I'd like to talk to the PM at Microsoft that approved this feature. This has to be the lamest, stupidest thing I've seen in a Microsoft product in a while. What were you thinking?
I opened a Powerpoint presentation that was saved 18 months ago. I immediately see a message I've not seen before.
"This presentation cannot be edited because it contains a read-only embedded font."
the full issue can be read here:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;827405
The problem stems from Powerpoint determining that my computer doesn't have a license for one of the embedded fonts. I don't have any problems with Microsoft preventing me from using unlicensed material. No, that's not it. It's the way Powerpoint prevents me from doing anything intelligent with my document. Yes, a document that I wrote. Not something that was written by another author, not one that I found on the Internet. No da**it, it's my presentation.
How lame you ask?
- The document is read only - so I can't edit it
- I cannot copy any of the slides to the clipboard so I can't move my content to another document
- I cannot change the font because the document is locked.
- All the fonts in the document are ' Windows standard' fonts. Arial, Arial Black, Courier New, Times New Roman.
Point #3 is particularly stupid. I cannot change the font to a licensed version and then save the document. And I have legal copies of the fonts anyway. Seems like a bug to me. Lame, lame, lame.
I suspect this happen after installing the Office SP1
Quotes from other frustrated customers
Justin Woodson on Google News puts it this way.
The infuriating thing is that this renders any such file as not-editable. I purchased some fonts and thought i was using them legally, but much to my dismay I discovered that these fonts had only "print and preview embedding rights". the vast majority of my work is now completely unusable due to mandatory software upgrades at work with no apparent way to salvage the files. this problem occurs in spite of installing these very same fonts on the computer properly!! (contrary to what MS's help files are saying)
Or read this thread over at http://www.officefrustration.com/q-t_91585-PowerPoint-2003-Embedded-Fonts-problem.html
Quote from Muppet
I have this problem with presentations I created in ppt 2002, even though I only used the STANDARD Windows fonts: Arial, Arial Black,
Verdana, Times New Roman & Comic Sans MS. They're all present/installed on the PC I'm using. According to MS's font properties extension, all these have "installable embedding allowed". So does this new 2003 'enhancement' have bugs ??? & yes I have run office update & got the SP1 and the ppt critical update