Powerpoint Record Hyperlink Selection

Question

Hi,

I am a healthcare educator working on a clinical case module in MS Powerpoint. The best way to describe the set-up is a "Choose your own adventure" powerpoint: the user clicks hyperlinks that equate to choices, and the link leads to a slide detailing consequences of the choice. For example, the user can choose to "take an x-ray" and link to an x-ray image, or "take an MRI" and lead to an MRI slide. There is a "menu" of hyperlinks on each slide that allows the user to choose what to do next.

I want to be able to record the choices made during case: i.e. the order of hyperlinks that have been clicked. In a perfect world, the results would populate an excel spreadsheet. Is there any way to make this possible using VBA, etc.?

Thanks

Answer 1

If you are not an experienced coder you might find it easier to create a csv file on the desktop like this. CSV files will open in Excel

Sub recorder(oshp As Shape)

Dim intFile As Integer

Dim strText As String

Dim strPath As String

strPath = Environ("USERPROFILE") & "\Desktop\Data.csv"

strText = oshp.Name & "," & oshp.Parent.SlideIndex

 intFile = FreeFile

    Open strPath For Append As intFile

    Print #intFile, strText

    Close intFile

End Sub

Answer 2

Ok, I was considering changing all the links into Actions/shapes, so now I will do that.  I think the real trouble for me is creating a code that will enter a value into an excel file when the hyperlink is clicked in powerpoint.   Any pointers there? Thanks for the help so far!

Answer 3

And rather than hyperlinks, consider using Actions, which can be set to run VBA macros when clicked, and the macro can decide what to do based on the name of the shape clicked, text in the shape, etc.

Example:

Sub ActionPlease(oSh as Shape)

     MsgBox "Whoa!  Dude!" & vbcrlf _

          & "You just clicked the shape named " & oSh.Name & vbcrlf _

          & "on slide number " & Cstr(oSh.Parent.SlideIndex)

End Sub

Answer 4

Thanks for the plug Steve. Click on Examples by Chapter to find the examples. Chapter 10 has the Excel stuff. As far as recording the hyperlink, that is pretty easy. First you have to use VBA code for the link itself (annoying but not difficult). Then you have to store the choices in variables. I'm thinking Chapter 7 and 8 would have that kind of stuff but I'm on my iPhone now so it is hard for me to look for the exact examples.

Answer 5

This would be possible using VBA, certainly.

There might even be some example presentations/code on David Marcovitz' site to get you started:

http://www.loyola.edu/edudept/powerfulpowerpoint/