PP 2000: can't create button/menu in button bar to start userForm

[Guest]

Hi guys,

I'm trying, totally unsuccesfully, to do the following:
1) create, in an empty PowerPoint presentation, a user form (which is
intended as an input of custom document properties). That works OK, as it is
standard feature
2) add a button or a menu in the button bar of the presentation, that should
open the user form
In 2), I get all sorts of problems:
- I can't seem to be able to add a button at all in the button bar, but only
a menu
- I can't find a way to have that menu linked to a macro, namely a
subroutine that would load the UserForm and make it visible. The dialog for
linking a button or menu to a macro seems to be very different in PP from
Word, so I'm at a loss there

If I run directly in the VB Editor the routine that loads and shows the User
Form, the form opens. So I'm just looking for the very important "missing
link" between the presentation and the VBA code !

Am I suffering from deficiencies of PP 2000 ? I can unfortunately not
upgrade, this is a job at a very big bank, in an area where users have
Windows XP, but Office 2000 (!), and they are not going to move soon enough
from that to the next version...

Can anybody please help me ?

Balex

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Have a look here and the following pages:

Creating and Installing Add-ins, Toolbars, Buttons
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/index.html#Creating_and_Installing_Add-ins,_Too
lbars,_Buttons_

PPT is definitely different from Word.

You'll need to create an add-in rather than doing this from a normal PPT file.
This all works pretty much the same as far back as PPT 97, so you don't have to
worry about PPT versions.

 

[Guest]

Hi Steve,

Thanks, I also discovered some answers from you and Brian Reilly yesterday,
went to the site you indicate, and made a lot of progress, although mostly I
really have no real logical reason why it now nearly works.

I say NEARLY, because:
- I have made a .pot template, which has a button in the tool bar, which
calls my user form through code all right
- When I double click on this template, I get a presentation which also has
the button, which also calls up the user form

- BUT, when somebody ELSE double clicks the template, the presentation that
is created has NO button in the tool bar to call up the user form !
- However, that person can add a button for the macro I created, because
that macro shows up in the list of macros in the View / Toolbars / Customize
/ Command / Macro. From then on, the button will show up for that person as
well !
- This is not acceptable for the users. They have no idea about customizing
toolbars and macros and such stuff

WHY is the button not visible for ALL users ??? How can I make the bl...
button available to EVERYBODY ???

Thanks for help.
Balex

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I say NEARLY, because:
- I have made a .pot template, which has a button in the tool bar, which
calls my user form through code all right

Not exactly. Templates and toolbars have nothing to do with one another.

While I_Think_PPT_Is_Like_Word
SayAloud("PPT is NOT like Word. PPT is DIFFERENT from Word.")
Wend

You have a toolbar, which is maintained by PPT independent of your template.
Once it's created, it doesn't go away until it's manually deleted or some code
removes it.

Forget putting toolbars in templates. It will not work.

You have to create an addin.

WHY is the button not visible for ALL users ??? How can I make the bl...
button available to EVERYBODY ???

An add-in. Once people install it, the buttons it creates will be available.

There's no way to do this using templates.

 

[Guest]

Hi Steve,

Ok, OK, I got it: PPT is NOT like Word ! I noticed that it was certainly not
like Word, and that Excel is not like Word and PPT, and let's not talk bout
Visio, because it doesn't even have properties (that's what the UserForm is
about: capturing some custom properties and storing them).

And that's the most INFURIATING thing with MS, that they can't even have
their own teams to talk to each other and re-use the same code. Outrageous it
is, actually. Plus, these things are not properly documented. That's not at
all what you'd expect from the largest and richest software company in the
world.

But OK, we have to live with it, because complaining doesn't even help.

So I'll try to make an add-in...

Thanks for the pro help anyway.

Balex.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi Steve,

Ok, OK, I got it: PPT is NOT like Word !

Congratulations on your recent escape from The Loop of Doom, sir. <g>
Bad as it seems now, it's a lot better (at least in terms of available
documentation) than it ever used to be!

So I'll try to make an add-in...

That's the spirit. It's not so hard, really.

 

[Guest]

Hi Steve
It's not hard *for me*, but how do you explain to a layman user that he has,
the first time he wants to use the template, to add the add-in as well ?
That's rather that which scares me. Which normal user is going to do that
succesfully without somebody holding his/her hand ? 5% of them ?

 

[Austin Myers]

Ummm, you could force the loading from a registry entry if you wrote your
adsd in as a com.

Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

PowerPoint Video and PowerPoint Sound Solutions www.pfcmedia.com

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi Steve

It's not hard *for me*, but how do you explain to a layman user that he has,
the first time he wants to use the template, to add the add-in as well ?
That's rather that which scares me. Which normal user is going to do that
succesfully without somebody holding his/her hand ? 5% of them ?

Given good instructions, more people than you might think.
And no matter HOW good the instructions are, there are always going to be a few
induhviduals who don't get it. ;-)

It's also a matter of how you present it. If you sell it as an add-in and let the
addin take care of opening and using the proper template, it's not so confusing for
the users. We do quite a few custom add-in/template combinations this way.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Ummm, you could force the loading from a registry entry if you wrote your
adsd in as a com.

Doesn't even need to be a COM addin. PPAs work this way too