SOLVED Bootable usb for Powerpoint & Keynote

[Jaygon]

I have late-2013 iMac running 10.15.7. I also have office:mac 2008 which I have used until recent upgrade to Catalina. I have number of presentations in both powerpoint (created in office:mac 2008) and Keynote (created in Catalina and earlier osx versions) but keynote does not properly export ppt or pptx files OR current versions oif powerpoint do not properly read the exported files. Eg, backgrounds can be problem moving from keynote to powerpoint.
So... I wonder if I should setup a bootable usb for osx version that office:mac 2008 is happy with (I believe 10.4.9 is ok) and then be able to use both formats as required by different situations in which the presentations are made (windows or mac).
Just to confuse me further I understand that google slides may be an althernative but I know nothing about that option as yet.
Thanks for your advice/suggestions/etc.
Cheers

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

Yes, you could setup an external drive or USB flash drive to startup from with an older version of OS X/macOS to use Microsoft Office 2008 with. An iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013) supports OS X 10.9 Mavericks through macOS 10.15.7 Catalina, but it doesn't support Mac OS X 10.4.9 Tiger.

Microsoft Office 2008 supports Mac OS X 10.4.9 Tiger through macOS 10.14.6 Mojave (from what I can find).

You could try the Google Docs Editors suite, as it is free if you have a Google account. But, it also has some conversion issues with PowerPoint to Google Slides like Keynote does.

The most compatible solution would be to purchase a newer version of Microsoft Office, as it can open all versions of the Office files, and you wouldn't have to restart to use the older OS and Office applications. In addition, Microsoft no longer supports Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac or older, so you still may run into some issues.

C

 

[Jaygon]

Hello,

Yes, you could setup an external drive or USB flash drive to startup from with an older version of OS X/macOS to use Microsoft Office 2008 with. An iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013) supports OS X 10.9 Mavericks through macOS 10.15.7 Catalina, but it doesn't support Mac OS X 10.4.9 Tiger.

Microsoft Office 2008 supports Mac OS X 10.4.9 Tiger through macOS 10.14.6 Mojave (from what I can find).

You could try the Google Docs Editors suite, as it is free if you have a Google account. But, it also has some conversion issues with PowerPoint to Google Slides like Keynote does.

The most compatible solution would be to purchase a newer version of Microsoft Office, as it can open all versions of the Office files, and you wouldn't have to restart to use the older OS and Office applications. In addition, Microsoft no longer supports Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac or older, so you still may run into some issues.

C

Thanks again for your help & advice Cory. This confirms my understanding but it is a bit disappointing that there does not seem to be a better way of converting between the 2. I very much like Keynote since starting to use it but also miss some of the Powerpoint features. That may simply be due to a greater familiarity with PPT over the years. Maybe this old f... will just have to learn more. Thanks again. Cheers