To expand on what John said, macros in Excel and PowerPoint are all driven
by the same scripting language: Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).
Therefore, the fundamental programming concepts and commands are identical
in Excel and PowerPoint. The problem is that VBA used in conjunction with an
actual application (like Excel or PowerPoint) is very specialized and
depends highly on the specifics of the application. That means that most
things you want to do with VBA in Excel are meaningless in PowerPoint and
vice versa, simply because the concepts don't exist across applications.
Thus, where the applications are the same, the VBA is similar or identical.
Where the applications are different, the VBA is totally different.
For example, PowerPoint has different views (SlideShow, Normal, Slide
Sorter) and Excel doesn't, meaning that there is a whole bunch of VBA that
works in one view and not the other. PowerPoint has slides and shapes while
Excel has sheets and cells, and these different things behave very
differently.
So, the answer depends on what you mean by the question. Yes, macros in
PowerPoint are the same as in Excel (both use VBA). And, no, macros in
PowerPoint are very different from Excel.
--David
--
David M. Marcovitz
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.PowerfulPowerPoint.com/
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
Associate Professor, Loyola University Maryland
