Compatibility Issue with Word Figures Between Word 2010 PC and Word 2016 Mac

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I am collaborating with a Team on creating a report and have found an issue with imported figures. They are working on Word 2010 for PC, are creating the figures in PowerPoint using Excel data and then pasting the figures into the Word document. When I open the file on my Mac, in Word 2016, and double click on the Figure, a pop-up window indicates that "The server application, source file, or item cannot be found. Make sure the application is properly installed, and that it has not been deleted, moved, or renamed."

After I save changes to the Word doc and then double click on a Figure, I get this error message -- "The program used to create this object is PowerPoint. That program is either not installed on your computer or it is not responding.
To edit this object, install PowerPoint or ensure that any dialog boxes in PowerPoint are closed." PowerPoint is installed and open when I perform this action.

When a Team member working on a PC double clicks on a figure from my saved file they get an uneditable picture. Normally, they would double click on the figure and edit the data.

No other significant, or apparent, effects have resulted from this cross-platform collaboration.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated.

TIA,
JBruba
 

chscag

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There's obviously something else going on here since there usually are no compatibility issues when exchanging data between Office for the Mac and Office for the PC. You stated above that the team is creating figures in PP from Excel data and then pasting them into a Word document. (that creates a hidden link) What kind of figures are you referring to? Numeric? Graphic? From your description above of the error, it would appear that Word 2016 is looking for the original application that created the data, (because of the link) not necessarily your copy of PP. And it appears that it's also happening in reverse when you send your saved file back to them. That's just my WAG on what's happening and may be out in left field. ??
 
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chscag, I agree with your observation on the one error message -- it does appear that Word 2016 is looking for the source file. The odd thing is that the error message changes after I save the file on my Mac and that when I return the file to the PC user they can no longer initiate the Figure modification from Word. The figures are all charts and graphs based on Excel data, but created in PowerPoint as they believe the Figures are more presentable that way.
 
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MacInWin

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Where is the excel file being stored? I believe that Word actually links to the spreadsheet rather than keeping the spreadsheet data in the Word doc. Same for PP files with spreadsheet/figures. So if you don't have access to the source documents, you get that error. But then you send it back and the data no longer matches the file, so it blows up again. chscag suggested it was the app, but I suspect it's really the data files that are the culprit here.
 

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