How to use MFC to create and show a PowerPoint presentation

This article shows how to automate Microsoft PowerPoint using the Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) library version 4.2 (installed with Microsoft Visual C++ versions 5.0 and 6.0). Specifically, this article illustrates how to create and show a PowerPoint presentation with automation.

You can copy the code in this article to the message handler function of an event defined in an MFC .cpp file. However, the purpose of the code is to illustrate the process of using the IDispatch interfaces and member functions defined in the PowerPoint 97 type library. The primary benefit comes from reading and understanding the code in the example so that you can modify the example or write your own code to automate Microsoft PowerPoint 97 using MFC.

Notes for Automating PowerPoint 2000 and 2002

The sample code in this article uses class wrappers generated from the PowerPoint 97 object library (Msppt8.olb). With slight modification, this code can be applied to an Automation client that uses class wrappers for PowerPoint 2000 (Msppt9.olb) or PowerPoint 2002 (Msppt.olb). For additional information about using the sample code described in this article with the PowerPoint 2000 or 2002 type library, please click the article number below to view it in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Steps to Create the Project

1. Follow steps 1 through 12 in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article to create a sample project that uses the IDispatch interfaces and member functions defined in the Msppt8.olb type library:
   178749  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/178749/EN-US/ ) How To Create an Automation Project Using MFC and a Type Library
2. Press CTRL+W to display the ClassWizard once more and select the Automation tab. Click the Add Class button and select From a Type Library. Locate Graph8.olb and click Open. Select only the "Chart" class and click OK. Click OK to close the ClassWizard.
   
   NOTE: The presentation that you will create with this example contains an embedded Microsoft Graph chart; this is the reason for adding the Chart class from the Microsoft Graph type library (Graph8.olb).
3. At the top of the AutoProjectDlg.cpp file, add the following lines:

         #include "msppt8.h"
         #include "graph8.h"
   					

4. Add the following code to CAutoProjectDlg::OnRun() in the AutoProjectDlg.cpp file:

      // Commonly used OLE-variants.
      COleVariant
                  covTrue((short)TRUE),
                  covFalse((short)FALSE),
                  covOptional((long)DISP_E_PARAMNOTFOUND, VT_ERROR);
   
      _Application   app;
      Presentations  presentations;
      _Presentation  presentation;
      Slides         slides;
      _Slide         slide;
      ShapeRange     shaperange;
      Shapes         shapes;
      Shape          shape;
      TextFrame      textframe;
   
      TextRange      textrange;
      Font           font;
      FillFormat     fillformat;
      ColorFormat    colorformat;
      ShadowFormat   shadow;
   
         CString strPic1 ="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\Clipart\\Popular\\Amhappy.wmf";
         CString strTemplate = 
            "C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\Templates\\Presentation Designs\\Zesty.pot";
   
   
       if(!app.CreateDispatch("Powerpoint.Application"))
         {
            AfxMessageBox("Could not create Powerpoint object.");
            return;
         }
   
         //Make the application visible and minimized.
         app.SetVisible((long)TRUE);
         app.SetWindowState((long) 2);   //ppWindowMinimized=2
   
         //Get the Presentations collection and create a new presentation
         //from a template(.POT)
         presentations.AttachDispatch(app.GetPresentations());
         presentation = presentations.Open(
            strTemplate,   //File name
            (long)0,       //Read-only
            (long)-1,      //Untitled
            (long)-1       //WithWindow
            );
   
         slides = presentation.GetSlides();
   
         //Add the first slide to the presentation.
         slide = (slides.Add((long)1, (long)11));   //pptLayoutTitleOnly=11
   
         //Modify the text and font name of the TextFrame on the slide.
         shapes = slide.GetShapes();
         shape = shapes.Item(COleVariant((short)1));
         textframe = shape.GetTextFrame();
         textrange = textframe.GetTextRange();
         textrange.SetText("My Sample Presentation");//Set the text
         font = textrange.GetFont();
         font.SetName("Comic Sans MS");              //Set the font name.
         font.SetSize((float)48);                    //Set the font size.
   
