Programmatically concatenating ppt files

[amitbarave]

Hi! Is there a way to append/concatenate multiple powerpoint files
programmatically?
1. Open the target file in append mode
2. Open the 1st source ppt in read mode. Read byte by byte and copy to
the target
3. Open the next source ppt and copy the bytes over to the target.
4. Close the target when all files are copied

This would work for a plain txt file concatenation. For ppt, one needs
to understand the internals of ppt file format and headers. Any
pointers/suggestions? Please help!

 

[David M. Marcovitz]

Perhaps, you should be more specific about your goal. A simple byte by
byte concatenation wouldn't produce a working PowerPoint presentation. It
might be possible to do a slide-by-slide concatenation with something
like InsertSlidesFromFile.
--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.loyola.edu/education/PowerfulPowerPoint/

(e-mail address removed) wrote in @g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

 

[Guest]

I have a similar request...

Need to programatically concatinate multiple ppt slide decks to form a
single large one. The program(perl-cgi) appends all the files correctly..ie.
the final file size is correct.
But when we open the file, only the first slide deck is visible. the others
dont show up.
I had another thread open ..but I guess I will follow this one.

 

[David M. Marcovitz]

I don't know how you would do this in perl-cgi. You would have to be able
to access the PowerPoint object model. In VBA, you would do something
simple like:

ActivePresentation.Slides.InsertFromFile "myFile.ppt"

--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.loyola.edu/education/PowerfulPowerPoint/

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I have a similar request...

Similar answer. You cannot simply concat files and expect it to work.
If you need to do this w/o automating PowerPoint, I don't know what to suggest
(other than "Turn back now while you still have your hair")