PowerPoint VBA Macro Examples & Tutorial

PowerPoint VBA (Macros) Tutorial

Save As Macro-Enabled Presentation

The Presentation with VBA code should be 'Saved As' PowerPoint Macro-Enabled Presentation (*.pptm)

Enable 'Developer' Tab in the Ribbon

You should to enable the Developer tab on the Ribbon before creating VBA code. To do so choose File –> Options then click on 'Customize Ribbon' and check the box next to 'Developer" tab in the right pane.

Create PowerPoint Macro

This is a simple example of a PowerPoint VBA Macro:

Sub SavePresentationAsPDF()
    Dim pptName As String
    Dim PDFName As String
    
    ' Save PowerPoint as PDF
    pptName = ActivePresentation.FullName
    ' Replace PowerPoint file extension in the name to PDF
    PDFName = Left(pptName, InStr(pptName, ".")) & "pdf"
    ActivePresentation.ExportAsFixedFormat PDFName, 2  ' ppFixedFormatTypePDF = 2
 
End Sub

It saves the active presentation as a PDF. Each line of code does the following:

• Creates variables for the PowerPoint name and PDF name
• Assigns the active presentation name to pptName variable
• Creates the full PDF name
• Saves the presentation as a PDF

PowerPoint Application

When VBA code is running within a PowerPoint Presentation, PowerPoint Application is the default application and it can be manipulated without explicitly reference. Create a New Presentation

To create a presentation, use the Add method of PowerPoint application.

Application.Presentations.Add
' or without explicit reference
Presentations.Add

Open a New Presentation

To open a new and blank presentation use the Add method of Application.Presentations collection

Presentations.Add

Open an Existing Presentation

To open a presentation which you have already created, use the Open method of Application.Presentations collection

Presentations.Open ("My Presentation.pptx")

The code above assumes that the presentation is in the same directory as the PowerPoint Presentation containing the code.

Open and Assign to a Variable

You should assign the presentation you open to a variable so that you can manipulate it as per your requirements.

Dim ppt As Presentation
Set ppt = Presentations.Open("My Presentation.pptx")

Refer to Active Presentation

Use the reference ActivePresentation to manipulate the Presentation active in the GUI when the VBA code is executed.

' Print the name of the ActivePresentation to the Immediate Window
Debug.Print ActivePresentation.Name

Save Current Presentation

The statement below will save the Active Presentation if it was saved before. It it has not been saved then you will be prompted with the 'Save As' dialog.

ActivePresentation.Save

Close Current Presentation

The statement below will close the Active Presentation even if it was not saved after the last edit.

ActivePresentation.Close

Useful References

Assign Existing Presentation (by name) to Variable

Dim myPresentationByName As Presentation
Set myPresentationByName = Application.Presentations("My Presentation")

Assign Active Slide to Variable

Dim currentSlide As Slide
Set currentSlide = Application.ActiveWindow.View.Slide

Assign slide by Index to Variable

Dim mySlide As Slide
Set mySlide = ActivePresentation.Slides(11)

Count Number of Slides

Dim slideCount As Long
slideCount = ActivePresentation.Slides.Count

Get Slide Index Number of Current Slide

Dim currentSlideIndex As Integer
currentSlideIndex = Application.ActiveWindow.View.Slide.SlideIndex

Add a Blank Slide to End of Slide Show

Dim slideCount As Long
Dim newSlide as Slide

slideCount = ActivePresentation.Slides.Count
Set newSlide = ActivePresentation.Slides.Add(slideCount + 1, 12)
' or as ppLayoutBlank = 12
Set newSlide = ActivePresentation.Slides.Add(slideCount + 1, ppLayoutBlank)

Add a slide after current slide

Dim newSlide As Slide
Dim currentSlideIndex as Integer

currentSlideIndex = Application.ActiveWindow.View.Slide.SlideIndex
Set newSlide = ActivePresentation.Slides.Add(currentSlideIndex, ppLayoutBlank)

