PowerPoint 2013 macro keeps file locked open after close command - vba

I have a PowerPoint VBA function that opens presentations, copies slides into the active presentation, then closes the source presentation. It worked fine in 2010, but fails in 2013 (all on Windows 7) if it tries to open the same presentation more than once. It appears to me that after the presentation.close command is issued, the window is closed, but the file remains locked open until the VBA code exits. So if the code attempts to open that file again it returns the error:
"Method 'Open' of object 'Presentations' failed"
Here's a simplified form of the function I'm running that behaves the same way. I've had a colleague test this again in PowerPoint 2010 and it runs fine. I've also had a colleague test it under his 2013 to make sure it's not something with my particular installation.
Sub testopen()
Dim ppFile As Presentation
Dim i As Integer
Const fpath = "C:\test.pptx"
For i = 1 To 2
Set ppFile = Application.Presentations.Open(fpath)
ppFile.Close
Set ppFile = Nothing
Next i
End Sub
The file test.pptx is just a blank presentation. In debug mode I can see the file opens and closes on the first loop, then on the second loop the open command fails and I can see in Windows explorer that the hidden temporary file still exists, indicating the file is still open, until I exit the VBA code. I also verified that the file is held open by adding in a function to check the file open status.
I've spent probably an hour googling this and cannot find any other descriptions of this problem. I'm sure I can implement a workaround but it's driving me crazy that I can't find any other reports of seemingly such a simple issue. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thanks.

The Best way that I have achieved this is to simply create a VBS file and in the VBS file I call out the desired VBA code. It's little more hassle than to write the VBA code, but it's the solution that worked for me.
For example in the VBS file:
Dim args, objPP
Set args = WScript.Arguments
Set objPP = CreateObject("Powerpoint.Application")
objPP.Open "C:\path\to\file.ppx"
objPP.Visible = True
objPP.Run "The_Macro"
objPP.Save
objPP.Close(0)
objPP.Quit
Or better yet, have the entire code within the VBS file and have it copy the desired slides.
Hope this helps you achieve your result.

Setting the file as Read Only resolved the issue. The open command is now:
Set ppFile = Application.Presentations.Open(fpath, msoTrue)
Also, saving the file before closing it resolved the issue. For that, add:
ppFile.Save
Interestingly, I had already tried setting the Saved property to True (ppFile.Saved = msoTrue), which does NOT work. Thanks to Michael for his suggestion on the VBS script. That does work and I had never run an external VBS script so I learned something new. In this case, I'd prefer to stick with a VBA solution.

Related

Close MS Project using VSTO

I have a VSTO on MS Project. I use VB.NET. What I need is when I press the button I created on the ribbon, it will perform some codes which will update the info of some task, however, I would need to close the MS Project automatically. I tried application.FileCloseEx(), but it only closes the file, the MS Project is still loaded. I need similar to clicking the x button of the window.
Thanks,
Gilbert
If your MS Project application object is represented by "appMSProject" then it's as simple as:
appMSProject.Quit
OR say in a macro running under Project:
Application.Quit
Here's how I do it in VBA from Excel or Access. As far as I can tell the objects & methods are the same in VB.NET. Bottom line is that I create an instance of the MS Project object which starts the app & opens a file, execute some work, close the file, then destroy the MS Project object by setting it to Nothing. That has the effect of closing the app. You can also use "appMSProject.Quit" followed by setting it to Nothing. Frankly the 2nd option looks more orderly & easier to understand in code. Anyway, here's a sample of the way I do it:
Dim appMSProject As MSProject.Application
Dim prjPrj As MSProject.Project
Dim strPrjFile As String
strPrjFile = "C:\where_is_my_file\file_name.mpp"
Set appMSProject = New MSProject.Application
appMSProject.FileOpenEx Name:=strPrjFile
Set prjPrj = appMSProject.ActiveProject
'''Do something in here with the prjPrj
'Close the file, in my case w/o saving
appMSProject.FileCloseEx pjDoNotSave
'Destroy the objects
Set prjPrj = Nothing
Set appMSProject = Nothing
FYI - In this example I'm doing background work so I don't show the app. I also use "early binding".
Here's an MSDN example that does show the app with more info on early -vs- late binding - https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff865152.aspx

How do I fix Error 432 when loading a form in Word VBA?

