I am currently working on creating a template for a business presentation.
After the current client's name is written in the starting slide I want to be able to take it and place it on X amount of slides later created via a template, so that manual entry is almost completely reduced (this is a prerequest for the task).
Is it possible to create a macro so that it either edits the template slides after the needed information is written on the 1st slide or that it controls all the user created slides and labels afterwards?
What you're after is possible so long as the user can either install an add-in that you've written to do the job or open a file that you've saved as a PPTM rather than PPTX (ie, one with macros/vba included).
Related
So what my client wants to accomplish seems pretty simple. We will have PPTX file template with a few Excel sheets embedded in it, and a few charts too.
We have created such template file. We are able to extract it, update excel files that sit in ppt/embedded directory with new ones, and pack it back.
The problem is, the display values of the tables or charts do not update automatically when such file is opened. You have to double click on a spreadsheet table or chart to trigger "edit mode". When you leave it the charts are updated.
We figured that internally, PowerPoint is doing screenshots of tables or charts, and uses it to display presentation. This is probably to allow presentation players that do not come with Excel to correctly render the presentation with embedded sheets.
Is there a way I can programatically update the screenshots of tables/charts? Is there some sort of API from Microsoft that would allow me to do that, like "MS Office API".
Maybe there is some way to have MS office configured/scripted, so I send it a file, it runs a VB script on it and returns updated value? I figured I can actually trigger update to screenshots with VB script. But I don't know if I can orchestrate Office program to do what I want.
Help? :)
I have been tasked with updating a spreadsheet that produces a report by replacing text in a template. Previously, the worksheet referenced an outside/separate file-- my job is to get it working in an embedded document.
I currently have text form fields for every input I want to insert within the embedded document template. As it stands, users can edit the document template however they like, but if they accidentally erase a text form field (again, where text is replaced via the vba macro) then it will break the macro and the spreadsheet will be useless.
My question:
Is there some way to lock or protect text form fields such that the rest of the document is editable? I essentially want to have the inverse of a "text form field only" protection.
Alternatively, is there a better way to approach this project? I'm thinking of leaving the spreadsheet as is, but including a "reset" button bringing the template back to it's original state if anything breaks. If I did this method, this would require there NOT to be an external file. Attempts to do this so far have proven unsuccessful.
My general methodology/algorithm goes as follows:
Open the reference document
Replace all the text form fields via bookmarks with plain text,
making sure to reassign the bookmarks afterward (so as to not lose
them if they run the macro more than once).
Save the embedded document as a .doc with the inputs inserted
Replace all bookmarked inputs with text form fields to return the
template to its original state
Any information would be IMMENSELY appreciated. I am slowly running out of time and am feeling stuck.
Many thanks!
-Sooji
Powerpoint file is actually a zip file that contains xml sub-files. These sub-files illustrate all the properties of objects of every slides (e.g., position, color, animation, etc.). You can convert the pptx file into zip file and unzip it you will see sub xml files.
Now, I want to create a Powerpoint Add-in application, allowing me to add more information to a specific object, and store dynamically it in itself XML file (or when saving file as). For example, my Add-in PowerPoint application contains a button named "Flippable". When I select a specific object of a slide, and select "Flippable", my application will find the xml file that contains the object information, and add a tag "Flippable = true".
Is it possible to do that dynamically when running application?
Thanks
Why go to all the effort of cracking and parsing the XML file, assuming that you even can while he presentation's open in PPT, especially since you're already doing this from an add-in?
You mentioned that the user has selected a shape. Why not just tag the shape:
With ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange(1)
.Tags.Add "Flippable", "Yes"
End With
You'd want a bit more code around that to make sure that there IS a selection, and if you want to allow tagging multiple shapes at one time, you'd need to put in inside a For Each/Next loop.
Then assuming a reference to the current shape to be tested in oSh
If oSh.Tags("Flippable")="Yes" Then
' Do your stuff
End If
All:
I am writing a PowerPoint add-in that will allow a user to drop specific safety related images onto a map. I've written the code that copies the images and places them on the slide and I would like to place it into an add-in. Unfortunately, I cannot find a way to either:
a) place the images into the add-in
b) reference images if I were able to place them in the add-in
The alternative approach is to require the user to start with a special template that includes all of the images and then load the add-in to get the menu functionality. I would much rather have a single file that contains both the code and bitmap images.
With best regards,
Walt
PPA files contain only code, not presentation content like images. As an alternative, you could distribute a PPT/PPTX that you open invisibly and extract the image you need.
After quite a bit of looking around I found a solution that resolves the problem adequately. Using Microsoft's Custom UI Editor, I created an XML entry in the PowerPoint Presentation that performs the Auto_Open function that would have been part of the Add-In. This allows me to add the menu functions that will be responsible for loading the specific images.
I've added a reference page at the beginning of the presentation that contains instructions on how to use the template... This page also contains all of the images that are used by the visual basic code. The 'Visible' flag on these images are set to False so the user does not see them. As they are copied from the reference page into the presentation, the Visible flag is set to True and they are pasted onto the current slide.
It is not a perfect solution, but it is adequate...
I'm building a VSTO add-in for Powerpoint 2010 and the options the add-in sets apply to the currently open file instead of a per-user config. Can I save these options in the current file (I mean, add custom XML to the .PPTX file)? If so, how?
Thanks for your help.
For very simple data, custom properties are ok (so long as you're aware that anyone who opens the file will be able to see, edit and delete them). And note that because PPT shares a common, too-small, allocation of data between links and document properties, adding too many of one can wipe out the other.
I'd use tags instead. Every shape, slide and presentation object can have a tags collection, containing one or more Name / Value pairs of strings.
These are invisible to the user and will not interfere with the hyperlinks in the presentation.
' To add a tag
With ActivePresentation
.Tags.Add "MyTagName", "MyTagValue"
End With
' To use a tag
If ActivePresentation.Tags("MyTagName") = "MyTagValue" Then
' Do something or other
End If
If your Options are not too complex, I would go for Document Custom Properties. The following question illustrates how to use Custom Properties with Excel, they are supported in PowerPoint as well so this should provide a good starting point!