This is more an FYI than a-give-me-a-solution post. I should have edited ppt from the original ppt in ppt, saved it and re-imported it as a ppt.
Long version - We mostly use EW songs in the EW format. However, we have a ppt of a song that someone made specially for the song, so we like to use it because of the work that went into it. Yesterday's rendition was slightly different than the original, so I edited ppt through EW like we are able to do. I was able to make the edits and save them.
Then I came back to EW, to the panes and was looking at the slides. In my thumbnail preview pane, slide 10 and 11 were ones I had deleted. When I clicked on the left and right arrow to advance the slide, the image to the projector screen was the one I wanted. However, the image in the thumbnail was the one I had deleted. So I took my mouse and clicked on the thumbnail image that was wrong. My mouse circle started spinning, and spinning and spinning. As it didn't seem to be stopping, I opened task manager and force quit EW. That lead to other problems - see post - Saving in EW.
I reopened EW. The ppt advanced fine if I used the arrow keys. It went to the correct image, the one that I had saved. But the thumbnail images were not correct. I just had to have faith that the right thing would show up when I clicked on the arrow key! And it did and worked.
What I should have done - I should have found the original file (IS THERE SOME WAY TO KNOW WHERE THE ORIGINAL PPT FILE IS AFTER I IMPORT IT INTO EW? Other than doing a computer search?), edited it, imported it into EW and used it. Now I know!
I am glad that we can use ppts with EW. We just need to use them with caution!

Beth

Hi!

You might try the beta and see if it will correct the issue.

I am game to try. But beta is beta for a reason, right? I guess I want to know how fast I can go back to the known version, if beta doesn't work in some other area. Would I be able to easily uninstall the beta and re install 6.5 (or whatever it is)?

So far the beta has been very stable and has worked much better for PowerPoint. I don't think you'll find yourself rolling back, but It really is as simple as reinstalling 6.5.5.

I downloaded and installed the beta version. Using this remotely, I edited the ppt from Sunday that gave me fits. It did the circle mouse thing like it wasn't going to save for me. Then the internet went down at my end, so when I got back remotely it was about 10 minutes later and had saved fine. Patience, I guess, is the answer!

The thumbnails were the same as the file was.

I will keep you posted as to what works and what doesn't.