Web scripting

[ciw2otv]

I am interested in learning about using Powerpoint with VBA coding in
the web browser. In one thread it was mentioned that it can be done
with web scripting. Is "Microsoft Script Control" the tool to use? If
not can you direct me to a source for accomplishing this task?
Thank you,
Eldon

 

[David M. Marcovitz]

Some VBA-like things can be replicated with JavaScript (and probably
other scripting tools on the Web), but I don't think you can easily take
a PowerPoint with VBA and turn it into something that will work on your
browser. The following Web page describes how to do in JavaScript some of
the basic quiz things that I do in VBA:

http://www.loyola.edu/edudept/facstaff/marcovitz/JavaScript/

--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/

(e-mail address removed) wrote in @p79g2000cwp.googlegroups.com:

 

[ciw2otv]

Thank you David. It looks like I have some homework to do here. I will
get started with Java by doing something other than drinking it.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I am interested in learning about using Powerpoint with VBA coding in
the web browser. In one thread it was mentioned that it can be done
with web scripting. Is "Microsoft Script Control" the tool to use? If
not can you direct me to a source for accomplishing this task?

Can I restate that to "adding coding to HTML saved from PowerPoint"? and not
mess up the concept too badly?

There are several scriping languages you can use in html/web pages. The most
common is Javascript (note: NOT Java ... despite the similar names, they're
not really relatives), but VBScript is another possibility.

As far as starting with code in PPT and having it survive the leap to HTML ...
I don't think you can get there from here. You'd have to edit the html/xml
that PowerPoint produces. After you sort out what it all means. Something
like working out the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything.

Here's what the last guy who tried it ended up with:
http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/errors/404.html

Ah, never mind all that rubbish. ;-)

What're you trying to accomplish? Perhaps there's another way there.

 

[ciw2otv]

That server person has it bad! I went through two boxes of tissues with
them. My eyes are really dry.
Back to what I want to do ... In teaching science I like to provide
dynamic slides from Powerpoint that allows for student interaction
during the presentation. The VBA provides the listboxes and various
controls. Since the Viewer does not engage in such actions, my thoughts
were to use scripting to make it all happen. The real goal is to use
this to make their changes without major backgound in code writing.
Possibly create a text file in notepad, take advantage of file reading
by VBA, and some formatting to clean it up. It sounds like I am trying
to reinvent the wheel, but I think it is time for me to get 'round to
it.
I would have to give major credit to those on this newsgroup, because
about everything that I know up to this point has been harvested from
here.
I need to finish reading the server's message. I didn't realize they
felt so bad about not being able to find web pages. Tissue time!

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

That server person has it bad! I went through two boxes of tissues with
them. My eyes are really dry.

Poor Marvin ... nothing much ever goes his way, does it?

Back to what I want to do ... In teaching science I like to provide
dynamic slides from Powerpoint that allows for student interaction
during the presentation. The VBA provides the listboxes and various
controls. Since the Viewer does not engage in such actions, my thoughts
were to use scripting to make it all happen. The real goal is to use
this to make their changes without major backgound in code writing.
Possibly create a text file in notepad, take advantage of file reading
by VBA, and some formatting to clean it up. It sounds like I am trying
to reinvent the wheel, but I think it is time for me to get 'round to
it.

So you want to make this happen in the HTML/Web version of your presentations
as well? Fair warning ... this would mean tackling several largish challenges
at one time.

You'd need to learn how to produce the desired result in PPT (sounds like
you're there already)

You'd need to work out how to do the same in HTML and possible PPT's specific
HTML/xml/javascript combination.

Then you'd need to translate between the two.

Before tackling all that, have a look at the rather simpler html you can get
out of our PPT2HTML converter (http://www.pptools.com/ppt2html/). The free
demo will let you do pretty much anything the full version's capable of, and
the whole thing's a lot more malleable than PPT's own version (though it
doesn't suupport animation and a few other things).

If you can work out a way of modifying the HTML to do what you want,
scriptwise, I'd be interested to see what needs to be done to incorporate the
ability into the add-in.

I would have to give major credit to those on this newsgroup, because
about everything that I know up to this point has been harvested from
here.
I need to finish reading the server's message. I didn't realize they
felt so bad about not being able to find web pages. Tissue time!

Toward the end, he gets a bit huffy about the unreasonable demands we make on
him ... justifiably so, I suppose. There he is, brain the size of a planet and
... well, I'll let him tell you. And tell you. And tell you ...

(And if you've not read the Hitchhiker's Guide, you really should. You'd enjoy
it.)