Ungrouping Excel OLE changes to individual objects ?

[Hari Prasadh]

Hi,

If I paste an Excel OLE object in to powerpoint and now if I do regroup it
displays "This is an imported object, not a group. if you convert it to a
Microsoft Office drawing object, embedded data or linked information will be
lost. do you want to convert the object?"

I hesitatingly presses yes. It turned out that each cell, cell border etc
got converted in to individual textBoxes and Lines.

I stumbled on the above strange feature of excel OLE getting converted in
this manner purely through luck. (clicked on ungroup by mistake)

I have inherited some slides which looks like a Table but if I click on a
number within it, it was residing in its own textbox. I was wondering as to
why somebody took the trouble of making a Table with each grid in different
textbox. Now, I realise that they must have pasted an excel OLE and used the
ungroup feature.

Now, I plan to use this feature for making such kind of slides. I recorded a
macro (added the display alerts from my side).

Sub UngroupExcelOLE()
'
' Macro recorded 7/6/2005 by Hari Prasadh
'

Application.DisplayAlerts = ppAlertsNone

ActiveWindow.Selection.SlideRange.Shapes("Object 6").Select
ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange.Ungroup.Select
ActiveWindow.Selection.Unselect

Application.DisplayAlerts = ppAlertsAll

End Sub

Sub RegroupExcelOLE()
'
' Macro recorded 7/6/2005 by Hari Prasadh
'

Application.DisplayAlerts = ppAlertsNone

ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange.Regroup.Select

Application.DisplayAlerts = ppAlertsAll
End Sub


So, If I ungroup then I can even quickly regroup, but what if I have more
than 1 group in a single slide. I ungroup Group1 and then ungroup Group2 and
then select some other slide and then come back to this slide and then press
on regroup then does it do Groping of Group1 or group2. (Am I sorry, I didnt
try out this easy stuff on my own.....) Also to what extent does PPT
remember the need to ungroup and regroup the previous groups etc. And does
it remember this for each slide the various REGROUPING it would do?

I also see that even if one has ungrouped one can "rebuild" the excel OLE by
clicking on regroup. So, why does excel say "if you convert it to a
Microsoft Office drawing object, embedded data or linked information will be
lost."? as I did not lose any information.

Also, I see that if I group, regroup using Macro then am able to Undo the
same. How is it that PPT allows undo feature with Macro (Excel always
empties the Undo stack) ?

Somebody, please tell me (or point me) a little more about this feature (I
pursued Sonia C's tuts but it did not refer to Excel OLE getting ungrouped
in this manner?).

Thanks a lot,
Hari
India

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I stumbled on the above strange feature of excel OLE getting converted in

this manner purely through luck. (clicked on ungroup by mistake)

The same thing happens with all OLE content. What you see is a WMF picture of
the content. When you ungroup, you remove the OLE shape and data behind it
(ie, your actual spreadsheet) and leave just the component shapes of the WMF.

So, If I ungroup then I can even quickly regroup, but what if I have more
than 1 group in a single slide. I ungroup Group1 and then ungroup Group2 and
then select some other slide and then come back to this slide and then press
on regroup then does it do Groping of Group1 or group2. (Am I sorry, I didnt
try out this easy stuff on my own.....)

In the spirit of teaching fishing rather than handing out fish, let me suggest
that you give it a try? ,-)

But since you asked and I had to check (and learned a few new things as a
result, thanks to you):

PPT seems to keep a kind of Regroup stack much like its Undo stack, at least in
2000 and above. I'm fairly sure it was different in 97. What's more
interesting is that unlike Undo's, it maintains this stack even after you've
saved the presentation or even saved it, closed it, quit PPT, then reopened the
presentation. I'm not sure how many levels deep it goes or what its
limitations are, but it's a nice feature.

I also see that even if one has ungrouped one can "rebuild" the excel OLE by
clicking on regroup. So, why does excel say "if you convert it to a
Microsoft Office drawing object, embedded data or linked information will be
lost."? as I did not lose any information.

I don't get that here; If I ungroup an Excel OLE object once, I get a single
group after the MS warning. Regroup is grayed out.

I can ungroup again and turn the group into lots of objects, and regroup that
into the original group, but not into an Excel OLE object again.

What happens when you double click the shape after the first ungroup and
warning? It should allow you to edit the information *in Excel* if it's truly
regrouped. If not, you actually have lost information.

