Embedded Excel in PPTX 2016

Question

Hi,

Can anyone confirm when the mechanism for handling embedded Excel files in Powerpoint changed?  Previously when I embedded an Excel file I could find the Excel file in the ...\ppt\embeddings folder if I unzipped the PPTX.  When I try this today all I have are binary oleObject.bin files and this has removed the possibility I had to handle the Excel files separately.

I use Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2016 Version 1801 (Build 9001.2171 Click-to-run).

I tested successfully on Office 2013.

Thank you

Paul

Answer 1

No idea when it was changed. I tested in Powerpoint 2013 and the way you found, the embedded file is .xlsx,

I have version 1708 Build 8431.2215 and in this, I get the same oleObject.bin for embedded files.

To extract it MSDN has published some code which requires knowledge of .NET. If you know .NET, then you can extract.

https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/CSOfficeDocumen...

In my opinion, it is a right change as people should not be able to extract like this. Microsoft should also plugin the zip hack to open its office files.

Thank you for the link and explanation.  I don't think this will help though as we need to be able to actually parse the content of the embedded files, change them and then put them back.  I'll check with our development team but this doesn't look as though it will support this process.

Answer 2

No idea when it was changed. I tested in Powerpoint 2013 and the way you found, the embedded file is .xlsx,

I have version 1708 Build 8431.2215 and in this, I get the same oleObject.bin for embedded files.

To extract it MSDN has published some code which requires knowledge of .NET. If you know .NET, then you can extract.

https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/CSOfficeDocumen...

In my opinion, it is a right change as people should not be able to extract like this. Microsoft should also plugin the zip hack to open its office files.