Integrating Flash Animation and VBA Code in PowerPoint Show

Microsoft PowerPoint is among the most powerful digital presentation programs. This application is compatible with Mac and Windows operating systems.

Microsoft PowerPoint is widely used by businesses and institutions. Most businesspeople present their products, business proposals, reports and other transactions in the form of a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation saved in the .ppt or .pps format.

In a Microsoft PowerPoint Show (PPS), users can make their presentations more interactive by adding Flash animations or movies. Flash animations are formed by using Adobe Flash animation software or other applications capable of writing Shockwave Flash (.swf) files.

Flash is capable of integrating bitmaps, videos and other forms of raster-based art. However, most Flash movies are developed using only vector-based drawings.

Flash movies or Flash films are embedded in a Microsoft PPS by using the “Embed movie” option. SWF files will continuously play from slide to slide to produce a dynamic environment. Microsoft PowerPoint is not capable of recognizing any mouse clicks on top of the Flash animation or any Flash object.

A PPS with a Flash film is too large to be viewed online. Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) source code may be integrated on PPS files to make a PPS presentation more interactive. This also enables the Flash movies to automatically play once a PPS file is opened. Integrating a VBA code on a PPS presentation is complex, but it allows users to produce more interactive presentations. The steps in integrating VBA code on a PPS presentation is similar to inserting Flash animations.

Microsoft PowerPoint enables a user to create VBA code by using the “Module” option found under the “Insert” submenu in the “Control Toolbox” tab. The number of slides containing the Flash movie is always indicated in the second line of the VBA code. Testing the embedded Flash animation and VBA code can be done by playing the PPS presentation in slide show view.

Embedding more than one Flash animation in a PPS file is also possible. This is done by giving unique shape names in the fourth line of the VBA code. However, the macro security settings of Microsoft PowerPoint may prevent the VBA code from running. This can be avoided by configuring the macro security settings to allow VBA code.