1

I am trying to embed a PDF into a PowerPoint slide. I get the following error message:

The server application, source file, or item can't be found, or returned an unknown error. You may need to reinstall the server application.

enter image description here

enter image description here

I use Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013 with Windows 7 SP1 x64 Ultimate.

I am aware of the Microsoft help page:

  • I do have enough memory
  • The path name of a linked file does not exceed 128 characters
  • The linked object is not open by any other program
  • I have the same issue with all of the PDFs I have tried to embed

What other issue could it be?

Note that I don't have the issue when checking the "Link" option:

enter image description here

Improve this question
1
  • The message refers to an OLE server (usually provided by Adobe Reader or Acrobat), because that’s what the embed function uses. It’s not like mail attachments.
    – Daniel B
    Jan 28, 2015 at 21:16

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
1

I have the same issue. You may can get around this by

  • Open your Adobe Reader X.
  • Click Edit located on upper left side of the toolbar.
  • Click Preferences.
  • The Preferences window will appear on your screen. Select General Category from the right left pane.
  • Tick or Untick the Enable Protected Mode at Startup checkbox to enable or disable the feature.

Have a look here

It unfortunately only worked on one of my machines. Still there are two test machines having that exact problem where this fix doesn't apply.

Improve this answer
5
  • I don't get your point David. You are complaining that this isn't a valid answer but a comment but you don't say why, please shed some light. In several blogs this answer is considered a valid approach to solve the problem described by the questioner. When you have a better, I am happy to read it. As you can see this approach unluckily doesn't work for me.
    – Holger Leichsenring
    Jun 16, 2015 at 8:00
  • "It unfortunately didnt help me." is why. It's like saying "Somebody said try this. It might work. But I'm not sure.". You cannot be sure it is a correct answer for the OP. That's why I think it should be a comment.
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Jun 16, 2015 at 8:09
  • "That's why I think" is much different from your first comment. I would have appreciated this more polite version in the first run. Let's say I partly understand your opinion. Have a look [stackoverflow.com/questions/19252993/… and here [answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2007-powerpoint/…. You can find that answer in multiple places, considered as the solution to the problem.
    – Holger Leichsenring
    Jun 16, 2015 at 8:36
  • It worked on one of my machines but not on all. That's why I guess it is a possible solution for the questioner. Adding a hint that this may not be successful because I am also still trying to solve the same issue on two other machines is fair from my point of view and doesn't turn the answer into a comment.
    – Holger Leichsenring
    Jun 16, 2015 at 8:37
  • OK. Then please edit you answer to include "It worked on one of my machines but not on all." and I will delete the first comment. Note the first comment is just a "standard" comment ...
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Jun 16, 2015 at 8:43
1

Coming in a bit late, but on my box, I had to both turn off "Enable Protected Mode at Startup" and make Acrobat Reader the default program to open PDF files. By default on my system it was Acrobat Pro, which apparently prevented embedding.

Improve this answer
1

The workaround to this would be to try the following steps on Power Point :

Insert - Object - Create new and choose "Package" as the object type in the drop down - Browse the file and insert.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .