Sorry for the delay, I'll get the ticket running.
Try using .PPT files. They work better for a lot of people.



As for someone creating them offsite and emailing them to you, that person can install EW on their computer, export the presentation file, then email that to you. We do that a lot.
If the file is being emailed to you or you are downloading it from any internet source, make sure you unblock the file before using it. Right click the file, click properties and click the unblock option so that Windows doesn't think it's unsafe.
This exact same thing just happened to me, testing a new schedule. 4 songs and then a PPTX using viewer since the full program didn't work a few days ago. The songs display fine, but EW (7.1.4.0) absolutely will not transition to the Powerpoint slides. So I closed down EW and tried it again using the full Powerpoint program and experienced the same exact result. Then I tried opening Powerpoint by itself and now it will not open. I am using Office 365. What am I doing wrong?
When you closed EW did you also go into Task Manager and shut down ALL instances of PowerPoint and/or PPT Viewer? If you didn't there are probably multiple instances if PPT or Viewer hanging in the background that would prevent EW running a PPT and even PPT running a PPT.



Several people (including myself) have found that opening a new PPT in actual PPT on the EW display computer first and re saving it to the EW computer prior to opening it in EW solves a lot of problems, especially if there are font issues. We used to have a problem where our Church secretary would create a PPT on her computer using a font (or fonts) not installed on the EW computer. When opened in PPT on the EW computer it would alert us to the missing fonts (even tho we had saved with fonts). We would add the missing font or change it in the PPT prior to opening in EW and everything worked fine. If we opened it in EW first, the alert pop up would be hidden and no one would see it. This caused the PPT to not load or display.



Also check that there aren't multiple instances of MS Office/PPT installed on the computer. EW is sensitive to that tho I can't remember all of the technical details.
Thanks Rvadon,



I am only using one laptop for everything. There is no transfer of the file from one user/computer/device to another.



I actually re-booted the laptop before opening EW and then it proceeded to display the first slide.



So, I took the laptop to church last night and repeated the process. When it was time do display the sermon slides....nothing. So we closed EW and tried just opening the file in Powerpoint, but Powerpoint would not open. Rebooted the laptop, but since there is no wifi at the church I'm guessing that Covenant Eyes and maybe other programs didn't like not having connectivity and the File Explorer would not even open the PPT file. This morning I force rebooted it again and after rebooting it opened up Powerpoint on it's own, as if it were holding on to that command from before. So there is something really wrong between EW and PPT on my laptop.



The laptop is an HP Envy 360 Core i7 Win 10 x64 machine.
This morning I ran Microsoft's Office uninstall tool and then had it re-install Office 365. The tool showed two instances of the software, so I selected one to uninstall. After the uninstall and re-install now it shows just one. So hopefully this helps PPT play better with EW. I realize this is not a simple task for EW to accomplish, but without PPT integration there would be a fairly significant loss of value in the program. There is no way all the presentations can be built within EW. If EW had a reliable way to convert PPT presentations to EW presentations, without losing functionality of the original presentation, that might be a helpful feature.
What PowerPoint features would you need in the EasyWorship Presentation editor to be able to say goodbye to PowerPoint?
Animations for one. More and better built in transitions. WordArt. My Church secretary could list another 50 or more things that PPT can do that EW Presentations can't. EW Presentations are fine for something simple. But for a professional, fully developed slide show you need PPT.



So basically the 90% of PowerPoint that isn't available in EW Presentations.
What features would help me say goodbye to PP?



I am not sure yet, because I am dipping my toes into EW7 for the first time. I was a long time user of EW prior to EW6, so creating EW presentations is not something I have really used. The biggest problem I see is that most people use PP. Most guest speakers are going to arrive with a PP presentation. I could be wrong, but I don't see most pastors installing EW so they can create presentations, when they already have a tool that works for them. I personally don't care to see presentations full of wild transitions and flying text, etc--but others do. (Occasionally those effects can be helpful, however.) Complete control over text placement, size, font, etc. within the presentation, not having to follow a set template would be helpful. When I create a presentation I use blank slides, I don't follow the PP templates.



Thanks for asking.
It sounds like for your standard weekly announcements and even sermon slides you could use EasyWorship and have PowerPoint functional in the event someone comes in with a PowerPoint for a funeral or a guest speaker has a PowerPoint. Converting PowerPoints to EW presentations is on our radar. I just wanted to see if there was something specific you needed that was in PowerPoint and not the EasyWorship presentation editor. The EasyWorship 7 presentation editor will do what you are describing.
Glad to know converting PPT to EW presentations is on the radar. I'm guessing that the ability to export EW presentations as PPT presentations would also be on the radar? The beauty of PPT is that (for the most part) you can take the presentation with you to another location (church, etc) and it will work, especially if it is exported via "Package Presentation for CD."