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MS Office Forum / General PowerPoint Questions / April 2007ole object default action
Does anyone know how to make an ole server object default itself to having one of its verbs automatically set as the "object action" under the "Mouse Click" tab in "Action Settings" in PowerPoint? I know it can be done on the PowerPoint side via a vbs macro like this: ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange.ActionSettings(ppMouseClick).ActionVerb = "play" but I need to have it done automatically just when adding the object to the slide, just like a "Sound Recorder Document" object and other ole server objects I've seen do. Any ideas? Please be specific. Thanks! Right click the object, got the animations pane, and select Object Actions. There you can set it to activate automatically. Is that what you want? Austin Myers MS PowerPoint MVP Team Provider of PFCMedia, PFCPro, PFCExpress http://www.pfcmedia.com > Does anyone know how to make an ole server object default itself to > having one of its verbs automatically set as the "object action" under [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > Any ideas? Please be specific. Thanks! Thanks for the reply, but actually no. I don't mean animation, I'm talking about the action that happens on click. To set it manually, you'd normally have to: - right-click the object - select "&Action Settings..." - highlight "Object &action" - drop down and choose the ole verb you want. What I want to do is register my ole server's verbs on installation somehow such that when the user inserts the object into PowerPoint, it starts out with one of the verbs as the on-click action, without the user having to go through the above steps. To see an example of what I mean, click Insert->Object... and select "Wave Sound". It adds the object and opens the Windows sound recorder. When you close the recorder and return to PowerPoint, if you follow the above steps you'll see that the "Object &action" radio is already highlighted and the "Play" verb has already been selected from the dropdown. How did PowerPoint know to auto-select that verb as the on-click action? > How did PowerPoint know to auto-select that verb as the on-click > action? Its the default when you add any sort of animation to any object. (Hard coded in PPT) Austin Myers MS PowerPoint MVP Team Provider of PFCMedia, PFCPro, PFCExpress http://www.pfcmedia.com Again, I'm not talking about animation. The "play" verb is just another verb exposed by the Sound Recorder Document (or "Wave File") object class called "MPlayer" as you'll see under the HKCR\MPlayer\protocol\StdFileEditing\verb registry key. You'll notice there are three verbs there: 0 (&Play), 1 (&Edit), and 2 (&Open). Somehow PowerPoint is picking "Play" as the default on-click action. I'm trying to figure out how PowerPoint decides to pick that verb when "Wave File" objects are inserted, when for most other ole server classes (e.g. Microsoft Equation 3.0) it leaves it defaulted to "none" for the on-click action. Any other thoughts? Again thanks for your help so far. > Again, I'm not talking about animation. Yes you are, you just don't know it. <g> As far as PPT is concerened, do verbs like "play" are an animation and it treats them as such. In fact in PPT XP forward eveything that happens is related to the animation settings and the timeline. As an example: You insert a media file--- Set clockMovie = ActivePresentation.Slides(1).Shapes _ .AddMediaObject(FileName:="C:\WINNT\clock.avi", _ Left:=20, Top:=20) Then you use the animation Settings to access the DoVerbs for the media. With clockMovie.AnimationSettings.PlaySettings .PlayOnEntry = True .PauseAnimation = False .HideWhileNotPlaying = True End With > I'm trying to figure out how PowerPoint decides to pick that verb when > "Wave File" objects are inserted, when for most other ole server > classes (e.g. Microsoft Equation 3.0) it leaves it defaulted to "none" > for the on-click action. Hard coded in PPT to handle different OLE objects differently. Now if you wanted to you could control the verb via code. In this example PPT will fire off the default verb for the object on a slide. (assuming it's an OLE object.) With ActivePresentation.Slides(1).Shapes(1) If .Type = msoEmbeddedOLEObject Or _ .Type = msoLinkedOLEObject Then .OLEFormat.DoVerb End If End With To find what action verbs are exposed by the object you can do something like: With ActivePresentation.Slides(1).Shapes(1).OLEFormat For Each v In .ObjectVerbs MsgBox v Next End With If you aren't certain which objects are OLE you might do something like: For Each sld In ActivePresentation.Slides For Each sh In sld.Shapes If sh.Type = msoLinkedOLEObject Then Do something here with your code End If Next Next Austin Myers MS PowerPoint MVP Team Provider of PFCMedia, PFCPro, PFCExpress http://www.pfcmedia.com > Again, I'm not talking about