Want variable master content auto updated in multiple files

[Guest]

I have a system of 30 or more PP presentations hyper-linked together for an
overall corporate presentation. I have no easy way to insert variable text
(i.e. event title, version #, etc) into ALL component PP files. The best I
can do today is open each file individually and update link(s) to a master
source.

I would like Powerpoint to have same capabilities as Word for inserting
Fields.
My desire is to use document information such as Title and Subject to
contain the variable data. I can globally change and view these fields in
each file from the Explorer level, and if each individual file could display
text taken from its own document info fields (in the footer, say) then the
only thing remaining is to be able to easily activate the updated fields in
all files at once. One marginal solution is to print all documents from the
explorer level to a throw-away PRN file and insure the option to update
fields when printing is on for each file. So much for my idea, which I
submitted to Microsoft.

Perhaps, though, I have overlooked other ways to solve this problem short of
third-party SW? I am not familiar with Visual Basic programming, but suspect
a solution exists there.

Thanks,
Bill

Thanks for your response.

 

[Guest]

Rather than write your own, it'd be worth it to invest in PPTMerge:
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptools/merge/index.html

 

[Guest]

Perhaps not. After reviewing your product, I believe it would be employed as
follows. I would insert "merge field" codes in all component presentation
files. 30 different files, say, would each refer back to one master source
for variable text. Your web site does not indicate any automatic means to
apply the merge function to multiple files at once. Also, there are many
different collaborators and it appears a copy of your product would need to
be purchased and installed on each person's PC. Have I misunderstood?

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Perhaps not. After reviewing your product,

It's not Glenna's, I'm the perp. ;-)
Sorry I didn't jump in to explain this stuff earlier, but ...

I believe it would be employed as
follows. I would insert "merge field" codes in all component presentation
files. 30 different files, say, would each refer back to one master source
for variable text. Your web site does not indicate any automatic means to
apply the merge function to multiple files at once.

That's correct, there's no batch/multiple file functionality; you'd need to open
and merge each file individually. I can see where that'd be a bit of a nuisance in
your situation.

Also, there are many
different collaborators and it appears a copy of your product would need to
be purchased and installed on each person's PC.

If all the files can be brought together for the time it takes one person to do the
merges, then only one copy would be needed. In other words, the software's not
needed to insert merge codes or to view or further edit the presentation once the
merge is done. It's only needed on the PC that actually pulls the data out of the
datafiles and inserts it into PPT files.

Hope that helps clarify things.

 

[Guest]

Steve,

Thanks for your explanations. Your right, the real nuisance is individually
updating/refreshing each individual file, since I can already achieve the
one-to-many relationship with standard linked content features.

Looks like I'm not alone (see
<[email protected]>) in wanting to link
document info fields to slide content in Powerpoint, since this capability
would solve my problem (as long as I could easily refresh all files.) An
opportunity for a third-party plug-in?

Does VBA give access to Document Info fields? Anybody know what a VBA
solution might look like?

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Steve,

Thanks for your explanations. Your right, the real nuisance is individually
updating/refreshing each individual file, since I can already achieve the
one-to-many relationship with standard linked content features.

Batch merging is something I've thought about from time to time but haven't decided
whether to go there just yet.

Does VBA give access to Document Info fields? Anybody know what a VBA
solution might look like?

You can get at document info and custom document info from VBA but I'm not sure how that
would help; you'd still have to update the doc info for each file, no?

 

[Guest]

Steve,

A batch update mode may indeed enhance your product. Perhaps you could also
define special merge codes that would link from custom and standard doc info
fields rather than a separate ASCII file. An advantage of using doc info as
a source is the visibility and editing possibilities of Explorer. Define the
desired Explorer File Details columns and you can scan down a whole directory
of files and compare values as well assign values to all selected files at
once-- quite handy for managing many documents from different sources.

It's far more likely that I'VE misunderstood something. My idea for easily
updating fields in VBA is probably based on my ignorance of it! If you can
define a VBA script that runs automatically upon opening the file (???) then
it could force the update when I selecte all files together and open them.
Could be a memory hog to open 30 big picture-rich presentaions, however.

Another opportunity for third-party solutions may be the applet. I use a
multiple file rename utility ("Better File Rename"?) that stores script-like
instructions in an "applet" file. By selecting multiple files and dragging
them onto the applet, the script instructions are carried out on each dragged
file, in this case renaming the files.

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Steve,

A batch update mode may indeed enhance your product. Perhaps you could also
define special merge codes that would link from custom and standard doc info
fields rather than a separate ASCII file. An advantage of using doc info as
a source is the visibility and editing possibilities of Explorer. Define the
desired Explorer File Details columns and you can scan down a whole directory
of files and compare values as well assign values to all selected files at
once-- quite handy for managing many documents from different sources.

aHA! The light goes on.

It's far more likely that I'VE misunderstood something. My idea for easily
updating fields in VBA is probably based on my ignorance of it! If you can
define a VBA script that runs automatically upon opening the file (???) then
it could force the update when I selecte all files together and open them.
Could be a memory hog to open 30 big picture-rich presentaions, however.

An installed addin can trap the file open event in PPT but it's not as simple as in Word.

But there's another problem with the way you'd like it to work: PPT doesn't have fields the
way Word does. Merge works via text replacement; it replaces any instance of
:SomethingLikeThis: with the value in the :SomethingLikeThis: field of an excel sheet or the
like. Once it's done that, the :SomethingLikeThis: text in the PPT is gone. That's why
Merge works with a copy of the original "template" file.

Handling multiple files isn't such a big deal; you'd just let the user choose which ones to
deal with then open and process them sequentially rather than all at once.