How to program a PowerPoint custom object like Thinkcell objects?

Question

I am very new to PowerPoint add-on development so please bear with me.

There are many objects that can be inserted into a PowerPoint slide, such as text box, shape, chart, etc. Is there a way to build my own custom object with custom properties and functionalities? For example, with the Thinkcell add-on, you can insert a Thinkcell chart object, connect it to Excel workbook, edit it, and show it. To the best of my understanding, this is a kind of custom object built into the Thinkcell add-on.

How can I build a custom object like this?

I have checked some tutorials on building a PowerPoint add-on with VBA, VSTO, and Javascript. To the best of my understanding, these technologies allow users to build some user interfaces to interact and modify the PowerPoint slides, such as creating and modifying elements in the slides. However, I don't see examples of creating a custom object using these technologies. Thus I am very curious about how add-ons create their custom element.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Objects are creating by programming Classes. You can program classes in VBA and COM add-ins. I haven't studied Office.js, so I don't know anything about creating objects with JavaScript.

Here's a page about VBA classes. This page is about Excel, but the principles are the same in PowerPoint (there is much more information about Excel VBA on the internet than PowerPoint VBA).