         //Insert a picture into the slide and position it.
   
         shapes.AddPicture(
                      strPic1,      //Filename
                      (long)0,      //LinkToFile
                      (long)-1,     //SaveWithDocument
                      (float)150,   //Left
                      (float)150,   //Top
                      (float)500,   //Width
                      (float)350    //Height
                      );
   
         //Add the second slide to the presentation.
         slide = (slides.Add((long)2, (long)11));   //pptLayoutTitleOnly=11
   
         //Modify the text and font name of the
         //TextFrame on the slide.
         shapes = slide.GetShapes();
         shape = shapes.Item(COleVariant((short)1));
         textframe = shape.GetTextFrame();
         textrange = textframe.GetTextRange();
         textrange.SetText("Look! It's a Graph!");//Set the text
         font = textrange.GetFont();
         font.SetName("Comic Sans MS");           //Set the font name.
         font.SetSize((float)48);                 //Set the font size.
   
         //Add a Graph8 object to the slide.
         shape = shapes.AddOLEObject(
                        (float)150,      //Left
                        (float)150,      //Top
                        (float)480,      //Width
                        (float)320,      //Height
                        "MSGraph.Chart", //Classname
                        "",              //FileName
                        (long)0,         //DisplayAsIcon
                        "",              //IconFileName
                        (long)0,         //IconIndex
                        "",              //IconLabel
                        (long)0          //Link
                        );
   
         //Modify the charttype of the graph.
         Chart chart;
         OLEFormat olefmt = shape.GetOLEFormat();
         chart = olefmt.GetObject();
         chart.SetChartType((long)70);
   
         //Add the third slide to the presentation.
         slide = (slides.Add((long)3, (long)12));   //ppLayoutBlank = 12
   
         //Change the background color of the slide.
         slide.SetFollowMasterBackground((long)0);
         shaperange = slide.GetBackground();
         fillformat = shaperange.GetFill();
         colorformat = fillformat.GetForeColor();
         colorformat.SetSchemeColor((long)3);   //ppShadow = 3
   
   
         //Add Text Effects to the last slide
         shapes = slide.GetShapes();
         shape = shapes.AddTextEffect(
                        (long)27,    //PresetTextEffect (msoTextEffect28 = 27)
                        "The End",   //Text
                        "Impact",    //FontName
                        (float)96,   //FontSize
   
                        (long)0,     //FontBold
                        (long)0,     //FontItalic
                        (float)230,  //Left
                        (float)200   //Top
                        );
   
         //Apply a gradient fill to the texteffect.
         fillformat = shape.GetFill();
         colorformat = fillformat.GetForeColor();
         colorformat.SetSchemeColor((long)2);   //ppForeground = 2
         colorformat = fillformat.GetBackColor();
         colorformat.SetSchemeColor((long)4);   //ppTitle = 4
   
         fillformat.TwoColorGradient ((long)1, (long)1);
                                                //msoGradientHorizontal = 1
   
   
         //Apply a shadow to the texteffect.
         shadow = shape.GetShadow();
         colorformat = shadow.GetForeColor();
         colorformat.SetSchemeColor((long)2);   //ppForeground = 2
         shadow.SetVisible((long)-1);
         shadow.IncrementOffsetX((float)3);
         shadow.IncrementOffsetY((float)3);
   
         SlideShowTransition   show;
         SlideShowSettings   slideshow;
   
         //Set the Transition effects for Slide 1.
         slide = slides.Item(COleVariant((short)1));
         show = slide.GetSlideShowTransition();
         show.SetEntryEffect((long)769);      //ppEffectBlindsHorizontal=769
         show.SetAdvanceOnTime((long)-1);
         show.SetAdvanceTime((float)3);
   
         //Set the Transition effects for Slide 2.
         slide = slides.Item(COleVariant((short)2));
         show = slide.GetSlideShowTransition();
         show.SetEntryEffect((long)770);      //ppEffectBlindsVertical=770
         show.SetAdvanceOnTime((long)-1);
         show.SetAdvanceTime((float)3);
   
         //Set the Transition effects for Slide 3.
         slide = slides.Item(COleVariant((short)3));
         show = slide.GetSlideShowTransition();
         show.SetEntryEffect((long)3073);      //ppEffectBoxOut=3073
         show.SetAdvanceOnTime((long)-1);
         show.SetAdvanceTime((float)3);
   
         //Run the show.
         slideshow = presentation.GetSlideShowSettings();
         slideshow.Run();
   
         //Quit the application after waiting 9 seconds (the length of the
         //slide show).
         ::Sleep(9000);
         presentation.SetSaved((long)-1);
         app.Quit();
   					

5. If needed, modify the assignments for strPic1 and strTemplate to valid paths for an image file and a PowerPoint presentation template:

   CString strPic1 ="C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\Clipart\\Popular\\Amhappy.wmf";
   CString strTemplate = 
            "C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\Templates\\Presentation Designs\\Zesty.pot";