Arrow keys don't work in slide view mode in powerpoint

To help us reproduce this strange keyboard issue and track down the cause, could all of you please answer the following questions and send me an email in your convenience ?  

(1) What's your Mac model, OS version ?

(2) What slideshow mode you were using ( Presenter Mode or Mirrored Mode) ?

(3) Were your Mac connected to an external display or projector ?

(4) Were you using a USB presentation remote ?

(5) Were you using gfxCardStatus ?

(6) Were your Mac connected to network then ?

(7) How long you have to idle to reproduce the issue

(8) Have you installed any PowerPoint add-on ?

(9) Have you seen any notfication popup or alert (such as ones from OutLook or Calendar) during the slide show

(10) What's your Mac's Screensaver and energy saving settings ?

(11) Were you using "Growl"  ?

(12) Were you using "DropBox"  ?

(13) When running into this keyboard issue, try first click the slide using mouse. Will doing so solve the keyboard issue ?

(14) Was your Mac on battery or plugged ?

(15) How long PowerPoint has been running ?

Many thanks and really sorry for all the inconveniences.  Really wish you could take some time to answer above questions. It will help us a lot. Somehow we are not able to reproduce this strange KeyBoard focus losing issue.

I am a professional presenter, and this issue is perplexing, given its sporadic and impossible to predict nature. I will attempt to answer some of your questions:

1. The issue appears when using a new retina MacBook Pro purchased last August and running Mountain Lion. It also appears for me using a three-year-old MacBook Pro running Lion.
2. The issue arises in both Presenter Mode and Mirrored Mode
3. The issue arose when connected to an Infocus projector that I have used successfully for over two years. It is  a projector I own. The issue arises under all types of cable connections, including a USB connector cable, VGA,  and HDMI.
4. The issue appears both when using a remote and when using the arrow keys without a connected remote.
5. Not used.

6.Not connected to network.

7. Varies. Sometimes appears when minimal idle, e.g. under 30 seconds. However, I cannot reproduce the freeze when quickly running through programs I have used for several years. So it definitely relates to idle times
8. No add-ons,
9. No notifications or pop-ups during presentation.
10. All were initially set as default. However, I lengthened both, and the issue still appears. Therefore, it seems unrelated to screensaver and energy saver settings.
11. Not using Growl.
12. Not using Dropbox.
13. Have not tried this. Will not attempt in any future presentations, as this issue has become too embarrassing before live audiences. I will try this at home under varying idle times to see if I can replicate the issue.
14. Plugged in; not on battery
15. At least 30 minutes. Issue appears under various idle times and is totally erratic. I had four separate freezes yesterday morning using a 120-slide presentation in a one-hour time period.

Further comment. Presentations have all worked perfectly many times in recent months, using the same devices but prior to the 14.3.1 update. That update screwed PowerPoint! No other operating system updates or system modifications were made to either laptop.

I transferred the files to my retina iPad and IPhone 5 using the SlideShark app. The presentations run fine on both devices in that mode.

All presentations run fine without freezes using Keynote. This issue is most definitely a 14.3.1 update issue but is virtually impossible to replicate. Each time, presentations halt at different slides and at differing idle times when running under PowerPoint. This is truly a crazy issue

A quick work-around for me was to disconnect the cable to the projector. PowerPoint then reverted to normal mode. When re-connected to the projector and reset to Slide Show mode, slide advances would be possible until the next random keyboard freeze. And this occurs whether using an attached remote or just using the keyboard arrow keys.

There is a lot of info about this issue on various Apple and other forums.

I hope this helps. Please reply soon. Assuming you work for Microsoft!!

To help us reproduce this strange keyboard issue and track down the cause, could all of you please answer the following questions and send me an email in your convenience ?  

(1) What's your Mac model, OS version ?

(2) What slideshow mode you were using ( Presenter Mode or Mirrored Mode) ?

(3) Were your Mac connected to an external display or projector ?

(4) Were you using a USB presentation remote ?

(5) Were you using gfxCardStatus ?

(6) Were your Mac connected to network then ?

(7) How long you have to idle to reproduce the issue

(8) Have you installed any PowerPoint add-on ?

(9) Have you seen any notfication popup or alert (such as ones from OutLook or Calendar) during the slide show

(10) What's your Mac's Screensaver and energy saving settings ?

(11) Were you using "Growl"  ?

(12) Were you using "DropBox"  ?

(13) When running into this keyboard issue, try first click the slide using mouse. Will doing so solve the keyboard issue ?

(14) Was your Mac on battery or plugged ?

(15) How long PowerPoint has been running ?

Many thanks and really sorry for all the inconveniences.  Really wish you could take some time to answer above questions. It will help us a lot. Somehow we are not able to reproduce this strange KeyBoard focus losing issue.

Problem came with installation of Version 14.3.1 update. Loads of info on this in various forums.

