Progamatically merging multiple powerpoint slides into a single sl

[Guest]

I am appending multiple powerpoint slides by opening each one and writing to
a third file one after the other.

Whien I open the final file, it only opens up the first slide deck and does
not open the other appended slide decks. The file size tells me that the
files have definitely been appended to each other.

You have a reply in the PPT newsgroup, so let's follow up there.

Quick answer in case you see this first: You can't combine presentations by
concatenating files.


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

Thanks for your reply. I could not find the post in the ppt section..so am
reposting.

You mentioned that we cannot concatinate ppt files...is there any other way
them to programatically merge the ppt slides?

Thanks!

 

[Echo S]

Thanks for your reply. I could not find the post in the ppt section..so am
reposting.

Here's a link to the original thread. (Just in case you want to take a look
at David's response.)

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...fc6e19-83cc-4342-8709-197b2e1969ef&sloc=en-us

 

[Mike M.]

David is right on. It is dead easy in VB requiring about 10 lines of code.
Start PowerPoint
Create a new presentation.
Open source pres 1.
On new pres insert slides from file
Repeat for all source presentations.
Save new pres
Close PowerPoint

 

[Guest]

Hmmm...my slide decks are stored on a unix server. for now, I am giving them
the same treatment as text files when I concatinate them...and obviously this
is not working.

I can't write in VB ..even if I knew, where would I write this code? CAn't
write it on the unix server running Apache.

Is this a macro or something? Can I have a macro that maybe runs everytime
the concatinated files are opened and 'fixes' the missing information that
will then allow the ppt slides to show?

David is right on. It is dead easy in VB requiring about 10 lines of code.
Start PowerPoint
Create a new presentation.
Open source pres 1.
On new pres insert slides from file
Repeat for all source presentations.
Save new pres
Close PowerPoint

 

[Mike M.]

You can't just concatenate the files like you said. The PowerPoint file
format is proprietary so it is anyone's guess what you need to do to it to
accomplish your goal. You could share the disk where the slide shows are
stored via Samba (or whatever) then run a VB program from a Windows Box to
concatenate the files into a new presentation. That's about the only way I
can think to do it.

Hmmm...my slide decks are stored on a unix server. for now, I am giving them
the same treatment as text files when I concatinate them...and obviously this
is not working.

I can't write in VB ..even if I knew, where would I write this code? CAn't
write it on the unix server running Apache.

Is this a macro or something? Can I have a macro that maybe runs everytime
the concatinated files are opened and 'fixes' the missing information that
will then allow the ppt slides to show?

 

[Guest]

Thanks Mike. I agree that this may be the best approach.

Thanks again.

 

[Mike M.]

You're welcome. If you need the VB code just holler and I am sure someone
can post it.

 

[Mike M.]

Well I forgot one little thing. Starting with PPT 2002 MS added a "feature"
where the copy of slides (or InsertFromFile) does not copy the source
formatting (you lose backgrounds and stuff). Shyam has graciously provided
code to manually do this although it is a little more than 10 lines.
Check here:
http://skp.mvps.org/pptxp001.htm