Populating Data from Excel sheet into Powerpoint Template Slide I created

Hello,

I have used VBA macros before to copy data from Excel to Excel and from Access to Excel.  But I have never used macros for copying Excel data to Powerpoint before.  I was wondering if I create a Powerpoint template slide, can I copy values of fields from an Excel to populate the value of a corresponding Text Box in a powerpoint slide.  And then repeat the process for each row in my Excel worksheet on a subsequent slide in powerpoint

This sounds totally reasonable to me

Thanks
David
lebeau26Asked:
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crystal (strive4peace) - Microsoft MVP, AccessRemote Training and ProgrammingCommented:
Hi David,

here is VBA to make a powerpoint presentation. It simply loops and creates 5 slides -- hopefully you can see how to change it to get what you need from your workbook. You will need to reference the PowerPoint Object library. Later, it could be changed to late binding. 
Sub MakePowerpoint()
'130504 Crystal

   Dim appPpt As Object _
      , objSlide As PowerPoint.Slide

   Dim sFilename As String _
     , nSlideNumber As Integer _
     , nMaxSlides As Integer
   
   'Look for existing instance
    On Error Resume Next
    Set appPpt = GetObject(, "PowerPoint.Application")
    On Error GoTo Proc_Err
   
    If appPpt Is Nothing Then
          Set appPpt = New PowerPoint.Application
      End If
    'Make  presentation
    If appPpt.Presentations.Count = 0 Then
        appPpt.Presentations.Add
    End If
   appPpt.Visible = True
   sFilename = ActivePresentation.Path & "\" & "MyPresentation.ppt"
   
   nSlideNumber = 1
   nMaxSlides = 5
   
   With appPpt
      Do While nSlideNumber < nMaxSlides
         If nSlideNumber > .ActivePresentation.Slides.Count Then
            .ActivePresentation.Slides.Add .ActivePresentation.Slides.Count + 1, ppLayoutText
         Else
            objSlide.Layout = ppLayoutText
         End If
         
         .ActiveWindow.View.GotoSlide nSlideNumber
         Set objSlide = .ActivePresentation.Slides(nSlideNumber)
         objSlide.Shapes(1).TextFrame.TextRange.Text = "slide title"
         objSlide.Shapes(2).TextFrame.TextRange.Text = "content " & nSlideNumber
         
         nSlideNumber = nSlideNumber + 1
      Loop
      
      .ActivePresentation.SaveAs sFilename
      MsgBox "Done making " & sFilename, , "Done"
      
      .ActivePresentation.Close
      .Quit
   End With

Proc_Exit:
   On Error Resume Next
   Set appPpt = Nothing
   Exit Sub

Proc_Err:
   MsgBox Err.Description, , "ERROR MakePowerpoint: " & Err.Number
   Resume Proc_Exit
   Resume
End Sub

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crystal (strive4peace) - Microsoft MVP, AccessRemote Training and ProgrammingCommented:
if you need help implementing the code, please explain more about your data, thank you.
lebeau26Author Commented:
Hi Crystal,

Sorry for the late response but I was tied up for the holiday weekend.  I will take a look and get back to you as soon as possible

Thanks
David
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lebeau26Author Commented:
Hi Crystal,

Ok, so I did take a look at the code for a sec.  I did have a few questions:

1 - It seems to look for an existing instance of a powerpoint presentation.  Does this mean that I need to open my powerpoint template first before I can run code like this?

2 - Is this piece of code going to reside in my Excel file or in my powerpoint file?  I am assuming Excel file

Ultimately, I am in the process of making a Powerpoint slide template.  With lets say shape A, shape B, shape C, shape D.  With whatever fonts and fill.  I would like the code to open up this template, and immediately make a copy of this slide so that I can start populating the slide with the corresponding field in Excel

Please let me know what you think

Thanks
David
crystal (strive4peace) - Microsoft MVP, AccessRemote Training and ProgrammingCommented:
1. only if PowerPoint is not already open
2. code will be in Excel -- where the data is
lebeau26Author Commented:
What if I wanted to open a specific PowerPoint file in a directory like My Documents without having PowerPoint already open?   Like I said, I'm preparing a template slide to be used for this.

What line of code would I use?

Thanks
David
crystal (strive4peace) - Microsoft MVP, AccessRemote Training and ProgrammingCommented:
modify appPpt.Presentations.Add to specify the name of the template 
   appPpt.Presentations.Add Template:= "c:\path\filename.thmx"

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where c:\path\filename.thmx is the name of your template file

if you created/modified one of the layouts for what you want, then change ppLayoutText to whichever one it is
lebeau26Author Commented:
Hi Crystal,

So I decided to get this going with having my ppt template open first so it doesn't need to open a new instance.

So it looks like the code goes to error on this line of code:

sFilename = ActivePresentation.Path

Am I missing a object library reference?