Inserting summary found on another board. Note that the issue has nothing to do with use of a remote. It's a Microsoft software issue.

guitarzanmartin

Re: Bluetooth remote freezing with PowerPoint on MacBook Pro while idling

Feb 21, 2013 8:28 PM (in response to semspeaker)

Below is a summary of discussion on PowerPoint freezing issue!

"Freezing" of PowerPoint has been observed:

1. with MacBook Pro or iMac computers
2. with Mac OS Mountain Lion or Mac OS Snow Leopard
3. with MS Office 2008 or MS Office 2011
4. with or without updating Mac OS or MS Office software (I not absolutely sure on this one...)
5. with or without BlueTooth remotes (i.e. keyboard arrow keys also freeze!!!)
6. with or without an external monitor or LCD projector
7. with "Presenter View" or "Mirror Show"

and that

1. responders in this thread have observed the "freezing" issue around the same time (~February 7, 2013).
2. responders express they have been using MS Office 2008 and 2011 for years without freezing problems, prior to this freezing issue.
3. some responders to this thread cannot induce "freezing" of PowerPoint on Mac computers, just as I have observed on 2 of the 4 Mac computers described below.
4. The freezing issue appears to be "random" as to how long the time interval is between freezing events.
5. When frozen, the arrows on the bottom of "Presenter View" are the only active control with mouse.
6. the "Escape" button will not allow you to exit program in "Presenter View"
7. the "Exit Show" button in "Presenter View" unfreezes program, but also exits presentation.
8. in "Mirror Show," a click of the mouse/touchpad in unfreezes program without exiting presentation.
9. thus far, Apple and MS don't know what is wrong and that both blame the other for the issue.
10. lastly, I have had 3 IT colleagues from my department (all PC experts, not Mac) work on this issue without success.

Freezing in my observation is based on 4 different Mac computers (1 iMac, and 3 MacBook Pros), all running OS 10.6.8 with MS Office 2011, with or without a BlueTooth remote, and with or without an external monitor or LCD projector (I have observed both). However, in 2 of the above computers I was unable to observe freezing, but only spent about 2 hours on each of these (have not been able to use these again as of yet). Conversely, the 2 computers that I have observed freezing on also have had periods where I could run them for 2 hours without freezing! Originally, I thought it was an "idling" problem, but now I have observed freezing in less than a minute. It would appear to be almost random in nature, except the longer you leave it "idling" it usually increases the chance of freezing. Today, I was using my MacBook Pro in teaching a class (2 hours) with very little idling time (i.e. I was changing slides within 30 seconds to about 4 minutes maximum) and it froze about 6 times, some of those occurred within 30 seconds of the last one).

Absolutely baffling!!!

Really sorry for all the inconveniences.

Yes, it seems DropBox is not the root cause of the keyboard issue and it starts to appear since 14.3 update. It has been reported that 14.2.3 doesn't suffer this issue. We are investigating on the root cause.

As for the transition issue, it's specific to Mac with NVidia video card and running Mountain Lion. It seems to be a Nvidia OpenGL Mountain Lion driver bug. This issue has been reported to Apple.

In next update, there should be a patch for working around this transition issue (may still need NVidia's driver bug fix to fully address the issue though)

ChengLEI's comment misses the point. This issue arose specifically after the 14.3.1 update. The issue appears under several previous Mac operating systems and on various Apple devices.

The files open and run perfectly in Keynote. These are older PowerPoint presentations that ran fine for years prior to 14.3.1!

ChengLEI's posting was dated Feb 26th, but Microsoft has been silent since that time. Now dozens of users are posting comments in various forums describing the same issue. Please update us as to what is being done. Just Google the issue to find all the related forum postings.

It is really annoying to find that one has to do a totally fresh install of Office for Mac 2011 without updates to resolve this issue.

To help us reproduce this strange keyboard issue and track down the cause, could all of you please answer the following questions and send me an email in your convenience ?  

(1) What's your Mac model, OS version ?

(2) What slideshow mode you were using ( Presenter Mode or Mirrored Mode) ?

(3) Were your Mac connected to an external display or projector ?

(4) Were you using a USB presentation remote ?

(5) Were you using gfxCardStatus ?

(6) Were your Mac connected to network then ?

(7) How long you have to idle to reproduce the issue

(8) Have you installed any PowerPoint add-on ?

(9) Have you seen any notfication popup or alert (such as ones from OutLook or Calendar) during the slide show

(10) What's your Mac's Screensaver and energy saving settings ?

(11) Were you using "Growl"  ?

(12) Were you using "DropBox"  ?

(13) When running into this keyboard issue, try first click the slide using mouse. Will doing so solve the keyboard issue ?

(14) Was your Mac on battery or plugged ?

(15) How long PowerPoint has been running ?

Many thanks and really sorry for all the inconveniences.  Really wish you could take some time to answer above questions. It will help us a lot. Somehow we are not able to reproduce this strange KeyBoard focus losing issue.