Problems with Organization Chart (OrgChart)

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Office 2002 and earlier include a "mini-app" called OrgChart. When you add an organization chart to a slide, PowerPoint invokes this little OrgChart program which lets you edit your chart right inside PowerPoint.

Office 2002 and up don't include OrgChart. Instead, they have the built-in ability to make organization charts (via Insert, Diagram and choose the organization chart type).

If you run into problems when you try to insert an organization chart or edit an existing one, here are some things to try:

Which version of PowerPoint?
If you're used to PowerPoint 2000 or earlier, you may be surprised when you upgrade to a later version and start working with organization charts. They're quite different in later versions, so take a little time to explore the new features. Note also that the "Automatic layout for inserted objects" setting in Tools, AutoCorrect Options, the AutoFormat As You Type tab may affect the way the chart lays itself out.

You may also run into errors when you use Powerpoint 2002/2003 to edit an org chart created in an earlier version. If so, see The server application, source file, or item can't be found (when editing MSGraph, Excel Charts, Org Charts)

Out of memory errors (PowerPoint 2000 and earlier)
First of all, you're not out of memory, you just have too many fonts. Uninstall some.

If you have more fonts installed than OrgChart can deal with (the exact number varies between computers), OrgChart throws memory error snit fits. 500 installed fonts is pretty much guaranteed to cause problems, but it may not take near that many.

In general, it's best to have fewer than 200 fonts installed.

Be sure to include printer-resident fonts, not just the TrueType and Type1 fonts in your fonts folder, when adding up the total. Some printers, particularly the more sophisticated PostScript ones, may have a huge number of resident fonts. These alone might be enough to terrorize little Orgie. Try switching to a different printer driver, something basic like an HP4 or HP4M/PostScript printer while editing.

If uninstalling fonts doesn't help, locate and delete (or just rename) these two files:

MSOPREFS.232
MSOCLIP.232

These store preference data and settings for Orgchart. You'll find them in your Windows directory. Org Chart will re-create them the next time it starts up.

Because OrgChart may need to write to these files, users will need read/write (but not necessarily delete) permissions.
There's more detailed information and a link to an MS Knowledgebase article with specific repair information here.

For the same reason, you may have trouble inserting organization charts under NT or Windows 2000 if you don't have adminstrator privileges. If that sounds like you, see Cannot Insert an Organization Chart If You Use Windows NT or 2000

GDI errors
If you run into these with OrgChart, see General problem-solving procedures. Specifically, cut back on your system's video hardware accelleration (the FAQ explains how to do this.)

Server Application errors
If you encounter an error message like "The server application, source file, or item cannot be found" when trying to edit or insert an Org Chart object, you should retrieve article Q189692 from Microsoft's Knowledgebase. To learn how to retrieve Kbase articles, see What are these Qxxxxx articles people keep mentioning?

If you get this error only after installing Office XP SP-2, then see The server application, source file, or item can't be found.

Contents © 1995 - 2008 Stephen Rindsberg, Rindsberg Photography, Inc. and members of the MS PowerPoint MVP team. You may link to this page but any form of unauthorized reproduction of this page's contents is expressly forbidden.

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