Licensing PowerPoint presentations

[Noel Bailey]

Does anyone know if it's possible to create PowerPoint presentations that
will no longer run after a set expiry date or after a set number of uses?

This would be useful if one were to want to sell content on a (annual)
license basis rather than by customers making a one off payment.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Does anyone know if it's possible to create PowerPoint presentations that
will no longer run after a set expiry date or after a set number of uses?

This would be useful if one were to want to sell content on a (annual)
license basis rather than by customers making a one off payment.

It's possible to do something along these lines with Shyam Pillai's SecurePack,
but only under Windows. http://skp.mvps.org

There are also ways of doing this with PDFs, but they tend to be rather
expensive propositions.


================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Noel,

I'm thinking out load here.

How about if you made a little macro that checks the system's date against
the expiration date you specify?

Here's the germ of what I am thinking:

Sub Autpen()
Dim Today
Dim MyDate
MyDate = DateSerial(2008, 4, 2) ' The expiration date
Let Today = Now
If now < MyDate Then
UserForm1.Show
'Display a user form that thanks the user and has a link to your web site
for updates and then exit from the presentation
Else
'Put code here to bring you to PowerPoint normal view or run the show
End If
End Sub

Then save a copy of your presentation as a PowerPoint add-in, which you can
distribute to your audience.

You can make this quite robust. You can password protect the code, and the
userforms are versatile so you can do a lot with them.

Does this strike you as an approach to take?

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

Does anyone know if it's possible to create PowerPoint presentations that
will no longer run after a set expiry date or after a set number of uses?

This would be useful if one were to want to sell content on a (annual)
license basis rather than by customers making a one off payment.

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[jrhx]

Disable the macro in powerpoint can skip running this Macro
--
PowerPoint tools
PPT2DVD,PPT2Flash,PPT2Video
http://www.ppt-to-dvd.com
PowerPoit free Resources
http://www.ppt-to-dvd.com/free-templates.php?sid=4

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Problem is, when you save a presentation as an add-in, the slides go bye-bye.

But if you can require that the audience load an add-in to view the file, the
add-in could un-munge a PPT file that'd been previously munged and load it or
save an unmunged copy in an unlikely place on disk and delete it after the
show. All have risks, nothing's perfect, YMMV, not legal where prohibited by
this mattress tag under penalty of .... etc.

Hi Noel,

I'm thinking out load here.

How about if you made a little macro that checks the system's date against
the expiration date you specify?

Here's the germ of what I am thinking:

Sub Autpen()
Dim Today
Dim MyDate
MyDate = DateSerial(2008, 4, 2) ' The expiration date
Let Today = Now
If now < MyDate Then
UserForm1.Show
'Display a user form that thanks the user and has a link to your web site
for updates and then exit from the presentation
Else
'Put code here to bring you to PowerPoint normal view or run the show
End If
End Sub

Then save a copy of your presentation as a PowerPoint add-in, which you can
distribute to your audience.

You can make this quite robust. You can password protect the code, and the
userforms are versatile so you can do a lot with them.

Does this strike you as an approach to take?

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

================================================
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
================================================

 

[Noel Bailey]

Hi Noel,

I'm thinking out load here.

How about if you made a little macro that checks the system's date against
the expiration date you specify?

Here's the germ of what I am thinking:

Sub Autpen()
Dim Today
Dim MyDate
MyDate = DateSerial(2008, 4, 2) ' The expiration date
Let Today = Now
If now < MyDate Then
UserForm1.Show
'Display a user form that thanks the user and has a link to your web site
for updates and then exit from the presentation
Else
'Put code here to bring you to PowerPoint normal view or run the show
End If
End Sub

Then save a copy of your presentation as a PowerPoint add-in, which you can
distribute to your audience.

You can make this quite robust. You can password protect the code, and the
userforms are versatile so you can do a lot with them.

Does this strike you as an approach to take?

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

Thanks, Jim, looks cool. I'll give it a go!

Noel Bailey

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi again,

Steve is saying that the add-in itself can't have any slides in it. But the
add-in could perform some operations on a PowerPoint file that when you
distributed it the slides were all set as hidden and the macro would unhide
the slides. Or all the text and the backgrounds are set to the same color
and the macro changes that so things are magically visible.

If this sounds attractive then start on this page. About half-way down it
has a section on Programming PowerPoint. Start reading and post back with
questions (you'll have plenty).
http://pptfaq.com/index.html

Steve, me, and the whole rest of the world will try to answer your
questions.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

Thanks, Jim, looks cool. I'll give it a go!

Noel Bailey

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are not Microsoft Employees
MVP info

 

[Noel Bailey]

Hi again,

Steve is saying that the add-in itself can't have any slides in it. But the
add-in could perform some operations on a PowerPoint file that when you
distributed it the slides were all set as hidden and the macro would unhide
the slides. Or all the text and the backgrounds are set to the same color
and the macro changes that so things are magically visible.

If this sounds attractive then start on this page. About half-way down it
has a section on Programming PowerPoint. Start reading and post back with
questions (you'll have plenty).
http://pptfaq.com/index.html

Steve, me, and the whole rest of the world will try to answer your
questions.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

Hi Noel,

I'm thinking out load here.

How about if you made a little macro that checks the system's date against
the expiration date you specify?

Here's the germ of what I am thinking:

Sub Autpen()
Dim Today
Dim MyDate
MyDate = DateSerial(2008, 4, 2) ' The expiration date
Let Today = Now
If now < MyDate Then
UserForm1.Show
'Display a user form that thanks the user and has a link to your web site
for updates and then exit from the presentation
Else
'Put code here to bring you to PowerPoint normal view or run the show
End If
End Sub

Then save a copy of your presentation as a PowerPoint add-in, which you can
distribute to your audience.

You can make this quite robust. You can password protect the code, and the
userforms are versatile so you can do a lot with them.

Does this strike you as an approach to take?

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP



Quoting from "Noel Bailey" <[email protected]>, in article
C2382091.602C%[email protected], on [DATE:

Does anyone know if it's possible to create PowerPoint presentations that
will no longer run after a set expiry date or after a set number of uses?

This would be useful if one were to want to sell content on a (annual)
license basis rather than by customers making a one off payment.

Thanks, Jim, looks cool. I'll give it a go!

Noel Bailey

Okay.

I'll look at it. Thanks!