animation. > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > > Any other thoughts? Again thanks for your help so far. To bounce something of what Austin's said: it may be that the default actions for some OLE objects are hardcoded in PPT (sounds would logically default to Play in PPT, regardless of system settings). But perhaps PPT would respect system settings for other file types that it has no hardcoded defaults for. You can set the default verb in Windows Explorer, Tools, Folder Options, File Types tab, choose your file type, click Advanced; choose a verb, click Set Default. Might be worth experimenting around with various filetypes that are not likely to be hard coded in PPT, see if you can change the defaults for them thataway. ----------------------------------------- Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com PPTools: www.pptools.com ================================================ I'm the auther of the ole server application. I'm trying to figure out how to design its installer so that when a user inserts it into PowerPoint, the shape's ActionSettings(ppMouseClick).ActionVerb defaults to the verb I want. I'm not trying to be argumentative Austin, but I still insist I'm not talking about animation. Your sample code keeps referring to the shape's AnimationSettings properties, but my concern involves only the ActionSettings(ppMouseClick) properties. I could do it from vba script for sure within PowerPoint (see my original post), but that doesn't help because it needs to work automatically for anyone who wants to use my ole server application. So it's not limited to one presentation. I liked your idea Steve about setting the default verb. Unfortunately this didn't do the trick. It makes it so double-clicking a file of my ole server's type results in the "play" verb being executed, but it doesn't change what PowerPoint does when the object is added. Also I suppose it's possible that some OLE objects are hardcoded in PowerPoint, but I can find no documentation to suggest that's true, and it really seems unlikely when PowerPoint has its own built-in media objects (the "Movies and Sounds" pop-out menu). Can you think of any way to try to find out if it's true or not? I've tried adding all kinds of ole objects, and very few of them have the an action set automatically like I want, but that makes sense because most objects don't have an audio component, so their visual aspect is the only point of their presense in the slide which means they usually don't need to do anything on click. See what I'm saying? Anyway thanks for all the ideas! Any other thoughts? I know this is a pretty tricky situation, but any more comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated. Bob, I think we are talking across each other. <g> Perhaps if you could tell us what your application server does and how you want it to behave, we could offer better answers. > I'm the auther of the ole server application. I'm trying to figure > out how to design its installer so that when a user inserts it into [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > a pretty tricky situation, but any more comments or suggestions are > greatly appreciated. Excellent idea. My ole server application is very simple: it produces audio output directly to the system speakers based on a few properties given by the user. Previously I'd been recording the audio manually based on the user's request (i.e. he calls me up on the phone and says, "Hey Bob can we go back to that last one but add a 'ping' at the end?" so I go back, re- record the mp3 through a program I've already written, but this time include an extra "ping" at the end). Then I deliver the mp3 to the user so he can embed it in his presentation by the standard mechanism: that is Insert -> Movies and Sounds -> Sound from File... and then browsing to the mp3. So to make the round trip a lot better for my client, I wrote an ole server application based on the same app I already had for recording the audio, but instead of recording it I made it just play directly to the system speakers. Now he can embed an object in his presentation (by way of Insert -> Object...), make whatever changes he wants (i.e. adding a "ping" on the end) right then and there, and then play the audio by way of the "play" verb right from PowerPoint. So there you have it. You can understand why I didn't explain it earlier, it's a little bit strange with the custom audio behavior. But I'm sure you can also see why I want to make it "feel" like a normal sound clip to the user. It's working great, except when adding new ones, the user still has to right-click on it afterward and set the Action Settings to "play" on click. Granted that's a whole lot better than having to call me and go through that crazy process, but I'd like to eliminate this one last annoyance for the client if I can. Thanks! > Excellent idea. > [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > adding