Hyperlinks to Powerpoint and Word - how much control does VBA give you?

Colleyville Alan

I have an application that has an Access table that stores the locations of
slides in a Powerpoint file. This used to work fine when there were about 4
files and 200 slides. The database would open all four PPT files at once,
and would loop through queriers for ever client and create custom
presentations. Now there are 8 files, nearly 500 slides and the computer is
bogging down with trying to open them all at once.

I know that Access can store a hyperlink to a slide or a Word bookmark, and
I have fooled around with it. But I do not want an app where the client has
to click on a hyperlink, I'd like to query out the relevant records, have
Access "execute" the hyperlinks (for lack of a better term) and copy the
contents at the other end of the hyperlink to a file. All this with no user
interaction.

In other words, if the app involved Word docs, when it queried out a
client's records, it would use the hyperlinks to access all of the relevant
info and copy it to a new Word doc. WIth PPT, it woulcd copy the relevant
slides to a new presentation.

Can Access do this? I can work with the automation objects and open new
Word, PPT, etc and do the copy/paste if I can figure out how to get Access
to simulate a user clicking on the link.

Thanks for any info.
Alan

Nov 12 '05 #1

Tom van Stiphout

On Sun, 08 Feb 2004 05:09:55 GMT, "Colleyville Alan"
<ae***********@nospam.comcast.net> wrote:

Have you considered Automation?
-Tom.

I have an application that has an Access table that stores the locations of
slides in a Powerpoint file. This used to work fine when there were about 4
files and 200 slides. The database would open all four PPT files at once,
and would loop through queriers for ever client and create custom
presentations. Now there are 8 files, nearly 500 slides and the computer is
bogging down with trying to open them all at once.

I know that Access can store a hyperlink to a slide or a Word bookmark, and
I have fooled around with it. But I do not want an app where the client has
to click on a hyperlink, I'd like to query out the relevant records, have
Access "execute" the hyperlinks (for lack of a better term) and copy the
contents at the other end of the hyperlink to a file. All this with no user
interaction.

In other words, if the app involved Word docs, when it queried out a
client's records, it would use the hyperlinks to access all of the relevant
info and copy it to a new Word doc. WIth PPT, it woulcd copy the relevant
slides to a new presentation.

Can Access do this? I can work with the automation objects and open new
Word, PPT, etc and do the copy/paste if I can figure out how to get Access
to simulate a user clicking on the link.

Thanks for any info.
Alan

Nov 12 '05 #2

Colleyville Alan

"Tom van Stiphout" <to*****@no.spam.cox.net> wrote in message
news:9g********************************@4ax.com...

On Sun, 08 Feb 2004 05:09:55 GMT, "Colleyville Alan"
<ae***********@nospam.comcast.net> wrote:

Have you considered Automation?
-Tom.
Yes - as stated below,

I can work with the automation objects and open new
Word, PPT, etc and do the copy/paste if I can figure out how to get Accessto simulate a user clicking on the link.
I am happy to use automation. But I want to know if Access can use the
hyperlinks as a way to get to the data. If I determine that slides 72 and
85 of one file plus slide 63 of another file are what I want, then querying
out some records that have the hyperlinks in them would allow a user to
click them on a form and show the 3 slides. But I do not want them show; I
want them copied to a new presentation. I can do the automation coding *if*
I can have VBA and Access simulate the clicking of a hyperlink. Is there a
command that does this, that takes you to the slide a hyperlink would?

\I have an application that has an Access table that stores the locations

ofslides in a Powerpoint file. This used to work fine when there were about 4files and 200 slides. The database would open all four PPT files at once,and would loop through queriers for ever client and create custom
presentations. Now there are 8 files, nearly 500 slides and the computer isbogging down with trying to open them all at once.

I know that Access can store a hyperlink to a slide or a Word bookmark, andI have fooled around with it. But I do not want an app where the client hasto click on a hyperlink, I'd like to query out the relevant records, have
Access "execute" the hyperlinks (for lack of a better term) and copy the
contents at the other end of the hyperlink to a file. All this with no userinteraction.

In other words, if the app involved Word docs, when it queried out a
client's records, it would use the hyperlinks to access all of the relevantinfo and copy it to a new Word doc. WIth PPT, it woulcd copy the relevantslides to a new presentation.

Can Access do this? I can work with the automation objects and open new
Word, PPT, etc and do the copy/paste if I can figure out how to get Accessto simulate a user clicking on the link.

