linking and updating

  • Thread starter Thread starter jared
  • Start date Start date
J

jared

we have salesreps that have the same powerpoint
presentation on their computers. Is there a way in
powerpoint to have all of the presentations on their pc's
look to a location for updates to the main presentation
file on a server or what have you?

(basically looking for a way to lower the administrative
costs of having to have everyone manulally put the new
presentation on their computers)
 
This is a low tech way. Why not include a version number in the
presentation Properties (File > Properties) or in the footer of the Title
page. Then, when a new version is released, send an email to everyone
telling them that Version 1.3, for example, has been released and is
available at .......
 
we need to avoid that low tech solution.




-----Original Message-----
This is a low tech way. Why not include a version number in the
presentation Properties (File > Properties) or in the footer of the Title
page. Then, when a new version is released, send an email to everyone
telling them that Version 1.3, for example, has been released and is
available at .......
--
Sonia, MS PowerPoint MVP Team
Autorun CD software, templates, and tutorials
http://www.soniacoleman.com/




.
Click to expand...
 
All I can think off is.....

Keep all the presentations in a structured directory on all the laptops

c:\salesreps\presentations\etc

Then everytime a sales rep brings his/her laptop in....Jared gets to update
the presentations in one go by copying over their presentations with your
master copy that you keep the keys to

Cheers
TAJ Simmons
microsoft powerpoint mvp

awesome - powerpoint backgrounds,
free sample templates, tutorials, hints and tips etc
http://www.powerpointbackgrounds.com
 
we have salesreps that have the same powerpoint
presentation on their computers. Is there a way in
powerpoint to have all of the presentations on their pc's
look to a location for updates to the main presentation
file on a server or what have you?
Click to expand...

What kind of updates are you looking for?
If you have links to spreadsheet or excel chart data, for example, then
every time they're in the office and fire up the presentation, it'll update
the links. The data won't be editable when they're not connected to the
network, but it'll be visible/printable in the form of an embedded picture
of the linked date.

If you're talking about new slides and such, it gets a lot more complex.

What if you put a link to an installer EXE (on the network) in their startup
folder. Each time they start up, it runs an installer. The installer would
usually have nothing to do (it could check all the file dates and only copy
over newer files) so it'd be quite quick to run.

You'd want to verify that this wouldn't hang the PCs for long periods of
time when they boot up off the network.
 
From the sound of things, this is more of a network administrator type of
issue rather than a PowerPoint one. PowerPoint can only processes code when
it is running, which from the description you gave, is only when your agents
are in the field.

I tend to write code in VB, so my solutions tend to be in VB, but you could
use any language for the second part of this set-up:

.... Part I
PowerPoint VBA code (add-in) on the sales agents laptops that stores a
current 'version/date/release' number in the machines registry for easy
access. The version number can be hidden in a thousand ways from the agents
and/or the people seeing the presentation (I'm not sure why this needs to be
hidden from them, but you said it did.). Object tags would probably be the
best way to hide the information.
Optionally, if the availability of an update was made known to the
computer more than a week prior, this PPA add-in could either 'lock-out' the
presentation or display an out-of-date warning screen.

.... Part II
A small free standing VB program that is run each time the Laptop boots
(Start up directory). This program would:
a) check for a network connection, & if present
b) download the current release number from a server file and store
it in the registry
c) compare the two release numbers
d) inform the user if an update is needed & if so
e) offer to do the file transfer update

Make sense? This is basically just a semi-manual version of the installer
that Steve mentioned.
B

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