I have a Word .dot file which works in older versions of Word but fails with error 432 when run in Word 2013.
When I debug the code I have the line:
Load customerForm
And VBA shows the error:
Run-time error '432': File name or class name not found during Automation operation
The project "pennyscode" includes "Module1" which contains the function being debugged, "ThisDocument" and a form called "customerForm".
I have tried changing the name to "pennyscode.customerForm" but this doesn't make any difference.
This code is being called from a Sub function which is called from Document_New().
Updates
I can place a breakpoint on the Load customerForm line and demonstrate that it is the line that is causing the problem. If at this point I mouse over the word "customerForm" VBA comes up with
customerForm = <Object variable or With block variable not set>
If I delete/skip the Load line then the next line is customerForm.Show and that produces the same error.
If I just open the .dotm file and then use Alt-F11 to open VBA, I can look at the code for selectCustomer, list properties/methods and customerForm appears in the list.
Additional Note
I believe that within the Load function it must be calling GetObject and it is this that is failing. It is as if VBA can't find the customerForm object even though it appears in the project.
I've posted the full code of the function being called from Document_New below.
Sub selectCustomer()
Dim Doc As Document
Set Doc = Application.ActiveDocument
If Doc.CustomDocumentProperties.Item("Customer") = "Nothing" Then
Load customerForm
customerForm.Show
Unload customerForm
Doc.Fields.Update
a$ = Doc.CustomDocumentProperties.Item("InvoiceNumber")
a$ = customerForm.pathBox.Value + "\" + a$
Doc.SaveAs (a$)
End If
End Sub
I've also posted the full .dotm (Excel 2013) and .dot (previous excel) and some sample data (.xls) here:
Dropbox/Public/Invoice 2015-16.dotm
Dropbox/Public/Invoice 2015-16.dot
Dropbox/Public/data.xls
Update
I've not had much luck making progress on this question. Can anyone suggest an approach to investigating this? Or how I might improve the information on the question?
I finally managed to fix this, and I have a few learnings.
Firstly the debugger shows the error as occurring on the Load customerForm line, but this is actually not the case.
The customerForm has an _Initialize function which loads data into it before it is displayed. This function was failing with but the debugger stops on the wrong place.
I was able to debug this more effectively by putting a breakpoint on the start of the _Initialize sub and then stepping through the code.
Once I had discovered this I realized that the code was failing to find the XLSX file due to a wrong path, thus causing the run-time error.
Once I'd fixed up all the paths, I then hit a second error: runtime error '9' which is a subscript problem. This also reported on the Load customerForm line and was also due to a problem with the _Initialize function.
This was the true source of the problem, and demonstrated a functional change between Office 2013 and previous versions of Office.
My code was opening an XLSX file and attempting to read data from it:
Dim myXL As Object
Dim myWS As Object
Set myXL = GetObject("C:\Test\data.xlsx")
myXL.Application.Visible = True
myXL.Parent.Windows(1).Visible = True
Set myWS = myXL.Application.Worksheets("Customers")
The run-time error 9 was due to the index of the Windows property, as their were no windows. In previous versions of Office, there was a single window, with 2013 the array is empty.
After much messing about I tried adding this line:
myXL.Activate
before accessing the Windows() array. Once that was executed Windows(1) existed and the code worked as before.
Hope this can help someone else struggling with similar problems.