Thanks for any info.
Alan

Nov 12 '05 #3

PC Datasheet

I am not familiar with the memory requirements of PPT slides but your
description of the problem hints you have maxed out on RAM and that your
computer is switching data between RAM and the harddrive as needed. Could this
be your problem?
--
PC Datasheet
Your Resource For Help With Access, Excel And Word Applications
re******@pcdatasheet.com
www.pcdatasheet.com
"Colleyville Alan" <ae***********@nospam.comcast.net> wrote in message
news:DwjVb.249480$na.415331@attbi_s04...

I have an application that has an Access table that stores the locations of
slides in a Powerpoint file. This used to work fine when there were about 4
files and 200 slides. The database would open all four PPT files at once,
and would loop through queriers for ever client and create custom
presentations. Now there are 8 files, nearly 500 slides and the computer is
bogging down with trying to open them all at once.

I know that Access can store a hyperlink to a slide or a Word bookmark, and
I have fooled around with it. But I do not want an app where the client has
to click on a hyperlink, I'd like to query out the relevant records, have
Access "execute" the hyperlinks (for lack of a better term) and copy the
contents at the other end of the hyperlink to a file. All this with no user
interaction.

In other words, if the app involved Word docs, when it queried out a
client's records, it would use the hyperlinks to access all of the relevant
info and copy it to a new Word doc. WIth PPT, it woulcd copy the relevant
slides to a new presentation.

Can Access do this? I can work with the automation objects and open new
Word, PPT, etc and do the copy/paste if I can figure out how to get Access
to simulate a user clicking on the link.

Thanks for any info.
Alan

Nov 12 '05 #4

Colleyville Alan

"PC Datasheet" <sp**@nospam.spam> wrote in message
news:jg*******************@newsread1.news.atl.eart hlink.net...

I am not familiar with the memory requirements of PPT slides but your
description of the problem hints you have maxed out on RAM and that your
computer is switching data between RAM and the harddrive as needed. Could this be your problem?

I have checked and it looks like there is still avail RAM. But it also
looks like PPT is having a problem; "corrupt" may be too strong a word, but
I just ran the Detect and Repair feature and it still is very slow opening
files and when I tried to run a slideshow with only 12 slides, it took about
12 seconds from when I hit "run" until the first slide came up.

My question about hyperlinks still remains since I want to use a similar
approach for managing info in Word docs. Any ideas about whether Access can
simulate clicking on a hyperlink?

<rest of msg snipped>

Nov 12 '05 #5

PC Datasheet

I'm not sure what you are asking but you can open a file programatically with:
Application.FollowHyperlink [FilePath] & "\" & [DocumentName]

Is this what you are looking for?
--
PC Datasheet
Your Resource For Help With Access, Excel And Word Applications
re******@pcdatasheet.com
www.pcdatasheet.com



"Colleyville Alan" <ae***********@nospam.comcast.net> wrote in message
news:cxuVb.120738$U%5.599711@attbi_s03...

"PC Datasheet" <sp**@nospam.spam> wrote in message
news:jg*******************@newsread1.news.atl.eart hlink.net...

I am not familiar with the memory requirements of PPT slides but your
description of the problem hints you have maxed out on RAM and that your
computer is switching data between RAM and the harddrive as needed. Could

this

be your problem?

I have checked and it looks like there is still avail RAM. But it also
looks like PPT is having a problem; "corrupt" may be too strong a word, but
I just ran the Detect and Repair feature and it still is very slow opening
files and when I tried to run a slideshow with only 12 slides, it took about
12 seconds from when I hit "run" until the first slide came up.

My question about hyperlinks still remains since I want to use a similar
approach for managing info in Word docs. Any ideas about whether Access can
simulate clicking on a hyperlink?

<rest of msg snipped>

Nov 12 '05 #6

Colleyville Alan

"PC Datasheet" <sp**@nospam.spam> wrote in message
news:qD******************@newsread1.news.atl.earth link.net...

I'm not sure what you are asking but you can open a file programatically with: Application.FollowHyperlink [FilePath] & "\" & [DocumentName]

Is this what you are looking for?

Yes, I am pretty sure that it is. I want to get to the file, then copy the
contents (e.g. a Word bookmarked section or an individual slide) back to an
open file (Word or PPT). This looks like it will do the trick. Thanks.

Nov 12 '05 #7