Creating a form using Powerpoint?

Question

Hi wondered if anyone could shine a light on the following requirement?

I need to collect data which is saved to a location on the user's desktop.

I need to use Powerpoint as the GUI for translation purposes.

Here is a typical user journey :

• Salesperson launches the Powerpoint presentation
• On first slide enters client's user ID (Data file is created on desktop using ID as filename - .xls/csv?)
• Presenter runs through more slides with client
• Some slides contain form elements (Radio buttons / Check boxes etc)
• As the sales person is filling out these forms the original Data file is being updated

Nice to have

• Constant communication between the Data file and the PPT GUI - Allowing amends to be made if required.

From searching around the web I noticed Powerpoint developer tools can help create form elements, but VB script can also play it's part?

Any direction on how to tackle this would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Ryan

Answer 1

PowerPoint is not designed as an information-gathering program. It was designed as one-to-many presentation software. You will have a much easy time creating such a form in either Word or Excel, which are designed for this purpose. Even Adobe Acrobat or a web form is better for this job. Of those 4 possibilities, Acrobat and a web form can handle the presentation aspects (showing slides to customers) better. It's not impossible, but you'll spend many, many more hours trying to make this work in PowerPoint.

Form controls in PowerPoint use only ActiveX controls. These will not work on a Mac, so I hope you have no Mac users.

As one example, you want to save a data file. To do this, you'll need VBA programming. In many cases, PowerPoint VBA requires that you write an add-in and install that on the user's computer. So then you need an installer. It gets out of hand very quickly.

You also might consider using a Word form for information gathering, with links in that document to a presentation that just shows the slides.

Perhaps Steve Rindsberg or John Wilson will have a brainwave.

Answer 2

Off top of head, if this didn't have to be done in slide show view (ie, normal view would do), you could use regular PPT text boxes to enter text, just as you'd ordinarily edit a presentation.

If the presentation contained a macro to collect all the entered data and save it, you could access the macro via Alt+F8.

Not the prettiest thing in the world, but it might suffice and wouldn't require any add-ins or installs.

Answer 3

I was going to suggest using an embedded or links spreadsheet to collect the data, but a quick test is not working out as I expected. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can expand on this idea.