PowerPoint Reinstate export handouts to Microsoft Word
In older versions of PPT (prior to Windows 10, PPT2013 and prior) the function Export Handouts to Microsoft Word worked beautifully. Not so much since these latest upgrades. PPT sends an error message that simply isn't fix-able. "PPT cannot write to Word". The 'HELP' isn't helpful (technicians do not understand the issue and have no reasonable suggestions to overcome it). "Community" offers many suggestions, none of which overcome this. Very frustrating to lose this capability.
Pam Proctor
shared this idea
64 comments
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Michael Kammer
commented
I have a Gigabyte Designare Mobo / 64GB and an I9.
I am trying to export handouts on an 18 page Powerpoint.
On page 4 PowerPoint says PowerPoint couldn't write to Microsoft Word.
As I have 64GB, I do not think memory is the issue.
CPU is running at 18%
I have an NVME M2 drive (1TB).Note, I have been a software and hardware test engineer for years, can I send logs?
Office 365 / Note, I did an on-line repair with the same result. -
Ripple
commented
The export feature worked for a 55 slide deck which was 17 MB. But very slow. One slide had several images. So I sniped it deleted slide and pasted the image the file size was reduced and then it worked fast. When editing the word file the autosave takes a lot of time with blue circle whirling around.
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Becky S
commented
This was working for me yesterday. Today I started getting this message. I have 7 PPTs to make into handouts.
1-Am I really supposed to restart my computer after each one (as MS help says)???
2-Now even restarting isn't working!!!! -
Agnès
commented
it is unbelievable that in 2020 a PPT document (2016 version) with some pictures cannot be exported to Word, unless splitting it in several parts (who has time to do it, seriously?)
very frustrating! Microsoft one more time is out... -
Anonymous
commented
I believe this feature is ESSENTIAL. It is also a reasonable expectation that a modern software suite (let alone the category leader) can export text and graphics from one application to another
I am miffed that I will now do this manually for my 55 slide deck : - (
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Anonymous
commented
Word runs VERY VERY slowly with the powerpoint exports. So slow it's unusable
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Jody Rogers
commented
I'd even be ok with a print feature that let me print the thumbnail with speaker notes (similar to the feature that lets you print up to 3 slides with blanks on a page)
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Anonymous
commented
The problem with exporting of large files by breaking up the slides is that Slide # restarts. Therefore, you have to go back and renumber everything, which is time consuming.
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Anon Y. Mous
commented
All I want is to be able to have my slides AND notes in the same document, i.e., a document different than PPT, but apparently, that is too much to ask of MS. Why would someone not want that feature? Dear MS, you don't have to make the slides in the .doc so complicated--just transfer the text and images. That's all I want. I want the text of my slides and the text of my notes together, but I can't get that. If I copy all the text, the slide text isn't captured. If I go into the slide, the notes aren't captured.
As someone below mentioned, you've known about this at least a year and still haven't fixed it. I'd love a class-action lawsuit, but what would that get me? A letter in the mail saying I'll get five dollars since everybody in the world gets a piece. Will it encourage MS to make their programs work? Probably not. They can afford the lawsuits - they have a monopoly. Apple's too expensive and quite frankly suffers from the same problem: they spend all their time developing features that 0.01% of its uses will ever touch instead of making an easy-to-use basic functionality tool work. They don't care.
If open-source material were reliable, I'd used that instead of either Apple or MS, and if Apple were more affordable and more widely-used, I'd switch to that, ... but all in all, using computers has become way too expensive and way too much a waste of time since the basic things you want don't work or you can't figure out where they are since the "Help" features are totally useless. -
Anonymous
commented
PPT exports only 2/3 of the PPT to Word. When I save the 92 page Word doc to a flash drive and plug it in to a different computer, the Word doc becomes blank.
So frustrated with Office 365. -
Bob Brady
commented
Please fix the problems with this functionality. It is almost useless now. I keep getting the error "ppt can't write to word" and it is incredibly frustrating as it used to work fine.
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Calin Andrews
commented
This issue is widespread and confirmed present on multiple computers. Confirmed it's present with both 32-bit and 64-bit installations of Office 365. The issue is also present regardless of PPT or PPTX file formats.
Confirmed that this issue will occur somewhat regularly even with a brand new PowerPoint file that has nothing but a few blank slides.
Error "PowerPoint cannot write to Word".
It's most definitely NOT a memory or other resource issue. -
Anonymous
commented
This is one of the most frustrating things I've ever encountered...a feature that so many people need and try to use, but is completely unfunctional. Perhaps Microsoft simply doesn't have any programmers bright enough to fix the problem. Maybe it's time for a class auction lawsuit, since we've all paid for this and it hasn't been delivered. Any laywers out there want to help us with this?
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jai Luster
commented
When do you plan to fix this problem? I see that many people have written in and Microsoft has not fixed the bug yet. I use windows 10. I am using an office 2019 version of powerpoint. and have office 2019 version of Microsoft word
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CB
commented
How could you (MS) release something so potentially useful and so badly engineered? It's like the 90's all over again. Sorry for the attitude but memory issues... This isn't finished software. Let me know if you need a repro. (From a former MS FTE).
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David Carpenter
commented
Memory has nothing to do with it. Gaming computer with four small data can't create handouts. Others are saying the same on forums
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Anonymous
commented
Please fix the problems with this functionality. It is almost useless now. I keep getting the error "ppt can't write to word" and it is incredibly frustrating as it used to work fine - granted that was a while ago. I just never had time to contact you about it until now. Just got off the phone with the helpdesk who basically said "sorry. no good workarounds." Not good. This is a very important feature that doesn't work. Please fix!!
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Anonymous
commented
I experience the same issue. After latest upgrade handout creation sometimes stops before any slide is written to Word.
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E Travis
commented
I have been dealing with this problem for many years!. Why can't Microsoft fix this once and for all. It is an essential feature for those of us using powerpoint to create courseware.
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Anonymous
commented
Agree. The loss of this function is a huge drawback. Please fix this issue. Q? Why is memory an issue with Office 365 but not Office 2013 desktop? I don't want to restart my computer multiple times or split my presentation into smaller chunks to export to handouts and then have to merge them in word. This suggested work around is not reasonable when Instructional Designers have been able to do this quickly and efficiently in earlier versions of Office. Please escalate this issue. Thank you.
