How can I insert a document property (e.g. the author's name) in a slide in PowerPoint 2007? I know this can be done in Microsoft Word, but I can't find how to do it in PowerPoint.
(The idea is that with a document property it is easy to change e.g. the content of the footer in all the slides, even if you use different master pages. If there is a different solution, that would be fine as well.)
7 Answers
While Word can do this, PowerPoint can't. AFAIK, you can have document properties in PPT, but you cannot insert them on a slide. The only updating field available for PowerPoint is the date and slide number. Anyway, there could be some workaround in VBA to achieve this. You can ask this on Stackoverflow to take your chance.
1Just wrote a subroutine to put named properties into tagged text objects on all slides.
To put a file property onto slide(s). Create a textbox to hold the string. In the properties/Alt Text put the property name into square brackets.
Then execute the macro updateProperties().
i.e. [title] - would allow the document title to be updated on multiple
Two special tags have been written:
[copyright] would insert a copyright string, i.e. © 1998-2013 P.Boothroyd, NIS Oskemen[page] would insert the slide number from the editor tab' Copy document properties into all slides
' (c) 2013, P.Boothroyd for NIS Oskemen
Dim processPage As Slide
Sub updateProperties() Dim page As Slide Dim propname As String ' parse all slides in the active presentation (document) For Each processPage In Application.ActivePresentation.Slides ' scan all elements of page for textbox with tagged "altText/title" field with "[" For Each obj In processPage.Shapes If Left(obj.Title, 1) = "[" Then Dim sStart, sEnd As Integer ' extract property from between square brackets sStart = 2 sEnd = InStr(2, obj.Title, "]") propname = Trim(Mid(obj.Title, sStart, sEnd - 2)) If obj.Type = msoTextBox Then ' set the text box to the requested value obj.TextFrame.TextRange.Text = getProperty(propname, obj.TextFrame.TextRange.Text) End If End If Next ' obj Next ' page
End Sub
' get the named document property (with optional default)
Function getProperty(propname, Optional def As String) As String ' property assigned the default value getProperty = def Dim found As Boolean found = False propname = LCase(propname) ' copyright is a generated property If propname = "copyright" Then Dim author As String Dim company As String Dim yearFrom As String Dim yearTo As String ' get all appropriate variables author = getProperty("author", "") company = getProperty("company", "") yearFrom = getProperty("created", "") yearTo = Format(Now(), "YYYY") ' insert copyright symbol getProperty = Chr(169) + " " ' attach year span for copyright notice If yearFrom yearTo Then getProperty = getProperty + yearFrom + "-" End If getProperty = getProperty + yearTo ' add the author getProperty = getProperty + " " + author ' add separator for author/company if both exist If Len(author) > 0 And Len(company) > 0 Then getProperty = getProperty & ", " End If getProperty = getProperty & company ' processed, so return the value found = True End If ' insert the slide number into the document If propname = "page" Then getProperty = processPage.SlideNumber found = True End If ' if generated name created return the value If found Then GoTo ret ' scan for standard MS (file) properties of the named value For Each p In Application.ActivePresentation.BuiltInDocumentProperties If LCase(p.Name) = propname Then getProperty = p.Value found = True Exit For End If Next ' p ' scan for customised properties of the named value If found Then GoTo ret For Each p In Application.ActivePresentation.CustomDocumentProperties If LCase(p.Name) = propname Then getProperty = p.Value found = True Exit For End If Next ' p
ret:
End Function A workaround is to use custom properties that you can easily "Go To" (no need to wade through slides).
From :
- Select shape or text that you want to set a bookmark to.
- Select File | Properties... and activate the Custom tab.
- Type a name for the bookmark.
- Tick 'Link to content'. The value that is listed in the adjacent dropdown box when you tick 'Link to content' is a reference to your selection.
- Click Add.
- Click OK to close the Properties dialog.
