powerpoint doesn't work in big sur

@Bill Lee

Please give the following information:

1. The version of your PowerPoint.
   You can check it via PowerPoint menu>About Microsoft PowerPoint.
2. Does this issue occur when opening PowerPoint on another Mac that has the same operating system?
3. Is there any error message? If there is, please give the screenshot.

After checking the information above, I suggest you to update Office.
Updating Office to the latest version may repair this issue.

If it doesn’t work, please uninstall Office completely and then reinstall it.

If you have any updates, please let us know.

—————————————Update————————————

More information about uninstalling Office for mac, maybe you could refer to “Troubleshoot Office for Mac issues by completely uninstalling before you reinstall”.

If possible, maybe you could create a new account to have a test.

If issue still occurs, please try rebooting Mac in safe mode, this helps you check if this issue is caused by incompatible login items or others.
Note: Microsoft is providing the two information as a convenience to you. The sites are not controlled by Microsoft. Microsoft cannot make any representations regarding the quality, safety, or suitability of any software or information found there. Please make sure that you completely understand the risk before retrieving any suggestions from the above link.

Regards,
Erin

If an Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

@Erin Ding-MSFT
I can't even bring up the about box on the powerpoint, but my MS Word and Excel version is 16.43 (20110804). It's part of the same office installation so I assume powerpoint is on the same version. I only have this mac and was recently upgraded to Big Sur. Powerpoint was working before the upgrade. There is no error messages. Nothing happens.

@Erin Ding-MSFT
I just tried re-installing it by downloading the installer from my subscription in office.com. It did not fix the issue. How do I uninstall it other than moving the app to trash?

@Erin Ding-MSFT
I actually worked with support on this. We went through a number of things including removing and reinstalling office completely (which caused me to lose all my local emails!) and it's still not working. The only way to get it to work is to boot into safe mode. So, some software is having a conflict. I don't know how to help diagnose any longer. MSFT support seems to be eager to close the ticket, which I am not sure why because obviously the issue is not resolved. Maybe the technician gets judged by closed tickets... I am at a lost and don't know how to get it to work. Hopefully MSFT will come up with a fix soon.

@Bill Lee

Sorry for the inconvenience.

According to your description, the issue doesn’t occur when using safe mode on your Mac.

There may be something wrong with startup items. Apps can install such items in numerous places, and they aren't always easy to find or recognize. For that reason, please make sure that you've installed any available updates for your Apple software and third-party apps.

If updating your software doesn't help, please try any of these following solutions:
• Test your login items.
• To learn whether software in your user account is causing the issue, set up a new user account, then log in to it and try to reproduce the issue in that account.
• Unplug all accessories from your Mac, including printers, drives, USB hubs, and other nonessential devices. You could have an issue with one or more of those devices or their cables.
Note: Microsoft is providing the above information as a convenience to you. The sites are not controlled by Microsoft. Microsoft cannot make any representations regarding the quality, safety, or suitability of any software or information found there. Please make sure that you completely understand the risk before retrieving any suggestions from the above link.

If an Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.
Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.