Control/automation of printing format?

[Drew]

Hi all! Hope someone can help! Here we go...


Part 1: Desired end result

There are approx. 40 .ppt files in a folder.

I need to have a printable document (.doc preferred) for
each .ppt file that presents five slides per page in a
left-justified column with blank lines to the right of
the slides.

This is similar to the handout you can easily create
through PPT itself, but having 5 to a page is absolutely
neccesary in this case. Futher, the layout of the PPT
automatic handout sheets has margins that are far too
large and I need the slides to be very closely stacked.


Part 2: Available printing methods not adequate and very
time-consuming.

PPT supplies many different automatic formats to
print "handouts", but none of these are formatted the way
I need them to be.

PPT supplies the "export to Word" ability, but again, the
end result is not in the format I want. The Word file
then requires much additional manipulation to get to my
desired result.

Part 3: Automating this task somehow

I have 40 or so presentations (*.ppt files) that I need
to print in this fussy format, each of them consisting of
nearly 30 slides. I need to perform this feat every 6
months, as the presentations are updated or altered, to
keep the hardcopy handouts current. This has eaten up
more of my time than I care to admit, and I MUST find a
way to automate this process.


Looking forward to a clever solution,
-Drew

 

[Shyam Pillai]

Drew,
Take a look at handout wizard. You can create your own layouts. The tutorial
on the main page explains how.
It's a fully functional demo : http://www.mvps.org/skp/how/