How do I create PowerPoint slides using .NET?

February 4, 2008 9:42 AM

How do I create PowerPoint slides using .NET?

I'd like to output the results of an XSLT transformation to a PPT slide using a template. I know you can basically install Office on your server and use automation, but that seems like a scalability problem and I'm unclear how the licensing for that works. Doesn't MS just provide a server-side framework for this? Is there a cheaper/simpler alternative to Aspose Slides?

I'm using .NET 2.0/C#.

posted by mkultra to Technology (2 answers total)

Response by poster: Oh, and I should note that this needs to work with Office 2003, so OfficeXML is out.
posted by mkultra at 9:43 AM on February 4, 2008

I would use Visual Studio Tools for Office 2005 Second Edition, which includes support for PowerPoint. With VSTO you can create PowerPoint files programmatically. This page has a very simple set of examples in VB.NET, but of course C# is supported as well.

I realize that example uses Office 2007, but VSTO claims complete support for Office 2003 as well. If you run into compatibility or feature problems, one possibility is to use VSTO to create the PPT document in Office 2007 format and then use a script to drive Office 2007 to convert it to 2003.

Alternatively, though it may not be practical for your client, Microsoft does make available a free Office 2007 formats plug in for Office 2003.
posted by jedicus at 12:51 PM on February 4, 2008