Powerpoint: how to insert document property (aka 'field') in slide?

Question

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.)

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

Just 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

Answer 3

A workaround is to use custom properties that you can easily "Go To" (no need to wade through slides).

From http://msdn.itags.org/powerpoint/4426/ :

1. Select shape or text that you want to set a bookmark to.
2. Select File | Properties... and activate the Custom tab.
3. Type a name for the bookmark.
4. 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.
5. Click Add.
6. 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.

Answer 4

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...)

Answer 5

Update 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 ' obj

Answer 6

I 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 Sub

To 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...