Change Presentation on the fly

[Gregg Church]

I have a presentation running on waiting room displays in several offices.
The .ppt file sits on a server in our data center. When I update the .ppt I
have to go to each office, close the presentation and reload the new .ppt and
start the show.

I would like to have the presentation check to see if the file has been
updated after each loop of the show, if it has the new presentation should be
loaded and the slide show started.

I've done this sort of thing in the past using batch files and the like but
I need code in PowerPoint (2003) to test for the updated file.

Any Ideas? Code?

Thanks again...

ggg

 

[Gregg Church]

I looked at this but chose your merge product as a better fit for us as our
data changes only once a week and there is still some minor tweaking to get
the show right.

I am sure that there is a way from within vba to test for the existence of a
flag file that lets each location know that the presentation has changed. It
can then load the new presentation delete the flag file and start the show.

I'm just looking for a snipet or function that someone already has that I
can modify for my puposes.

Also my boss is highly frugal (read cheap) so I am very proud of the sales
job I did to get him to pay for Merge. (Come to think of it he hasn't
reimbursed me yet...) Anyway he won't spring for datapoint.

Thanks!

ggg

 

[Gregg Church]

Merge works well by the way. A few more error traps might be helpful. For
instance if you have an excel column named PIC:LAPhoto and another column
named Photo it locks PowerPoint up. Once I figured that out it worked like a
dream.

I appreciate the code below. Is it possible to 1.) Run code only after every
completed pass of a looping show? 2.) To programatically reload the show if
the flag file is there? and 3.) Delete the flag file? (not necessarily in
that order).

Thanks,

ggg