Problem showing individual Powerpoint slides under VB control

[Superdave]

My environment uses two screens and a windows extended desktop.

My VB program displays a VB form on monitor 1 with buttons so that
an operator can click on which powerpoint slide they want to show
on monitor 2 (projector).

I start the show from my VB program and an initial slide comes up fine
on the external monitor.

The next slide is selected by the user clicking on buttons on my VB
form. I use the following to then tell powerpoint what slide to show
next:

PPT.ActivePresentation.SlideShowWindow.View.GotoSlide(index)

However, when the above is executed the projector screen goes blank
until I click the powerpoint button on the toolbar and then the new
slide appears ???

It's like the task switch to my form when I click on a button stops
the powerpoint until I switch back to the powerpoint task again ?

It's like DOS used to be !

What is happening here and how do I work around it.

In my mind this is *not* automation !

I did read an explaination somewhere long ago about Powerpoint being
weird like this but I can't recall where and can't find it.

Can somebody please shed some light on this for me.

 

[Superdave]

My environment uses two screens and a windows extended desktop.

My VB program displays a VB form on monitor 1 with buttons so that
an operator can click on which powerpoint slide they want to show
on monitor 2 (projector).

I start the show from my VB program and an initial slide comes up fine
on the external monitor.

The next slide is selected by the user clicking on buttons on my VB
form. I use the following to then tell powerpoint what slide to show
next:

PPT.ActivePresentation.SlideShowWindow.View.GotoSlide(index)

However, when the above is executed the projector screen goes blank
until I click the powerpoint button on the toolbar and then the new
slide appears ???

It's like the task switch to my form when I click on a button stops
the powerpoint until I switch back to the powerpoint task again ?

It's like DOS used to be !

What is happening here and how do I work around it.

In my mind this is *not* automation !

I did read an explaination somewhere long ago about Powerpoint being
weird like this but I can't recall where and can't find it.

Can somebody please shed some light on this for me.

OK I have managed to figure it out. I have to :

PPT.ActivePresentation.SlideShowWindow.Activate

.....after changing the slide. This is the same as clicking
manually on the taskbar.

Still weird though how powerpoint stops whenever it loses focus. It
means I can't do other stuff while showing.

 

[Chirag]

OK I have managed to figure it out. I have to :

PPT.ActivePresentation.SlideShowWindow.Activate

....after changing the slide. This is the same as clicking
manually on the taskbar.

Still weird though how powerpoint stops whenever it loses focus. It
means I can't do other stuff while showing.

Yes, thats how PowerPoint behaves. It thinks that if you are doing something
else while presenting, then it should freeze the slide show so that you
don't lose track of your presentation when you come back to presenting your
slides.

Look at PowerShow from http://officeone.mvps.org/powershow/powershow.html if
the above reason does not apply to you. PowerShow runs your slide show on
the secondary monitor while allowing you to use your primary monitor for
other tasks.

- Chirag

Shortcut Manager - Assign keyboard shortcuts to menu items and macros
http://officeone.mvps.org/ppsctmgr/ppsctmgr.html

 

[Superdave]

Yes, thats how PowerPoint behaves. It thinks that if you are doing something
else while presenting, then it should freeze the slide show so that you
don't lose track of your presentation when you come back to presenting your
slides.

er ... my audience of 600 people may think otherwise ! oh wait! I have
to prepare the next video so please chill out for a while while I do
that and waste your time !

Look at PowerShow from http://officeone.mvps.org/powershow/powershow.html if
the above reason does not apply to you. PowerShow runs your slide show on
the secondary monitor while allowing you to use your primary monitor for
other tasks.

Oh yes thank you very much ! This is exactly what I want to do so can
you tell me what I need to do to do it instead of simply giving me a
link to a third party commercial program I have to pay for ?

How does Powershow manage it ? Now that would be useful.

Does MS give them insight they won't give us or what ? If so why.

Otherwise, I want to know the secret.

 

[David Marcovitz]

Superdave,

Here's the dilemma. You are not the first person to be annoyed by this.
Someone else was annoyed enough by it to spend lots of time creating a
solution. The investment of time and effort was sufficient enough to make
the formerly-annoyed-by-PowerPoint person decide it was worth charging a
small fee for the solution. I don't believe that any secret knowledge was
involved. Chirag and other MVPs are just volunteers, trying to be helpful,
not MS employees. However, there is a limit to the time and effort they (we)
will spend for free. I don't know the solution, but I suspect that it is not
trivial (thus worth charging for). Someone might have some pointers for you
that will help you come up with your own solution, but it appears that if
you want a ready-made solution, you will have to pay for it.

--David
--
David M. Marcovitz
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.PowerfulPowerPoint.com/
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
Associate Professor, Loyola University Maryland

 

[Superdave]

Superdave,

Here's the dilemma. You are not the first person to be annoyed by this.
Someone else was annoyed enough by it to spend lots of time creating a
solution. The investment of time and effort was sufficient enough to make
the formerly-annoyed-by-PowerPoint person decide it was worth charging a
small fee for the solution. I don't believe that any secret knowledge was
involved. Chirag and other MVPs are just volunteers, trying to be helpful,
not MS employees. However, there is a limit to the time and effort they (we)
will spend for free. I don't know the solution, but I suspect that it is not
trivial (thus worth charging for). Someone might have some pointers for you
that will help you come up with your own solution, but it appears that if
you want a ready-made solution, you will have to pay for it.

--David

Fair enough. I appreciate the time and effort you, Chirag, etc put in
here to help. It's a good thing too because MS produces such
trashware, it's really needed. How do I know ? I also spend half my
life fixing other peoples windows problems too. Some of my friends
have paid for windows 7x over the past 13 years (95, 98, 98se,
me,w2k,wxp,vista) and it still doesn't work yet !

i guess it gives us guys lifetime job security though huh ?

i think the government should mandate warning stickers on windows
boxes like they do for other hazardous materials. Something like
"Warning - Use of this product can cause you to lose all of your
data,money and perhaps your wife. Any and all attempts to rectify
these flaws may result in bankruptcy". <g>

What I did think was funny was how Chirag tried to make that "defect"
sound like a "feature". Had a good laugh over that I did. <g><g>

Perhaps it's creativity such as this that gets people promoted at
Microsoft. It sure isn't quality, bug-free, secure software.