B
bdormer
ENVIRONMENT:
Office 2007 – CONVERTING FROM OFFICE 2003
PROBLEM:
Every 2 weeks, Create Executive Brief in Powerpoint – brief consists of
departmental briefs (separate PPT files, from separate authors) merged into a
single PPT file. The single PPT is then emailed, printed hardcopy and shown
in an executive meeting.
By mandate, we are not allowed to use SharePoint.
The departmental briefs each have their own master slides. The time window
for creating the single integrated brief is VERY short (30 minutes) – and the
operators are NOT Powerpoint Rangers. The solution needs to be
user-friendly, highly automated and bullet-proof.
In Office 2003 – I have a VB .Net 2.0 program that uses SendKeys to perform
“Insert†/ “Slides From File†and checks the “Keep Source Formatting†box.
This program works well and has been in use for quite some time.
Now have been mandated to convert to Office 2007. The SendKeys solution no
longer works because: 1) The keystrokes in PPT 2007 are different from PPT
2003. 2) In PPT 2007, the “New Slideâ€/ “Reuse Slides†dialog does not
appear to be Section 508 Compliant. We are unable to determine if there is
a combination of keystrokes that will insert one presentation into another,
maintaining the Master Slides in the process. The use of mouse-only
movement, click and right-click appears to be necessary.
Since the Sendkeys solution is no longer viable – I turned to using VB .Net
and
Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint And Slides.InsertFromFile
The solution works – but it does not copy the Master Slides (which is the
main reason the original solution used SendKeys). I have researched this
issue extensively and not found anything helpful.
It seems like I’m in a Catch-22. The Interop API doesn’t support the “Keep
Source Formatting†and I can’t use SendKeys with Office 2007.
QUESTIONS:
Is Microsoft going to fix the InsertFromFile API to expose the “Keep Source
Formatting†bit?
Is Microsoft going to fix the 508 compliance in Powerpoint 2007
(Insert/Reuse Slides)?
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I might resolve this issue?
Brian Dormer
(Former) Microsoft MVP 1997-2002 / Windows SDK
Office 2007 – CONVERTING FROM OFFICE 2003
PROBLEM:
Every 2 weeks, Create Executive Brief in Powerpoint – brief consists of
departmental briefs (separate PPT files, from separate authors) merged into a
single PPT file. The single PPT is then emailed, printed hardcopy and shown
in an executive meeting.
By mandate, we are not allowed to use SharePoint.
The departmental briefs each have their own master slides. The time window
for creating the single integrated brief is VERY short (30 minutes) – and the
operators are NOT Powerpoint Rangers. The solution needs to be
user-friendly, highly automated and bullet-proof.
In Office 2003 – I have a VB .Net 2.0 program that uses SendKeys to perform
“Insert†/ “Slides From File†and checks the “Keep Source Formatting†box.
This program works well and has been in use for quite some time.
Now have been mandated to convert to Office 2007. The SendKeys solution no
longer works because: 1) The keystrokes in PPT 2007 are different from PPT
2003. 2) In PPT 2007, the “New Slideâ€/ “Reuse Slides†dialog does not
appear to be Section 508 Compliant. We are unable to determine if there is
a combination of keystrokes that will insert one presentation into another,
maintaining the Master Slides in the process. The use of mouse-only
movement, click and right-click appears to be necessary.
Since the Sendkeys solution is no longer viable – I turned to using VB .Net
and
Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint And Slides.InsertFromFile
The solution works – but it does not copy the Master Slides (which is the
main reason the original solution used SendKeys). I have researched this
issue extensively and not found anything helpful.
It seems like I’m in a Catch-22. The Interop API doesn’t support the “Keep
Source Formatting†and I can’t use SendKeys with Office 2007.
QUESTIONS:
Is Microsoft going to fix the InsertFromFile API to expose the “Keep Source
Formatting†bit?
Is Microsoft going to fix the 508 compliance in Powerpoint 2007
(Insert/Reuse Slides)?
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I might resolve this issue?
Brian Dormer
(Former) Microsoft MVP 1997-2002 / Windows SDK