I'm using MS Word to automate creating a PowerPoint presentation from a Web
link which does so quite neatly. When the user clicks on the Web link, I
instantiate Word by using a new ActiveX object (Word.Application) to open a
read-only version of a Word document. Once the document opens, the
Document_Open() procedure fires automatically and runs the code to create
the presentation.

The whole purpose of this is our company wants to remove all source *.ppt
files from the server for security reasons and to save space. Thus, we had
to come up with a way to reconstruct presentations exported for viewing on
our Intranet (using a tool I developed) in .png format. Since PowerPoint
doesn't allow us to do this from the Web, we run Word in the background to
do the work which maybe causing some resource issues.

Before running the process, I prompt the user with a MsgBox asking them if
they want to continue. If they choose not to continue, we kill the whole
process by closing the document and releasing all resources. As the
process is running, Word is quietly running (creating the presentation) in
the background (visible="false"). Once the presentation is created, we
close Word and release resources used.

The only problem I'm am having is whenever the user clicks OK to start the
process, I have to momentarily make the PowerPoint window visible when the
presentation is initially created. Since PowerPoint doesn't support using
Application.Visible="msoFalse", I have to immediately minimize the
application window so it's not visible to the user during the presentation
build. However, when I do this, it leaves an imprint of the PowerPoint
window in the background which I can't seem to get rid of until I prompt the
user to save the newly created presentation to a location of their choice.
I really don't want the user to see anything, after they click OK to start
the process, until they are prompted to save the presentation.

Is there a way to clear this so users don't see this because it looks kind
of messy??? Also, while the presentation is being built, the user can't
click anything to remove/minimize the window since this process making CPU
work pretty hard. Any recommendations on making this run smoother would be
great. This is a really scaled down version.

Tony B.

Tony,
See if the hints in this PowerPoint FAQ entry help any:
Hide PowerPoint while I automate it
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00307.htm

--
Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft MVP PowerPoint and OneNote
Get PowerPoint answers at http://www.powerpointanswers.com
Cook anything outdoors with http://www.outdoorcook.com
Get OneNote answers at http://www.onenoteanswers.com

If this helped you, please take the time to rate the value of this post:
http://rate.affero.net/jacobskl/

I believe life is meant to be lived. But:
if we live without making a difference, it makes no difference that we lived


"Tony B." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm using MS Word to automate creating a PowerPoint presentation from a
Web
> link which does so quite neatly. When the user clicks on the Web link, I
> instantiate Word by using a new ActiveX object (Word.Application) to open
a
> read-only version of a Word document. Once the document opens, the
> Document_Open() procedure fires automatically and runs the code to create
> the presentation.
>
> The whole purpose of this is our company wants to remove all source *.ppt
> files from the server for security reasons and to save space. Thus, we
had
> to come up with a way to reconstruct presentations exported for viewing
on
> our Intranet (using a tool I developed) in .png format. Since PowerPoint
> doesn't allow us to do this from the Web, we run Word in the background to
> do the work which maybe causing some resource issues.
>
> Before running the process, I prompt the user with a MsgBox asking them if
> they want to continue. If they choose not to continue, we kill the whole
> process by closing the document and releasing all resources. As the
> process is running, Word is quietly running (creating the presentation) in
> the background (visible="false"). Once the presentation is created, we
> close Word and release resources used.
>
> The only problem I'm am having is whenever the user clicks OK to start the
> process, I have to momentarily make the PowerPoint window visible when the
> presentation is initially created. Since PowerPoint doesn't support using
> Application.Visible="msoFalse", I have to immediately minimize the
> application window so it's not visible to the user during the presentation
> build. However, when I do this, it leaves an imprint of the PowerPoint
> window in the background which I can't seem to get rid of until I prompt
the
> user to save the newly created presentation to a location of their choice.
> I really don't want the user to see anything, after they click OK to start
> the process, until they are prompted to save the presentation.
>
> Is there a way to clear this so users don't see this because it looks kind
> of messy??? Also, while the presentation is being built, the user can't
> click anything to remove/minimize the window since this process making CPU
> work pretty hard. Any recommendations on making this run smoother would
be
> great. This is a really scaled down version.
>
> Tony B.
>
>

One possibility that comes to mind:

After invoking PPT and minimizing it, insert

DoEvents

in whatever code is controlling everything at that point (script in browser or
Word)

It might also help if you force something else to happen on screen; perhaps
bring up a new "Please wait while we generate your presentation" screen.