Now that you have created a bookmark, you can jump to it as follows:
1. Select Edit | Goto Property...
2. Click the Property name from the dialog (this is the name you gave to the bookmark).
3. Click on Go to.
The "Go To" dialog presents you a list of bookmarks you can double-click, and goes to your favorite textboxes, ready to be edited / pasted to.
The easiest way to do this in Powerpoint (at least for values that will appear on every slide) is to edit the slide master. Put the author name there.
(A possible reason that Word lets you, and none of the others do, is that the various teams at Microsoft rarely talk to each other...)
1Update for handle code with ppt 2019: I changed the for-next routine a Little bit, the cause is that it easier for a front end user to change the "alternativetext" by right mouse button:
For Each ShapeObj In processPage.Shapes If Left(ShapeObj.AlternativeText, 1) = "[" Then 'If Left(ShapeObj.Title, 1) = "[" Then Dim sStart, sEnd As Integer ' extract property from between square brackets sStart = 2 'sEnd = InStr(2, ShapeObj.Title, "]") sEnd = InStr(2, ShapeObj.AlternativeText, "]") 'propname = Trim(Mid(ShapeObj.Title, sStart, sEnd - 2)) propname = Trim(Mid(ShapeObj.AlternativeText, sStart, sEnd - 2)) ShapeObj.TextFrame.TextRange.Text = getProperty(propname, ShapeObj.TextFrame.TextRange.Text) End If Next ' objI updated the subroutine a bit myself so that it handles my use case: I needed to insert several custom properties in the same text box, and 1 text box per property couldn't work for me. Here is my updated code if someone needs it:
Sub updateProperties() Dim page As Slide Dim propname, propvalue As String ' parse all slides in the active presentation (document) For Each processPage In Application.ActivePresentation.Slides ' scan all elements of page for textbox with tagged "altText/title" field with "[CustomProperty]" For Each ShapeObj In processPage.Shapes If ShapeObj.AlternativeText = "[CustomProperty]" Then Dim sStart, sEnd, test As Integer Dim before, after As String sStart = 1 Do While True ' Look for properties in text sStart = InStr(sStart, ShapeObj.TextFrame.TextRange.Text, "[") ' Exit loop when no more properties If sStart = 0 Then Exit Do End If sEnd = InStr(sStart, ShapeObj.TextFrame.TextRange.Text, "]") ' If there is no end, then exit loop If sEnd = 0 Then Exit Do End If ' Save text before and after property before = Mid(ShapeObj.TextFrame.TextRange.Text, 1, sStart - 1) after = Mid(ShapeObj.TextFrame.TextRange.Text, sEnd + 1) ' Get property name propname = Mid(ShapeObj.TextFrame.TextRange.Text, sStart + 1, sEnd - sStart - 1) ' Retrieve the value if it exists propvalue = getProperty(propname) ' If property doesn't exist or we increment sStart to skip this property on next loop If propvalue = "" Then sStart = sStart + 1 Else ' Replace text ShapeObj.TextFrame.TextRange.Text = before + getProperty(propname, ShapeObj.TextFrame.TextRange.Text) + after End If Loop End If Next ' obj Next ' page
End SubTo use it, change the AltText to "[CustomProperty]", then the subroutine will replace all [property] in the text box by their value.
This could probably be better coded using regex...
Sub UpdateDocPropValue() Dim docProps As Office.DocumentProperties Dim docProp As Office.DocumentProperty Dim page As Slide Set docProps = Application.ActivePresentation.CustomDocumentProperties ' parse all CustomDocumentProperties For Each docProp In docProps ' parse all slides in the active presentation (document) For Each processPage In Application.ActivePresentation.Slides ' scan all elements of page for textbox with tagged "altText/title" field with CustomDocumentProperties Name For Each ShapeObj In processPage.Shapes If ShapeObj.TextFrame.HasText Then ShapeObj.TextFrame.TextRange.Text = Replace(ShapeObj.TextFrame.TextRange.Text, "{{" & docProp.Name & "}}", docProp.Value) End If Next ' obj Next ' page Next docProp 'Prob
End Sub
