J
Joseph M. Newcomer
I have two large courses I teach; each is over 1000 slides. My students have complained
for several years that these presentations need an index. I finally got tired of hearing
the complaints, and did something about it. The basic idea is that there is a VBA script
that runs in PowerPoint that writes out a file, and a postprocessing program that allows
for semiautomatic creation of an index from the raw text of the presentation. Initially,
the program indexes every single word in the document. The semiautomatic part is that you
can then sit down and create rules for what words to drop, what words to canonicalize,
what words to leave unmodified, add rules for transforming plurals to singulars, past
tense to present tense, etc. The resultling index is pretty bulky, but is good enough for
casual use. It comes out as three HTML files that use a frameset and display the index
conents.
It is adapted to doing technical PowerPoint in English. The complete source is available
on my Web site, www.flounder.com/mvp_tips.htm and can be downloaded. It is written in
VS2003, and the executable is included in the download. The VBA script is included and
can be written from the executable.
Ideas, suggestions, etc. will be entertained.
joe
Joseph M. Newcomer [MVP]
email: (e-mail address removed)
Web: http://www.flounder.com
MVP Tips: http://www.flounder.com/mvp_tips.htm
for several years that these presentations need an index. I finally got tired of hearing
the complaints, and did something about it. The basic idea is that there is a VBA script
that runs in PowerPoint that writes out a file, and a postprocessing program that allows
for semiautomatic creation of an index from the raw text of the presentation. Initially,
the program indexes every single word in the document. The semiautomatic part is that you
can then sit down and create rules for what words to drop, what words to canonicalize,
what words to leave unmodified, add rules for transforming plurals to singulars, past
tense to present tense, etc. The resultling index is pretty bulky, but is good enough for
casual use. It comes out as three HTML files that use a frameset and display the index
conents.
It is adapted to doing technical PowerPoint in English. The complete source is available
on my Web site, www.flounder.com/mvp_tips.htm and can be downloaded. It is written in
VS2003, and the executable is included in the download. The VBA script is included and
can be written from the executable.
Ideas, suggestions, etc. will be entertained.
joe
Joseph M. Newcomer [MVP]
email: (e-mail address removed)
Web: http://www.flounder.com
MVP Tips: http://www.flounder.com/mvp_tips.htm