-David
lebeau26Author Commented:
I forgot to mention that I also get an error dialog box saying "ActiveX component cannot create object" when I try to execute the line of code:

ActivePresentation.Slides.Count
crystal (strive4peace) - Microsoft MVP, AccessRemote Training and ProgrammingCommented:
not missing anything  -- make a variable, ie, sPath, and assign that to the path to save the file -- and pass the value or use it instead
lebeau26Author Commented:
Well, I feel like whether the code uses ActivePresentation.Path or ActivePresentation.Slides.Count It seems like the error lies in "ActivePresentation."

Because I even did this using a variable like you said:

Dim openSlidesCnt as integer
openSlidesCnt = ActivePresentation.Slides.Count

I still get "ERROR MakePowerpoint 429 ActiveX Component can't create object"

-David
lebeau26Author Commented:
Ok, so I added "appPpt" in front of ActivePresentation and it seems to work now.  

Dim openSlidesCnt as integer
openSlidesCnt = appPpt.ActivePresentation.Slides.Count

And the variable is returning the correct count now.  I guess I needed to add something before ActivePresenation in the code?

Thank you for being patient with me.  I have never used the Powerpoint library before.

-David
lebeau26Author Commented:
I am now proceeding through the sample code you gave me.  Can you explain what you are doing with this piece of code?  And what is ppLayoutText in your code?

If nSlideNumber > .ActivePresentation.Slides.Count Then
            .ActivePresentation.Slides.Add .ActivePresentation.Slides.Count + 1, ppLayoutText
         Else
            objSlide.Layout = ppLayoutText
         End If

Thanks,
David
crystal (strive4peace) - Microsoft MVP, AccessRemote Training and ProgrammingCommented:
adding a new slide, or changing the current slide layout if a slide is already there
lebeau26Author Commented:
How about if I just want to copy and paste another copy of a slide that is already there?
lebeau26Author Commented:
Actually I think I got it.  I think it is this:

appPpt.ActivePresentation.Slides(nSlideNumber).Copy
appPpt.ActivePresentation.Slides.Paste
crystal (strive4peace) - Microsoft MVP, AccessRemote Training and ProgrammingCommented:
even easier ...
ActivePresentation.Slides(#).Duplicate

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WHERE # is the slide index number. Here is a help link:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff745804.aspx

to change the code to run from Access, preface objects with
appPpt. 'or whatever is your PowerPoint application object variable name
-- you can change ActivePresentation too

Duplicate returns a slide object which you can assign to an object variable -- or maybe just use With ActivePresentation.Slides(#).Duplicate -- and then set other properties
lebeau26Author Commented:
Great, I think I am almost done.  I just have one more clarification I need.  Here is what I have for my Do While Loop:

Do While nSlideNumber < nMaxSlides
            appPpt.ActivePresentation.Slides(nSlideNumber).Duplicate
            nSlideNumber = nSlideNumber + 1        
            appPpt.ActiveWindow.View.GotoSlide nSlideNumber
            Set objSlide = appPpt.ActivePresentation.Slides(nSlideNumber)
            objSlide.Shapes(1).TextFrame.TextRange.Text = "slide title"
            objSlide.Shapes(2).TextFrame.TextRange.Text = "test"
Loop

I can see which shape changes to "slide title" when it gets to that line of code.  My question is, how do I actually know which shape number or name I want to change.  For example, in MS Access forms, each text box has a specific name.  So I can easily set the value of the text box to a value from a table/query.

Here, I see where objSlide.Shapes(1) only after the line of code runs.  And the objSlide.Shapes(2) line of code errors out (maybe because that shape doesn't exist.)

Please let me know if you have any questions

-David
lebeau26Author Commented:
Hi Crystal,

I was just wondering if you saw my question above.  Basically I can see which object objSlide.Shapes(1) is on my slide.  But I need to change the text on about a dozen shapes on the body of my template slide.  How can I identify the shape on the slide so that I can code it in VBA?

Thanks
David
crystal (strive4peace) - Microsoft MVP, AccessRemote Training and ProgrammingCommented:
please post a sample of your template so I can give you the code it needs
lebeau26Author Commented:
Hi Crystal,

Ok so, I decided to just start the slide from scratch and I think it works now when I change .shapes(1) or .shapes(2)

I guess this will only work when I create the slide myself and then I will know which shape is which.  So if someone else gives me a slide, I would not know which one is shape(1) or shape(16) then?  Because like I said, in an MS Access form, I can just right click the object -> Properties and each shape has a name or identifier.  So I can easily assign a value to it using VBA.  Here in MS Powerpoint,  I feel like I am guessing...but I'll use trial and error I guess.

Thanks for all your help and patience!

-David
lebeau26Author Commented:
Crystal was a great help with helping me figure out my problem.
crystal (strive4peace) - Microsoft MVP, AccessRemote Training and ProgrammingCommented:
you're welcome, David ~ happy to help

>> each shape has a name or identifier <<

you can, and should, change the object names to be logical (rather than the random names assigned).  You can reference objects by their name or number.

if someone else gives you a slide, you can also identify the objects by their position (ie: Left, Top)
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