 

[Hari Prasadh]

Hi Steve,

The same thing happens with all OLE content. What you see is a WMF
picture of
the content. When you ungroup, you remove the OLE shape and data behind
it

Im sorry. I have seen WMF in "Save as" option etc in windows but dont know
what format this is. Is it analogous to JPEG or GIF etc. (My folder
options - File types says it is Windows media and fax viewer)

If you say yes, then I would get more confused, because when my Excel OLE
gets decompiled each grid's value (whether number or string) turns in to a
SEPERATE textbox. So does that mean TextBox ~= WMF (aka picture)

it maintains this stack even after you've
saved the presentation or even saved it,

I think I came across this feature today in one of the PPT's. I opened a
presentation from my mail attachment and a slide had many objects which was
already "ungrouped" and saw that regroup icon was active, so I clicked on it
and Lo! all the individual textBoxes got "compiled" in to a single excel
worksheet (truly, not joking).

warning? It should allow you to edit the information *in Excel* if it's
truly
regrouped. If not, you actually have lost information.

As mentioned above it turned "back" in to a excel OLE and I could do right
click -- worksheet object -- open and it opened in one of my active excel
sessions.

Thats why was concerned about the warning message (and wanted to know its
relevance/meaning). Inspite of my lack of technical/domain knowledge would
like to offer 2 theories. One, this message may be applicable for some OLE's
only (may be somebody with better skills could check do automatic testing
with all possible OLE's). Two, doing this might result in loss of some
information in regrouping but that information may not be significant enough
to prevent PPT in "recompiling" to original form in most cases.

Thanks a lot,
Hari
India

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi Steve,

Im sorry. I have seen WMF in "Save as" option etc in windows but dont know
what format this is. Is it analogous to JPEG or GIF etc. (My folder
options - File types says it is Windows media and fax viewer)

It's a Windows Metafile ... kind of a basic building block for Windows
graphics. Mostly contains vector information but can also include bitmaps.
And for present purposes, it doesn't really matter. OLE objects include a
picture. We don't really care what the format is for now.

I think I came across this feature today in one of the PPT's. I opened a
presentation from my mail attachment and a slide had many objects which was
already "ungrouped" and saw that regroup icon was active, so I clicked on it
and Lo! all the individual textBoxes got "compiled" in to a single excel
worksheet (truly, not joking).

That's interesting. I don't see that happening here, but perhaps there's a
different way of inserting the OLE object that allows it.

 

[Hari Prasadh]

Hi Steve,

Thnx for info on metafile.

but perhaps there's a
different way of inserting the OLE object that allows it.

You are right. I pasted an excel OLE and ungrouped and then regrouped it but
it didnt regroup in to OLE.

On the other hand in the attachment which I received in my mail from
somebody, am able to recompile it in to OLE. So, I think you are right in
saying that it might depend on the way it is pasted.

I have office 2002 and I think the person who mailed me the file most
probably worked on Office 2000.

Hope somebody figures out.

Thanks a lot,
Hari
India

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

On the other hand in the attachment which I received in my mail from
somebody, am able to recompile it in to OLE. So, I think you are right in
saying that it might depend on the way it is pasted.

How big is the file, or just the one slide with this OLE thing on it when saved
to a new presentation?

 

[Hari Prasadh]

Hi Steve,

The file is close to 1.2 MB and has many slides.

Thanks a lot,
Hari
India

PS - I will get back to you on single slide details a little later as it
might cause some problems here (??!!).

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi Steve,

The file is close to 1.2 MB and has many slides.

1.2 mb is all? No problem. If you're able to send it (and want to), I'd be
happy to have a look.

steve at-sign pptools dot com

 

[Hari]

Hi Steve,

Thnx for the offer.

Once I get to work on Monday (presently from home) I would try to see
if I can change data (have an NDA for original data) without
compromising on the ability to "re-compile" it to excel OLE.

Would keep you posted.

Regards,
Hari
India

 

[Hari Prasadh]

Hi Steve,

A case of ...

I am pretty sure that the day I first reported this problem I was able to
recompile to an excel OLE, but just now I tried it many times from my mail
attachment once on 2002 and then on 2000 and it is not recompiling. I think
I was just absent minded that day and reported a non-existent "issue".

Anyway, thnx a lot for your help.

Regards,
Hari
India

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi Hari,

I am pretty sure that the day I first reported this problem I was able to
recompile to an excel OLE, but just now I tried it many times from my mail
attachment once on 2002 and then on 2000 and it is not recompiling. I think
I was just absent minded that day and reported a non-existent "issue".

Thanks for confirming that at least that small portion of my sanity is still
intact. <g>