PowerPoint Slideshow Error: Server application, source file, or item can't be found

Question

When I double click charts embedded in my PowerPoint slideshow, the following error shows:

The server application, source file, or item can't be found, or returned an unknown error. You may need to reinstall the server application.

I uploaded my file here (1.ppt).

I need to be able to open the embedded charts and edit them. How can I fix the problem and do this?

Solution

The charts are truly embedded (not linked) objects, so there's no question of missing external resources. But it appears that the charts are from Open Office or similar program, so unless you have the source program installed, you won't be able to edit them.

In case anyone's curious about how I arrived at the Open Office guess, I saved the original PPT as a PPTX, tacked a ZIP extension onto the file's name and opened it as a ZIP file. Within the zip, there's an Embeddings folder containing any OLE embedded objects. I dragged one of these out to the desktop and opened in an editor and found text referring to Open Office Chart.

And as @music2myear's mentioned: "Get 7zip and save yourself a step though. You can right-click on any file and extract it using 7zip without having to rename it to a compressible format."

Totally agree. It's free. As long as you're on Windows, not Mac, it's definitely the way to go. It natively understands Office 2007 and onward format files.

Comments

[Ravindra Bawane]

It doesn't sound like your file is corrupted at all. It simply sounds as though you embedded an external resource inside the slideshow and that external resource is no longer available.

[mgae2m]

Of course sir. Yes. Is there. I did update above.

[Steve Rindsberg]

The charts are truly embedded (not linked) objects, so there's no question of missing external resources. But it appears that the charts are from Open Office or similar program, so unless you have the source program installed, you won't be able to edit them.

[Ravindra Bawane]

@SteveRindsberg That sounds like the solution. Once this question is reopened post that as an answer.

[Steve Rindsberg]

@music2myear In case anyone's curious about how I arrived at the Open Office guess, I saved the original PPT as a PPTX, tacked a ZIP extension onto the file's name and opened it as a ZIP file. Within the zip, there's an Embeddings folder containing any OLE embedded objects. I dragged one of these out to the desktop and opened in an editor and found text referring to Open Office Chart. That's as close to "Voila" as I could get. ;-)

[Ravindra Bawane]

Yea, the ...x office file formats make that nice and easy. Get 7zip and save yourself a step though. You can right-click on any file and extract it using 7zip without having to rename it to a compressible format.

[gronostaj]

@SteveRindsberg Please post that as an answer! It deserves my upvote :)

[Steve Rindsberg]

@gronostaj Done! I combined several comments, including music2myear's.