Powerpoint - VBA - Manipulating shapes inside placeholder shapes (via VBA)

Question

I need to read /write all texts in PPT presentations.
All goes well except for shapes (mostly tables) inside placeholder objects.
I've been trying to find out how to manipulating shapes inside placeholder shapes, but without success.

The closest post I've seen to my problem is
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3568412/powerpoint-getting-the-original-shape-from-inside-a-placeholder-programatical
Mr. Otaku suggested using SmartArtQuickStyle to get at the object inside the placeholder, but all the documentation I looked at for SmartArtQuickStyle have me no clue.

Could someone please give me a clue?
Thanks so much,
JSvendsen
Powerpoint 2010

Answer 1

Hello,

PPT 2007 and later have the ContainedType property on the PlaceholderFormat which will tell you what type of shape is contained within the placeholder. Once you know what type is contained then the rest of the processing is just like any other shape.

Assuming shp has a reference to a placeholder shape then the line below will give you info on the type within it

Debug.Print shp.PlaceholderFormat.ContainedType

To give you a better understanding:

Sub Test()
Dim shp As Shape
Dim sld As Slide

Set sld = ActivePresentation.Slides(1)

' Look for placeholders containing tables on the 1st slide of the presentation

For Each shp In sld.Shapes.Placeholders
    If shp.PlaceholderFormat.ContainedType = msoTable Then

    'If we find one pass the shape reference to the routine that is enumerating the text

        Call EnumerateTableText(shp)
    End If
Next

End Sub

Sub EnumerateTableText(shp As Shape)
Dim row As Long
Dim column As Long

For row = 1 To shp.Table.Rows.Count
    For column = 1 To shp.Table.Columns.Count
        Debug.Print shp.Table.Cell(row, column).Shape.TextFrame2.TextRange.Text
    Next
Next

End Sub

---

Regards, Shyam (http://skp.mvps.org)