Our first PowerPoint add-in is now available for free download and adds a missing feature to PowerPoint.
Until now, when you wanted to save a subset of the slides in your presentation into a new file, you would have to delete all the slides you didn’t want, then save what was left with a new filename. Not only is this time-consuming, but it is also dangerous. How many times have these deletions become permanent though the user forgetting to change the filename when saving?
But this add-in provides users with a quick and easy solution. You can simply select the slide or slides you want to keep, then at the click of a button export these into a new file, which you can then work on or save. In the meantime, your main file remains complete and ready to use again. You can even choose whether to export the slide template, background and colour scheme or whether just to export the text and slide objects into a ‘plain vanilla’ presentation file.
The download includes versions for Post XP versions (PowerPoint 2002 and later versions) and Pre XP versions (PowerPoint 2000 and 97). Just use the one that matches your version of PowerPoint. Although the Pre XP file works on later versions too, it uses a different method and will not run as quickly as the special Post XP add-in.
To install, simply download and extract files from the zip archive. Transfer the appropriate add-in version to anywhere on your hard drive (preferably to the Addins folder with your MS Office files, but anywhere will do.) Then run PowerPoint and from the ‘Tools’ menu choose ‘Addins’. Click on the ‘Add new’ button and use the file browser to locate and choose the add in file. The new toolbar is now available for you to use with any PowerPoint file. It can be unloaded or removed through the same menu dialog.
Note that you may be asked whether you want to enable macros in this file and you will need to enable them for it to install. After installation, this message should not return. Note that if your macro security level is set at 'high' you will need temporarily to reduce it while you install this add-in.
We are grateful to Shyam Pillai for permission to use some of his code in the add in and also for his helpful comments during its development. He maintains an excellent site here.