get info for each slide from a database

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Guest

Say, I've got a slideshow that displays word so children can learn french. A
vocabulary presentation. Instead of adding a new slide and changing the
textboxes, is there a way of having just one slide that displays the info
from a database and when you click next goes to the next record. In WORD this
is know as Mail Merge?

Thanks
Sephers
 
Say, I've got a slideshow that displays word so children can learn french. A
vocabulary presentation. Instead of adding a new slide and changing the
textboxes, is there a way of having just one slide that displays the info
from a database and when you click next goes to the next record. In WORD this
is know as Mail Merge?
Click to expand...

There may be ways of having this happen on the fly, so to speak, but they'd
involve writing code in VB or VBA. If you're into that, say the word. This is
a good place to get help.

There's also a commercial addin called PPTMerge that adds Mailmerge-like
features to PPT. You can put your words and other data into an Excel sheet or a
few other data file formats and then merge them into a template presentation to
produce one slide per record in the data file.

Your data file might look like:

:English: :French:
Hello Bonjour
Thank you Merci

On one slide in a presentation you'd have:

In English we say :English:
In French we say :French:
(though you'd want that to be En Francais ... etc, of course) <g>

Free demo at http://merge.pptools.com
 
Say, I've got a slideshow that displays word so children can learn french. A
vocabulary presentation. Instead of adding a new slide and changing the
textboxes, is there a way of having just one slide that displays the info
from a database and when you click next goes to the next record. In WORD this
is know as Mail Merge?
Click to expand...

By the way ...

This sounded useful and fun so I added a little tutorial and some example files
here:

Using PPTMerge for language instruction
http://www.rdpslides.com/pptools/merge/FAQ00026.htm
 
Steve,
If there's a mistake, please let me know; I'll be happy to fix it. Thanks!
Er. Merci.
Click to expand...

Francais is "Français"
and
Adios is "Adiós"

Pas de quoi...
No hay de qué...

;-)

Very cordialmente

Enric
 
Muchisimas arigatou.

All fixed now.

Steve,


Francais is "Français"
and
Adios is "Adiós"

Pas de quoi...
No hay de qué...

;-)

Very cordialmente

Enric
Click to expand...
 
Steve,

I was wondering if you can help me out a bit here.

I downloaded the demo of PPTMerge, and set up the datafile (Excel) and used
the field names as text in the powerpoint template. However, when PPTMerge
started to merge (after it located the data file), powerpoint just froze
(where the msg window says merging data into slide 1). I've tried looking
for help or demonstrations in their site but couldn't find anything. Am I
missing something here?

any tips or help is greatly appreciated Steve.

cheers,
michael
 
I downloaded the demo of PPTMerge, and set up the datafile (Excel) and used
the field names as text in the powerpoint template. However, when PPTMerge
started to merge (after it located the data file), powerpoint just froze
(where the msg window says merging data into slide 1). I've tried looking
for help or demonstrations in their site but couldn't find anything. Am I
missing something here?

any tips or help is greatly appreciated Steve.
Click to expand...

Best bet is to email the fellow who wrote it (that'd be me, at support at-sign
pptools dot com) and send along the template PPT file and sample data file. I'll be
happy to have a look.

But first, doublecheck this ... it's the most common setup problem we run into and
from what you've described, I'm betting this is the problem:

The "merge fields" *MUST* be unique. To ensure that, you should follow the examples
on the site ... instead of

name

always use

:name:

in both the PPT file and in your Excel file. Also check for hidden columns in the
Excel sheet. Merge sees those even if the user doesn't.
 
Hi Steve,

you were right, the merge fields wasn't unique. I was using <FieldName>
(like how it's labelled in MS Word Mail Merge), but when I changed it to
:FieldName:, it worked smoothly.

thanks a lot for your help Steve.

cheers,
Michael
 
Hi Steve,

you were right, the merge fields wasn't unique. I was using <FieldName>
(like how it's labelled in MS Word Mail Merge), but when I changed it to
:FieldName:, it worked smoothly.

thanks a lot for your help Steve.
Click to expand...


Cool ... I love these easy ones. Send more! ;-)
 
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