a "ping" on the end) right then and there, and then play the > audio by way of the "play" verb right from PowerPoint. Sorry but I am still confused here Bob. What is actually playing the audio? Your app or PPT? If it is PPT (which calls the MCI player) then you MUST use the animation settings because PPT has no clue what to do with it if you don't. > What is actually playing the audio? Your app or PPT? My app plays the audio. PowerPoint sends it the "play" verb and it generates the custom audio on the fly and plays it directly to the speakers, no involvement from PowerPoint. >> What is actually playing the audio? Your app or PPT? > > My app plays the audio. PowerPoint sends it the "play" verb and it > generates the custom audio on the fly and plays it directly to the > speakers, no involvement from PowerPoint. Ok, if I understand what you are saying, PowerPoint can only send the play verb from the animation settings. (Or with a WithEvents trap that you build and handle). > >> What is actually playing the audio? Your app or PPT? > > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > verb from the animation settings. (Or with a WithEvents trap that you build > and handle). ???? Embed an Excel chart or sheet, right click and it gives you Open or Edit as options (and not a Play in sight). ----------------------------------------- Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com PPTools: www.pptools.com ================================================ > I liked your idea Steve about setting the default verb. Unfortunately > this didn't do the trick. It makes it so double-clicking a file of my [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > and it really seems unlikely when PowerPoint has its own built-in > media objects (the "Movies and Sounds" pop-out menu). Ah, but those are not built in. They call the Windows MCI media player or the Windows Media Player. And given that PPT's purpose in life is creating presentations, it seems logical that it might be hardcoded to default to Play, as long as a Play verb is available. A possibly lunatic thought: define a Play verb that performs the default action you prefer (even if that doesn't happen to be Play in the usual sense of the word) Please understand that I'm speaking from near-total ignorance of OLE servers. What I'm suggesting here may be ... ah. Well, I did qualify it with that "possibly lunatic" thingie. ;-) > Can you think > of any way to try to find out if it's true or not? I've tried adding [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > a pretty tricky situation, but any more comments or suggestions are > greatly appreciated. ----------------------------------------- Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com PPTools: www.pptools.com ================================================ >> and it really seems unlikely when PowerPoint has its own built-in >> media objects (the "Movies and Sounds" pop-out menu). > Ah, but those are not built in. They call the Windows MCI media player or the > Windows Media Player. Perhaps "built in" was the wrong choice of words. What I meant was that they're known to PowerPoint as "media objects" so it can play, pause, loop, whatever. That's as opposed to "ole objects" which are black boxed from PowerPoint's perspective, and upon which it only can call that object's published verbs. Also, further evidence of my assertion that PowerPoint treats any OLE object as a black box is an article from Microsoft (http:// msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa168127(office.11).aspx) in which it describes how to add audio and video files as OLE objects instead of as media objects. It says, "Once you add the media file to your presentation as an OLE object, PowerPoint treats it as any other OLE object; PowerPoint does not recognize it as a media object. The actions the media file can perform are limited to the verbs that particular OLE class exposes. For example, media files inserted as Microsoft Media Player OLE objects expose the following three verbs: play, edit, and open." > And given that PPT's purpose in life is creating presentations, it seems > logical that it might be hardcoded to default to Play, as long as a Play verb > is available. Coincidentally the verb my OLE server exposes IS the verb "play", but as the above excerpt confirms, PowerPoint doesn't seem to care what the verbs are. I thank you again for your continuing efforts! Any other thoughts come to mind for solving this frustrating problem? > >> and it really seems unlikely when PowerPoint has its own built-in > >> media objects (the "Movies and Sounds" pop-out menu). [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > black boxed from PowerPoint's perspective, and upon which it only can > call that object's published verbs. Right, or at least so long as the media objects arrived in PPT via Insert, Sounds & Movies, Etc, Etc rather than Insert Object. With inserted