How to copy powerpoint sections to a new presentation using VBA - vba

Question

We typically use powerpoint to facilitate our experiments. We use "sections" in powerpoint to keep groups of slides together for each experimental task. Moving the sections to counterbalance the task order of the experiment has been a lot of work!
I thought we might be able to predefine a counterbalance order (using a string of numbers representing the order) in a CSV or array (haven't built that out yet in VBA). Then using VBA to move the sections and save the file for each order. I am pretty rusty using VBA but I think I have a pretty good start. The problem is on line 24. I have no idea how to copy the section to the new presentation. Is anyone familiar enough to steer me down the right path.
Sub Latin_Square()
Dim amountOfSubjects As Integer
'Declare the amount of subjects you have in your study
amountOfSubjects = 14
Dim filePath As String
filePath = "C:/1.pptx"
Dim amountofsections As Integer
Dim i As Integer
Dim fso As Object
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Dim desktopPath As String
'find out where user's desktop is
desktopPath = Environ("UserProfile") & "\Desktop\"
Dim oldPresentation As Presentation
Dim newPresentation As Presentation
'open the target presentation
Set oldPresentation = Presentations.Open("C:\1.pptx")
For i = 1 To oldPresentation.Slides.Count
oldPresentation.Slides.Item(i).Copy
newPresentation.Item(1).Slides.Paste
Next i
oldPresentation.Close
With newPresentation
.SaveCopyAs _
FileName:=fso.BuildPath(desktopPath, "Test" & 1 & ".pptx"), _
FileFormat:=ppSaveAsOpenXMLPresentation
End With
End Sub

Answer 1

If you want to copy slides with their sections, then you can not paste the slide by newPresentation.Slides.Paste only, as that moves the section of the last slide to the newly pasted slide.
Here's an example how to copy slide-by-slide, check if a slide is the beginning of a section, and how to add a new section then:
Public Sub CopySlidesWithSections()
Dim oldPresentation As Presentation, newPresentation As Presentation
Dim oldSlide As Slide, newSlide As Slide
Dim oldSectionProperties As SectionProperties, newSectionProperties As SectionProperties
Dim i As Integer
Set oldPresentation = ActivePresentation
Set oldSectionProperties = oldPresentation.SectionProperties
Set newPresentation = Application.Presentations.Add
Set newSectionProperties = newPresentation.SectionProperties
For Each oldSlide In oldPresentation.Slides
oldSlide.Copy
' Would lead to wrong sectioning: Set newSlide = newPresentation.Slides.Paste.Item(1)
Set newSlide = newPresentation.Slides.Paste(newPresentation.Slides.Count + 1).Item(1)
For i = 1 To oldSectionProperties.Count
If oldSectionProperties.FirstSlide(i) = oldSlide.SlideIndex Then
newSectionProperties.AddBeforeSlide _
newSlide.SlideIndex, _
oldSectionProperties.Name(i)
Exit For
End If
Next i
Next oldSlide
End Sub