In article <#(E-Mail Removed)>, Tony B. wrote:
> I'm using MS Word to automate creating a PowerPoint presentation from a Web
> link which does so quite neatly. When the user clicks on the Web link, I
> instantiate Word by using a new ActiveX object (Word.Application) to open a
> read-only version of a Word document. Once the document opens, the
> Document_Open() procedure fires automatically and runs the code to create
> the presentation.
>
> The whole purpose of this is our company wants to remove all source *.ppt
> files from the server for security reasons and to save space. Thus, we had
> to come up with a way to reconstruct presentations exported for viewing on
> our Intranet (using a tool I developed) in .png format. Since PowerPoint
> doesn't allow us to do this from the Web, we run Word in the background to
> do the work which maybe causing some resource issues.
>
> Before running the process, I prompt the user with a MsgBox asking them if
> they want to continue. If they choose not to continue, we kill the whole
> process by closing the document and releasing all resources. As the
> process is running, Word is quietly running (creating the presentation) in
> the background (visible="false"). Once the presentation is created, we
> close Word and release resources used.
>
> The only problem I'm am having is whenever the user clicks OK to start the
> process, I have to momentarily make the PowerPoint window visible when the
> presentation is initially created. Since PowerPoint doesn't support using
> Application.Visible="msoFalse", I have to immediately minimize the
> application window so it's not visible to the user during the presentation
> build. However, when I do this, it leaves an imprint of the PowerPoint
> window in the background which I can't seem to get rid of until I prompt the
> user to save the newly created presentation to a location of their choice.
> I really don't want the user to see anything, after they click OK to start
> the process, until they are prompted to save the presentation.
>
> Is there a way to clear this so users don't see this because it looks kind
> of messy??? Also, while the presentation is being built, the user can't
> click anything to remove/minimize the window since this process making CPU
> work pretty hard. Any recommendations on making this run smoother would be
> great. This is a really scaled down version.
>
> Tony B.
>

--
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com

Thanks for all your help. Instead of opening the PowerPoint application, I
following the suggestion in the FAQ you quoted and just opened a dummy
presentation containing the code (without a window). I could then use Word,
long enough to run the code, and pop up the save as window when ready.

Thanks again.

Tony B.

"Tony B." <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:%(E-Mail Removed)...
> I'm using MS Word to automate creating a PowerPoint presentation from a
Web
> link which does so quite neatly. When the user clicks on the Web link, I
> instantiate Word by using a new ActiveX object (Word.Application) to open
a
> read-only version of a Word document. Once the document opens, the
> Document_Open() procedure fires automatically and runs the code to create
> the presentation.
>
> The whole purpose of this is our company wants to remove all source *.ppt
> files from the server for security reasons and to save space. Thus, we
had
> to come up with a way to reconstruct presentations exported for viewing
on
> our Intranet (using a tool I developed) in .png format. Since PowerPoint
> doesn't allow us to do this from the Web, we run Word in the background to
> do the work which maybe causing some resource issues.
>
> Before running the process, I prompt the user with a MsgBox asking them if
> they want to continue. If they choose not to continue, we kill the whole
> process by closing the document and releasing all resources. As the
> process is running, Word is quietly running (creating the presentation) in
> the background (visible="false"). Once the presentation is created, we
> close Word and release resources used.
>
> The only problem I'm am having is whenever the user clicks OK to start the
> process, I have to momentarily make the PowerPoint window visible when the
> presentation is initially created. Since PowerPoint doesn't support using
> Application.Visible="msoFalse", I have to immediately minimize the
> application window so it's not visible to the user during the presentation
> build. However, when I do this, it leaves an imprint of the PowerPoint
> window in the background which I can't seem to get rid of until I prompt
the
> user to save the newly created presentation to a location of their choice.
> I really don't want the user to see anything, after they click OK to start
> the process, until they are prompted to save the presentation.
>
> Is there a way to clear this so users don't see this because it looks kind
> of messy??? Also, while the presentation is being built, the user can't
> click anything to remove/minimize the window since this process making CPU
> work pretty hard. Any recommendations on making this run smoother would
be
> great. This is a really scaled down version.
>
> Tony B.
>
>