Tailor generic presentations - how?

[Guest]

I have a generic presentation to go to many customers. I want to personalise
each presentation by using the customer's name in a few select places. What
options are there to achieve this?

Can I use fields in PowerPoint (2003), as I can in Word (eg
DocProperty>Client)? Is there a conditional text option, as in FrameMaker? Or
do I have to resort to search and replace?

Thanks, in advance.

 

[Bill Dilworth]

PPTools has a rather nice Merge feature that may be exactly what you need.
Look into:
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptools/merge/index.html


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Bill Dilworth
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..

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I have a generic presentation to go to many customers. I want to personalise
each presentation by using the customer's name in a few select places. What
options are there to achieve this?

Can I use fields in PowerPoint (2003), as I can in Word (eg
DocProperty>Client)? Is there a conditional text option, as in FrameMaker? Or
do I have to resort to search and replace?

Without using a third party product, search and replace is the only option I
know of.

That's why there are several add-ins to help you automate this sort of thing.

One is our PPTools Merge: http://merge.pptools.com

It'd let you create a single "template" PPT file, put your customer names and
other info and more into an Excel file, then automatically merge the data into
as many customized presentations as you have customers.

There's a free, fully functional demo you can try out.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the replies, guys - it looks like a useful set of utilities.

Now I just have to overcome the perennial problem: persuading the CIS dept
to spend money (groan)!

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Thanks for the replies, guys - it looks like a useful set of utilities.

Now I just have to overcome the perennial problem: persuading the CIS dept
to spend money (groan)!

In case it helps, tell them how long it takes you to customize one slide
presentation. Tell them how many you do a week, month, year, whatever. Work
the math.

Work out how long it takes Merge to do a single slide presentation. The demo
will let you do that. How much of your time does it save at how much an hour?

It usually makes a pretty obvious case. <g>

Ah, and it won't make any typos.