macro to autosend email from .ppt....

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mr . .
  • Start date Start date
M

Mr . .

Good Afternoon,

Food for thought...

I recently created powerpoint and added in some VB macro code to auto send
an email when a link was clicked. The idea was that the viewer would click
the link when done viewing the 'training' .ppt and the .ppt application
would send an email preformatted to the training coordinator indicating that
the training was done.

This worked fine on my machine and a few others, but when sent to all the
users that needed the training, it failed to work. After investigating I
figured out why... the work system has security default to high, which
disables the VB macro code. Many users don't understand how to lower the
security to medium or low to allow the macro to function, so it did not
work.

Guess in concept the idea is good, but in practice not functional since
there is a wide difference in user knowledge & or desire to embrace new
technology.

Comments, anyone else done something similar that sounded good, worked fine,
but no one else would bite?

Mr.
 
Security settings in PPT have, and contiune to be, a royal pain. (If it
actually stopped the hackers I could live with it. <g>)

About the best you can do is give detailed instructions on how to load the
add in and how to make changes to the security settings.


Austin Myers
MS PowerPoint MVP Team

Provider of PFCMedia http://www.pfcmedia.com
 
Another fly in the ointment when doing a distributed training presentation,
is that users with the viewer can not run any VB code at all.

One option is to use the URL hyperlink and instruct the user to enter what
module or such in the body of the email.

Hyperlink format => mailto:[email protected]

You will get the email from an address on a date, but they will need to
type any additional info. It also can be faked so I would give this method
careful consideration before implementing.


--
Bill Dilworth
A proud member of the Microsoft PPT MVP Team
Users helping fellow users.
http://billdilworth.mvps.org
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
vestprog2@ Please read the PowerPoint FAQ pages.
yahoo. They answer most of our questions.
com www.pptfaq.com
..
 
Good Afternoon,

Food for thought...

I recently created powerpoint and added in some VB macro code to auto send
an email when a link was clicked. The idea was that the viewer would click
the link when done viewing the 'training' .ppt and the .ppt application
would send an email preformatted to the training coordinator indicating that
the training was done.

This worked fine on my machine and a few others, but when sent to all the
users that needed the training, it failed to work. After investigating I
figured out why... the work system has security default to high, which
disables the VB macro code. Many users don't understand how to lower the
security to medium or low to allow the macro to function, so it did not
work.

Guess in concept the idea is good, but in practice not functional since
there is a wide difference in user knowledge & or desire to embrace new
technology.

Comments, anyone else done something similar that sounded good, worked fine,
but no one else would bite?
Click to expand...

Alternate arrangements, each with different drawbacks and advantages:

- Include your code in a PPT addin rather than in the PPT itself. Your users
would have to install the addin (or use an installer that you provide) after
having set security to medium or lower, but as long as they also checkmark
Trust Installed Addins, they could later set security back to high and things
would work w/o their having to change the security each time.

- Include your code in an external EXE that you link to from the PPT. The
users would see a warning about the presentation trying to run a possibly
virus-infected program, but if they know to expect it and what to do, then that
might work.

Note also that attempting to automate some email programs (Outlook) may also
trigger a warning message.
 
All good ideas to be able to go with other options than the VB code. I'll
be asking folks to just send an email to indicate they are done with viewing
the training and trust their honesty. If no one replies, then we'll need to
go for in person or group training sessions, which few enjoy. :)

Mr.
 
All good ideas to be able to go with other options than the VB code. I'll
be asking folks to just send an email to indicate they are done with viewing
the training and trust their honesty. If no one replies, then we'll need to
go for in person or group training sessions, which few enjoy. :)
Click to expand...

Aha. If we're out of carrots, use The Stick. <g>

I like it.
 
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