Calling com methods in powerpoint from c++ (Where are the idl files?)

[Martin Tilsted]

I need to call methods in Powerpoint from my c++ program. I know that
Powerpoint does have a COM interface, but I can't find the .idl and/or
the .h files needed to interface with powerpoint.

So does anyone know where to find theese files, or how to extract them
from powerpoint?

A simple example in c or c++ that just retrieves the version number from
powerpoint would be a good start

Martin

 

[Austin Myers]

You can start here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnofftalk/html/office06062002.asp


Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

Provider of PFCMedia http://www.pfcmedia.com

 

[Martin Tilsted]

You can start here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnofftalk/html/office06062002.asp

I had a look at the link, but did not find what I was looking for.

I don't need to integrate with powerpoint or be visible from within
powerpoint, I just need to query powerpoint for things like "which
document is currently open", "what is the zoom level", and similarly
things. I know it can be done, because I once wrote a similarly program
in java, using JCom(The java com bridge).

And I am using plain old c++, not the .net framework.

Martin

 

[Austin Myers]

The methods are the same regardless of the program language. You still need
to open the presentation (either in PPT natively or within your code) to
access the information you want. In other words you will need an instance
of PPT to read the file information. I know of no way around it.


Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

Provider of PFCMedia http://www.pfcmedia.com

 

[Martin Tilsted]

What I really need, is a way to treat the Powerpoint COM objects as a
normal c++ objects, which have methods corresponding to the methods in
the COM object. (As seen in
http://www.codeproject.com/com/ole_automation.asp?df=100&forumid=4195&exp=0&select=297226

But I found my problem. I am missing
msppt.h and msppt.cpp (or msppt9.h and msppt9.cpp)

The problem is that according to http://www.kbalertz.com/kb_222960.aspx
I have to generate these files myself using "Visual C++".

Now I just have to find out how to generate these files, using the free
visual studio compiler, which only have a command line interface.
(But that off-topic for this newsgroup)

Martin