PPT Automator "Select PowerPoint Slides" action bug

[Jack]

As an alternative to using the MS "Combine PPT Presentations"
Automator action, I've been trying to use the "Select PowerPoint
Slides" action.

My plan was to open a presentation, select all the slides and paste
them into a destination presentation. Repeat for a series of
presentations to get the combined contents I'm after.

The problem with this is that the "Select PowerPoint Slides" action
only Select's the first slide in a presentation.

I have tried setting the 'what slides do you want' pulldown menu to
the choices "All Slides" and to "Slide Range" (with the range set to 1
to 10 which matches the slide count in the presentation.)

Makes no difference, just get the first slide from each presentation.

I've tested this by writing a workflow that does just the selection to
the clipboard and then manually pasting the results into a new PPT
presentation. Makes no difference.

It's hard to believe that something this basic doesn't do what it's
supposed to. Am I missing something here?

Jack

Mac OS X 10.4.11
PPT 2008
Automator 1.0.5

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

As an alternative to using the MS "Combine PPT Presentations"
Automator action, I've been trying to use the "Select PowerPoint
Slides" action.

My plan was to open a presentation, select all the slides and paste
them into a destination presentation. Repeat for a series of
presentations to get the combined contents I'm after.

The problem with this is that the "Select PowerPoint Slides" action
only Select's the first slide in a presentation.

I have tried setting the 'what slides do you want' pulldown menu to
the choices "All Slides" and to "Slide Range" (with the range set to 1
to 10 which matches the slide count in the presentation.)

Makes no difference, just get the first slide from each presentation.

I've tested this by writing a workflow that does just the selection to
the clipboard and then manually pasting the results into a new PPT
presentation. Makes no difference.

It's hard to believe that something this basic doesn't do what it's
supposed to. Am I missing something here?

Jack

Mac OS X 10.4.11
PPT 2008
Automator 1.0.5

Hi,

If I understand what you are trying to do, there's a nice interface for
doing this by using the Insert menu. Use Insert > Slides From > Other
Presentation. You'll find you can pick and choose individual slides
from that dialog. Hold the Shift key down to select more than one at a time.

-Jim

 

[Jack]

Hi,

If I understand what you are trying to do, there's a nice interface for
doing this by using the Insert menu.  Use Insert > Slides From > Other
Presentation.  You'll find you can pick and choose individual slides
from that dialog. Hold the Shift key down to select more than one at a time.

-Jim
--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

http://www.agentjim.com/MVP/welcome.htm

This post was referencing my preceeding post about trying to automate
this process. Shame on me for not repeating that here. Bad Jack!

I am WAY good at doing this by hand, (I live in 'Insert > Slides From'-
land my goal and the point of this post is to automate the
procedure.

If anyone has the knowledge, please respond to my original question
about the apparent bug in the "Combine PPT Presentations" bug in the
Automator action. I'm not trying to be pissy, but I would like to have
that issue addressed if possible.

 

[Jack]

Hi,

If I understand what you are trying to do, there's a nice interface for
doing this by using the Insert menu.  Use Insert > Slides From > Other
Presentation.  You'll find you can pick and choose individual slides
from that dialog. Hold the Shift key down to select more than one at a time.

-Jim
--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

http://www.agentjim.com/MVP/welcome.htm

This post was referencing a preceding post about trying to automate
this process. Shame on me for not repeating that here. Bad Jack!

I am WAY good at doing this by hand, (I freakin' live in 'Insert >
Slides From-
land' my goal and the point of this post is to automate the
procedure.

If anyone has the knowledge, please respond to my original question
about the apparent bug in the "Combine PPT Presentations" Automator
action.

I'm not trying to be unappreciative, but I would like to have
that issue addressed.