Clicking PowerPoint from VBA

[Robert Crago]

Hi there,

Would anyone care to share the secrets of sending mouse
clicks to the PowerPoint slideshow window via automation
to cause slide changes, button clicks etc?

I've tried SendMessaging a WM_LBUTTONDOWN message to the
slideshow window and SPY++ tells me the messages are
being received by that window, but nothing is happening.

My questions are:

1) Which of PowerPoints windows do I have click in
2) Do I need both WM_LBUTTONDOWN and WM_LBUTTONUP (or
some other combination)

Any help would be gratefully received
Robert

 

[Shyam Pillai]

Robert,
Take a look at these examples and extend upon them:

Start a slide show and monitor it from an external application
http://www.mvps.org/skp/vbppt001.htm
Start a slide show and monitor it from an external application using events
http://www.mvps.org/skp/vbppt003.htm

Once you have the PowerPoint reference (oPPTRef) then use the following line
to move to the next animation/slide

oPPTRef.SlideShowWindows(1).View.Next

--
Regards
Shyam Pillai

Handout Wizard
http://www.mvps.org/skp/how/

 

[Robert Crago]

Hi Shyam,

Thanks for your help with my problem - much appreciated.

However, I am already successfully using the automation
technologies you suggest, but there are other
circumstances when you may need to click directly on the
slideshow window.

The ...View.Next automation feature will only activate
objects in the pre-planned side show animation sequence.
What if your slide contained a movie that was setup to
only be played when explicitly clicked with the mouse.
(and there are other examples as well).

Do you know of ways to 'click' on every clickable object
on the slide? Otherwise I need to know how to use
SendMessage to click on the actual slide itself.

I hope this clarifies things a little.

Once again, thanks for your help...