Programmatically add action buttons to PPT?

[Paul]

Is there a way via automation or with a third party tool to add a "generic"
action button toolbar to every slide in a presentation? The powerpoints
will be submitted by non-technical people and we'd like to add a row of
buttons for home/stop/play/fwd/back to the lower right corner of every PPT
they submit to us.

TIA,
Paul

 

[Kathy Jacobs]

Paul,
You can place the navigation buttons on the master. They will work as long
as nothing else is placed over top of them on the slide. However, if you are
trying to use them to run movies, etc., you will need to place the buttons
on the slide so that you can link them to the movies. (I only mention this
because you included stop and play - leads me to believe you want to do more
than just navigate between slides.)

--
Kathryn Jacobs, Microsoft MVP PowerPoint and OneNote
Author of Kathy Jacobs on PowerPoint - Available now from Holy Macro! Books
Get PowerPoint answers at http://www.powerpointanswers.com

I believe life is meant to be lived. But:
if we live without making a difference, it makes no difference that we lived

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Is there a way via automation or with a third party tool to add a "generic"
action button toolbar to every slide in a presentation? The powerpoints
will be submitted by non-technical people and we'd like to add a row of
buttons for home/stop/play/fwd/back to the lower right corner of every PPT
they submit to us.

You can do it via VBA but it might be just as direct to add the buttons to the
slide master(s).

Once having created one set like this, you can copy/paste it into any other
presentation's masters.

 

[David M. Marcovitz]

As others have said, adding the shapes to the Master might be your best
bet, but if you want to use automation, you can check out the VBA example
for adding a shape to a slide at my Web site:

http://www.PowerfulPowerPoint.com/

Look for Example 6.5. If you want to make it a clickable action button
that you add, you might want to look at the PrintableSlide procedure in
Example 7.9.

--David

--
David M. Marcovitz
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology
Loyola College in Maryland
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.PowerfulPowerPoint.com/