More Tricks

The book does not cover writing results to a file. This example writes the quiz results to a file. It is just like the Printable Page example in the text (see Example 7-9), except that the PrintablePage procedure is changed so that in addition to creating a printable slide, the results are also written to a text file. The text file MyTestFile.txt must exist in the same location as the PowerPoint file.

Another example that writes to a file: Ask for a name, address, and city/state/zip. Write that information to an existing file named addressFile.txt

Several people have wanted a printable page that prints without the Print button. This is particularly helpful if you have modified the Printable Page (see Example 7-9), to create a certificate of completion rather than a list of questions answered. This example is exactly like Example 7-9, except that when you print, the buttons do not show up on the printout.

This example allows you to click on a shape to make it bigger. Clicking again will return it to its original size.

This is some code to move shapes around on the screen. The first slide has a single shape. Click on the "Move To 5,5" button, and the rectangle will be moved to the top left of the screen (5,5). Click on the "Ask and Move" button, and you will be asked where you want to move. Slide 2 has a small checker board with a couple of checkers. Click on a checker, and it will turn green. Click on any empty square on the board, and the green checker will move there. This isn't that smart and would need a lot more work to create a decent checkers game.

Someone asked me about using HTML code in the text of PowerPoint. He wanted VBA to be able to take simple tags, such as <B> and <I>, to convert text to bold and italic. This example does that.

My daughter is older now, and the "Ella Can Read" example (see Examples 8.16 and 8.17 are too simple for her even with some fun additions such as many longer questions with harder words and a way for her to choose only the hard questions. This is my crazy idea of an answer (yes, she reads books, and we limit her time on the computer as well). This example creates a branching story that randomly branches. The VBA simply looks for numbers in shape 2 on the current slide and randomly picks which slide number to jump to. If there is only one choice, it jumps to that slide. If there are no choices, it says "The End" and quits. While this could all be done in PowerPoint, I found it easier to do in Word, so the Word file is my story (it's fairly silly and needs more work). It uses the style Heading 1 for the text followed by Heading 2 for the choices. This is easily loaded into PowerPoint by choosing Slides From File from the Insert menu. The template (MakeStory.pot) has the VBA built-in, so write the story, open the template, delete the first blank slide if your version of PowerPoint creates it, and insert the slides from the Word file. Writing a coherent branching story is definitely the hard part.

Here are a couple of ideas for Drag and Drop, including a link to information about a new program from Hans Hofler, the original Drag and Drop creatore

Can you make a crossword puzzle with PowerPoint and VBA? Someone named Mel asked me this so I made this sample as a proof of concept. It really contains no new VBA tricks, but it combines them for an interesting effect.

Several people have asked about making a hover button (you know the buttons that change when you hover over them on the Web). It might be easier to do without VBA, but here is a VBA solution.

Many examples in the book involve hiding and showing shapes. The problem is that while you are developing a presentation, shapes tend to be hidden before the procedure that shows them works. This presentation includes a simple procedure to show every shape in a presentation. Copy the ShowItAll procedure and run it any time you need to get all your hidden shapes back.