Hi Opinicus.
I use the following to get the text out of multiple PowerPoint slides at once.
In Normal view in PowerPoint, change to Outline, click within the pane,
Ctrl+A or Ctrl+click. In to Word, you can do normal Paste and get a certain
amount of formatting retained (not brilliant) or use Paste Special,
Unformatted Unicode Text.
As usual as certain amount of cleanup is now required but you get the jist.
All the best
DeanH