You receive a "PowerPoint can't open the type of file" error message when you open a PowerPoint 2003 or PowerPoint 2002 presentation in an earlier version of PowerPoint (285497)

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to open a Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 or Microsoft PowerPoint 2002 presentation in any previous version of PowerPoint, you may receive an error message similar to one of the following

PowerPoint can't open the type of file represented by path/filename.

PowerPoint can't read path/filename.

and the file is not opened as expected.

NoteIf you are sure that the presentation was not created or edited in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 or Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, your presentation is likely damaged, and this article will not apply to your situation. In this case, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge base for help.

207377 How to troubleshoot damaged PowerPoint 2000 presentations

CAUSE

This behavior occurs when you attempt to open password-protected PowerPoint 2003 or PowerPoint 2002 files in any earlier version of PowerPoint or the PowerPoint Viewer.

PowerPoint 2002 was the first version of PowerPoint for Microsoft Windows to implement password protection for presentations. Because earlier versions of PowerPoint do not have this capability, they are unable to open any password-protected presentations.

WORKAROUND

To work around this issue, follow these steps:

In PowerPoint 2003 or PowerPoint 2002, open the presentation, type the password, and then click OK.
On the Tools menu, click Options.
On the Security tab, delete all the text in the Password to open box, and then click OK.