When you run a slide show in Microsoft PowerPoint, the slide show pauses for a long time. This issue occurs when you start the slide show or when you change slides in the slide show. Additionally, media objects or pictures in the presentation may not play or may not be displayed.

This issue may occur if one of the following conditions is true:

• The presentation contains media objects, such as movies or sounds, that are linked from a network drive. Additionally, the computer that is running the slide show is no longer connected to the network. In this scenario, PowerPoint tries to access these linked files on the network drive and then times out.
  
  Some media objects, such as movies and some kinds of sound files, cannot be embedded into a PowerPoint presentation. Instead, PowerPoint creates a link to the file and then loads the file when you run the slide show.
• The presentation was created in Microsoft PowerPoint 4.0 or in Microsoft PowerPoint 95. Additionally, some of the pictures in the presentation were inserted as objects. Some kinds of pictures, for example, JPEG pictures, were not supported in these earlier versions of PowerPoint.
  
  These unsupported pictures are treated as media objects. Therefore, PowerPoint tries to access the original picture files to play them although the pictures are not true media objects. Then, PowerPoint times out.
• The next slide in the slide show contains many objects and pictures. Additionally, the pictures are at a higher resolution than what is required for on-screen display. The combination of the multiple elements and the high resolution requires more time to prepare the initial view of the slide so that the slide is fully formed when it is displayed.

If any one of these conditions is true, the slide show pauses for a long time and then continues without error.

To resolve this issue, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: If media objects in the presentation reside on a network

To resolve this issue if the files for the media objects reside on a network, use one of the following methods:

• Delete the media objects from the presentation.
• Connect to the network on which the media objects reside.
• Copy the media files to the local hard disk, and then delete the media objects from the presentation. Then, insert the media files into the presentation from the local hard disk.

Method 2: If pictures were inserted as objects

To resolve this issue if pictures in the presentation were inserted as objects, follow these steps:

1. Select the picture object.
2. On the Edit menu, click Cut.
   
   Note In Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, click Cut in the Home menu in the Clipboard section.
3. On the Edit menu, click Paste Special.
   
   In PowerPoint 2007, click the carrot under Paste, and then click Paste Special on the Home menu.
4. Click Picture (JPEG) or Picture (PNG), and then click OK.

Method 3: If a slide contains many objects and pictures

To resolve this issue if a slide contains many objects and pictures, either compress the pictures for on-screen display, or convert multiple objects or drawing objects into a single image.

Compress the pictures for on-screen display

To compress the pictures in your presentation, follow these steps:

1. Select one or more pictures on a slide.
2. On the Picture toolbar, click Compress Picture.
   
   In PowerPoint 2007, click Compress Pictures under Picture Tools on the Format tab in the Adjust group.
3. Click either Selected pictures or All pictures in document.
4. Click Web/Screen.
5. Click to select the Compress pictures check box.
6. Click to select the Delete cropped areas of pictures check box.
   
   Note When you click to select the Delete cropped areas of pictures check box, the parts of the picture that were hidden when you cropped the picture are discarded.
7. Click OK, and then click Apply.

Convert multiple objects or drawing objects into a single image

To convert multiple objects or drawing objects into a single image, follow these steps:

1. On the Drawing toolbar, click Select Objects.
   
   Note To display the Drawing toolbar, point to Toolbars on the View menu, and then click Drawing.
2. To select multiple objects, press and hold the CTRL key, and then click the objects that you want to select.
   
   In PowerPoint 2007, click Select in the Home menu in the Editing section, and then click Select All.
3. With the items selected, click Cut on the Edit menu.
   
   In PowerPoint 2007, click Cut in the Home menu in the Clipboard section.
4. Click Paste Special on the Edit menu, and then click one of the picture selections from the dialog box.
   
   In PowerPoint 2007, click the carrot under Paste in the Home menu, and click Paste Special.
   
   Note You may have to reposition the pasted image because the image appears in the center of the slide.