Resource / Case Study

Automating the creation of Powerpoint Documents

Automating the creation of Powerpoint Documents

Microsoft Powerpoint is a powerful and popular tool for creating attractive presentations. Find out how we use C# to create PPTX documents.

One question we continually get asked is; Can we save these reports into PowerPoint so that we can share them with everybody else? Customers used to take screenshots of selected dynamic outputs and then spend hours painstakingly putting presentations together. We decided to make the whole process quicker, more reliable and more consistent by offering an automated service. Our automated PowerPoint presentations are one of the types of static outputs we provide, sitting proudly alongside our dynamic visual analytics tools.

Microsoft Office continues to evolve and move closer to the ever moving goal of compatibility and usability. For example; it’s possible to display Excel charts in PowerPoint and documents are stored in an XML structure which, theoretically at least, means that they can be manipulated programmatically. We use a variety of methods to automatically generate PowerPoint presentations from dynamic data, providing accurate up-to-the-minute data in an easily digested, familiar format which clients find incredibly useful for a number of reasons including:

  • Printing off and attaching to notice boards
  • Presenting at board meetings
  • Date & time stamped so that they can be referred to in the future
  • Providing quick and familiar reporting which can be easily accessed and understood by all staff

Automatically creating PPTX presentations can be arduous but we’ve developed some tried and tested methods of making the process easier and more reliable. Preparing the data before it goes into Powerpoint is key (including the formatting of numbers) and using pre-formatted placeholders wherever possible instead of attempting to navigate the extremely complex XML structure is a huge time saver.

The dashboard has gone down an absolute storm. We are taking it as an example of excellent visual data and showing it as what we can achieve to our entire UK insight team

Market Research Manager, UK
Top 10 Pharmaceutical Company

What a fantastic tool! That’s the best dashboard I’ve ever seen in this field and will save us a lot of time.

Europe Senior Business Analyst Oncology
Top 10 Pharmaceutical Company

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