Delete a Slide

Dim currentSlideIndex as Integer

currentSlideIndex = Application.ActiveWindow.View.Slide.SlideIndex
ActivePresentation.Slides(currentSlideIndex).Delete

Go to a Specific Slide

' This will take you to slide number 4
Application.ActiveWindow.View.GotoSlide (4)

Move Slide

You can move a slide from its old position to the new position

' Move from slide 3 to first slide
Dim oldPosition as integer, dim newPosition as integer

oldPosition = 3
newPosition = 1
ActivePresentation.Slides(oldPosition).MoveTo toPos:=newPosition

Loop Through All Slides

You can do something with each slide or go through all slides to find a few slides and do something about with using the code;

Dim mySlide as Slide

For Each mySlide In ActivePresentation.Slides
   ' Do something with the current slide referred to in variable 'mySlide'
   ' Debug.Print mySlide.Name
Next Slide

Loop through All Shapes of Active Slide

The power of PowerPoint can be realized by using 'Shapes.' The code below loops through all the shapes on the current slide so that you can manipulate them as you want;

Dim currentSlide as Slide
Dim shp as Shape

Set currentSlide = Application.ActiveWindow.View.Slide
For Each shp In currentSlide.Shapes
  ' Do something with the current shape referred to in variable 'shp'
  ' For example print the name of the shape in the Immediate Window
  Debug.Print shp.Name
Next shp

Loop through All shapes in All Slides

You can loop through all the shapes in the presentation by adding a loop to go through all slides.

Dim currentSlide as Slide
Dim shp as Shape

For Each currentSlide In ActivePresentation.Slides
  For Each shp In currentSlide.Shapes
    ' Do something with the current shape referred to in variable 'shp'
    Debug.Print shp.Name
  Next shp
Next currentSlide

Loop through All TextBoxes of Active Slide

TextBoxes are the most often used Shape in PowerPoint presentations. You can loop through all the Text Boxes by adding a check for 'Shape Type.' TexBoxes have the shape type defined as the VBA constant msoTextBox (the numerical value of the constant is 17)

Dim currentSlide as Slide
Dim shp as Shape

Set currentSlide = Application.ActiveWindow.View.Slide
For Each shp In currentSlide.Shapes
  ' Check if the shape type is msoTextBox 
  If shp.Type = 17 Then ' msoTextBox = 17
    'Print the text in the TextBox
    Debug.Print shp.TextFrame2.TextRange.Text
  End If
Next shp

Loop through All TextBoxes in All Slides

Again, you can loop through all the textboxes in the presentation by adding a loop to go through all slides.

Dim currentSlide as Slide Dim shp as Shape

For Each currentSlide In ActivePresentation.Slides
  For Each shp In currentSlide.Shapes
    ' Check if the shape type is msoTextBox 
    If shp.Type = 17 Then ' msoTextBox = 17
      ' Do something with the TextBox referred to in variable 'shp'
      Debug.Print shp.TextFrame2.TextRange.Text
    End If
  Next shp
Next currentSlide

Copy Selected slides to new PPT Presentation

To copy certain slides to a new presentations, first select the desired slides in the existing presentation and then run the code below;

Dim currentPresentation as Presentation
Dim currentSlide as Slide
Dim newPresentation as Presentation

' Save reference to current presentation
Set currentPresentation = Application.ActivePresentation

' Save reference to current slide
Set currentSlide = Application.ActiveWindow.View.Slide

' Add new Presentation and save to a reference
Set NewPresentation = Application.Presentations.Add

' Copy selected slides
Selection.Copy

' Paste it in new Presentation
NewPresentation.Slides.Paste

Copy Active Slide to End of Active Presentation

' Copy current slide
Application.ActiveWindow.View.Slide.Copy

' Paste at the end
ActivePresentation.Slides.Paste