Release a file from excel generated by VBA to allow for moving of file

I am using some code in my excel document to open images, rotate them as appropriate and then save them to a temp folder (see How do I rotate a saved image with VBA?).
I am now trying to rename these generated images within the same folder using Name... as..., however this throws up an error, saying that the image is still in use by Excel ("File/Path access error" in VBA - it tells me its in use by excel when renaming it in an explorer window though)
Is there any way to "throw this out" of Excel using VBA before this stage? I did try Set p = Nothing (with p coming from Set p = .Pictures.Insert(Filepath)) but this still gives an error. The sheet that the new image is created from is deleted after it is saved to the temp folder so it does not exist on the sheet any more either. Once I fully close excel, I can rename the file again.
The "solution" I ended up with was to copy folder C:\Temp\a\ to C:\Temp\b\ and make the changes from there before copying to \\my\actual\location
This works OK as a decent workaround for this instance, but by no means a 100% complete answer to the question
YOUR CODE HERE.....
CLOSE
'by add "close" at the ending of your line before conducting the next action

VBA Word 2010 Paste Error / No Wait Command

I have a project that takes several documents as inputs, does some processing on them, and creates several new documents at the end. I am currently running into problems with pasting content from one Word document into another. The following code snippet seemed relevant:
Set refOrigin = FindReference(OriginDoc)
Set refDest = PasteDoc.Range(PasteDoc.Content.Start, PasteDoc.Content.End)
refDest.Collapse wdCollapseEnd
refOrigin.Copy
refDest.Paste
When running this code, I will occasionally get Run-time error 4198, Command Failed at the paste line in the code. However, when I go into the debugger, I can see that both refDest and refOrigin are valid ranges. Furthermore, when I step through the code line-by-line, it works. However, I can tell that in the instance where it failed, it inserted an embedded Word document already.
I've done some research on the issues and I believe that there is some type of problem of the code running to fast for the clipboard to keep up with it sometimes. This makes sense to me because when I run the macro from a document on a network drive, it runs without a hitch.
I thought that I would be able to simply add a wait command with Application.Wait, but it turns out that Word 2010 doesn't support this command; it's only in Excel.
Does anyone have ideas as to the root of this problem, possible solutions, or any way to give Word 2010 a wait command? Thanks.
For completeness, the following code mimics the Excel `Application.Wait' method from this question.
Dim tmpStart
tmpStart = Timer
Do
DoEvents
Loop While (tmpStart + 1) > Timer

vbScript opens up excel but doesn't load macro/modules?

I m in a very weird situation. I created a vbs script that would open my excel file. I had defined vba code in WorkBook_open method. I thought creating a vbs script to open up my excel would invoke my workBook_open method and execute the vba code inside it. But I was wrong. Below is my vbs code.
filePath = "E:\data_extracts\mydata.xlsm"
Set oExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
oExcel.Workbooks.Open(filepath)
oExcel.Visible = True
oExcel.Run "RefreshDataFromIQY"
oExcel.ActiveWorkbook.Save
oExcel.ActiveWorkbook.Close
oExcel.Quit
Set oExcel = Nothing
On debugging, it fails at oExcel.Run "RefreshDataFromIQY" saying either macros are not available or disabled. Hence it is the code just opnes up excel application successfully and that's all it does. I have macro codes in module1, module2. How/where do I write to execute my macros in vbs script below. My macros/modules have to be executed in sequence and some of my macros are recorded macros. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.
Thanks for your input Scott. Here's what I made changes to my code
Dim oExcelApp
Dim oExcelWkb
set oExcelApp = createobject("Excel.Application")
set oExcelWkb = oExcelApp.Workbooks.Open("\\myserver\data_extracts\TestTOPTMay307.xlsm")
oExcelWkb.Close True
oExcelApp.Quit
However on running it from command line, its giving me runtime error Object required: 'Close'. Any idea why? Why is it failing to Close? What am i doing wrong? Thanks.
I just tested your code against a dummy file I made. It worked when I placed the code inside a module and left it as public. However, when I put into a private module -> like worksheet level module, I got the error you got.
However, when I referenced the private object, the code ran through. So my answer to you is to replace
oExcel.Run "RefreshDataFromIQY"
With
oExcel.Run "[yourClassName].RefreshDataFromIQY"
Also, I placed a workbook_event in my file as well. The event triggered successfully on open, so if there is trouble with yours, it's most likely in the code inside the event.