Re: [OFF] PowerPoint [was Re: Scripting OS X Mail app]
Re: [OFF] PowerPoint [was Re: Scripting OS X Mail app]
- Subject: Re: [OFF] PowerPoint [was Re: Scripting OS X Mail app]
- From: Paul Berkowitz <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 01 Feb 2002 13:20:24 -0800
On 2/1/02 11:36 AM, "Arthur J Knapp" <email@hidden> wrote:
>
Don't upgrade just for the sake of PowerPoint, it is still not scriptable,
>
(there isn't even a lousy "do script" command). One can write a macro, AFTER
>
learning the needlessly complicated Visual Basic language, (because unlike
>
the Windows version, PowerPoint for the Mac still does not record macros).
>
Having written a macro, you have to save it into a presentation file, unlike
>
Word, where you can save to the "normal" template. Having created your
>
macro, you have to run it from inside PowerPoint because, like I said,
>
there isn't even a lousy "do script" command.
PowerPoint X does indeed now have a 'do Visual Basic' AppleScript command,
Arthur. It's new - not in PPT 2001. That's all it has for now. It will let
you do the entire VBA for PPT, as Word does. It would also run an existing
macro with whatever the VBA command is for running PPT macros, if there is
one. You don't gain all that much, except you can now run PPT from outside
itself. As with all VBA on the Mac, you can call 'MacScript' from within the
VBA or 'do Visual basic' portion of an applescript to call any other
scriptable app on your mac. I've got around the limitation of 'do Visual
Basic' which doesn't return results to the applescript (unlike a nifty
feature in Excel) by writing results as strings to text files in Temporary
Items folder from within the 'do Visual basic' command, then reading the
text file back in the AS. You can do the same here in PPT.
--
Paul Berkowitz