Help me find a VBScript program to create a PowerPoint file from a directory of images.

September 11, 2006 5:47 AM

I've tried for several weeks to find this VBScript program from long ago. It's deceptively simple (create PPT, create slide within PPT, insert image, put title on slide, repeat last three steps until all images inserted).

A while back I found a standalone vbScript (VBS) on a Japanese website that would take all of the JPEG images in a folder, create a PowerPoint presentation and insert each JPEG into a separate slide. I believe it titled the slides with the names of the JPEGs as well. It was surprisingly short--40 or so lines of code if I remember correctly. But stupidly, I lost it and now I can't find it anywhere!

The script requires you have PowerPoint installed since it uses the MickeySoft document engine (or whatever it's called) that lets you automate Office documents and programs.

posted by ostranenie to computers & internet (4 comments total)

I can't help you with your specific request, but if you have at least minimal programming skills, you could record a macro in PowerPoint (Extras-Macros-Record Macro) of the actions you need (new slide, import file, etc.). Then you could edit the source code of the macro to repeat this action n times (with a for-loop). Provided the JPEGs follow a consistent naming schema, this should be very easy. If they don't, it gets a little more complicated.
posted by Herr Fahrstuhl at 6:46 AM on September 11, 2006

Thanks for your reply.

I could do that, but I'm looking for a standalone script that creates the PPT, creates the slides within the PPT and inserts all JPEGs in the folder the script is run in in the separate slides (vbScript has a Files collection object, so the names of the JPEGs wouldn't matter).

What I'm really after are the names of the functions in vbScript that create a presentation, insert slides, etc., etc., as well as examples of their use. I could spend a few more hours looking them up in MSDN or Office Help, but since the script's already been written, I thought someone may have already come across it...
posted by ostranenie at 11:28 AM on September 11, 2006

This isn't the script you're looking for, but if you know a bit about scripting, these examples contain most of what you need to recreate it.
posted by CrayDrygu at 4:28 PM on September 11, 2006

Another MSDN PowerPoint API reference I use a lot.

Also, I know you care about the function names, but if you just cared about inserting photos onto PowerPoint slides, there's no need for VBE at all. PowerPoint 2002 and 2003 both contain a Photo Album feature that'll do this without any code (Insert | Picture | New Photo Album).
posted by wayne at 10:55 PM on September 12, 2006