objects, you get a generic OLE object; then the behavior seems to be (based on only a few observations, mind you): - If the object has a Play verb, Play becomes the action setting when the object is clicked - If the object doesn't have a Play verb, NO action setting is assigned; it's left to the user to choose the verb they want from the ones the object makes available. That fits with what you've mentioned below as well. Except that I take it PPT isn't automatically using your OLE server's Play verb? After you've inserted one of your objects, what do you get for the shape's action setting? > Also, further evidence of my assertion that PowerPoint treats any OLE > object as a black box is an article from Microsoft (http:// [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > I thank you again for your continuing efforts! Any other thoughts > come to mind for solving this frustrating problem? ----------------------------------------- Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com PPTools: www.pptools.com ================================================ > Except that I take it PPT isn't automatically using your OLE server's Play verb? correct, that's the exact problem. > After you've inserted one of your objects, what do you get for the shape's action > setting? After one of my objects has been inserted, the shape's action settings are set to "None". If I manually change them to "Object action" I can then select "Play" from the dropdown list, but that's the manual step I'm trying to make automatic. Can you post the code you are using to insert the OLE object? Austin Myers MS PowerPoint MVP Team Provider of PFCMedia, PFCPro, PFCExpress http://www.pfcmedia.com >> Except that I take it PPT isn't automatically using your OLE server's >> Play verb? [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > then select "Play" from the dropdown list, but that's the manual step > I'm trying to make automatic. > Can you post the code you are using to insert the OLE object? I'm not doing it from code. I'm just clicking Insert -> Objects... and selecting my ole application class. > I'm not doing it from code. I'm just clicking Insert -> Objects... > and selecting my ole application class. We are going around the same bush again. <g> Lets take a different approach. If I were to insert say the Windows Media Player with a link to a wav file, it would not simply play on its own in PPT. PPT MUST do something to fire it off or your code must do it. Normally I would use PPTs animation settings for an OLE object and then set the animation to activate. At that point the code I use for the Media Player would have to jump in and issue the play command (or what ever I wanted it to do.) The other alternative would be to build a WithEvents module and fire my code from say the NextSlide or NextBuild events. The other obvious method you might use is the "OnClick" event in your code. Click the object, capture that click and do with it as you wish. In fact, that would probably be the easiest solution. Austin Myers MS PowerPoint MVP Team Provider of PFCMedia, PFCPro, PFCExpress http://www.pfcmedia.com > If I were to insert say the Windows Media Player with a link to a wav file, > it would not simply play on its own in PPT. But look at what happens when you insert a WAV as an object. Action setting's set to Play automatically, and unless I'm WAY off the mark, that's what Bob's after. No code other than what's in the inserted object and/or OLE server that owns it. That about right, Bob? Raises a question, that does: inserting a file that's "owned" by an OLE server vs inserting an OLE control seems to have different behaviors. ----------------------------------------- Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com PPTools: www.pptools.com ================================================ > But look at what happens when you insert a WAV as an object. Action > setting's [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > server > that owns it. That about right, Bob? Ok, I think I see what Bob is after. (Yeah I am slow but eventually I catch on. <g>) Following up with what you said Steve, it appears the only objects that behave in this manner are wav and mid files. In fact when I insert a wav as an object I am given the speaker icon on the slide which leads me to believe (s.w.a.g.) that PPT recognizes the file type internally and handles it accordingly. Mid files are automatically given the Sound Recorder icon. Hmmm, experimenting a little more and it seems this only holds true for wav files that are PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) based. Other types of wav files do not generate the speaker icon or the Play action setting. Again its a s.w.a.g but that leads me to believe PPT is reading the file header and if it meets the set criteria goes ahead and assigns the play action setting. I see nothing in the object model that would allow us access to this . :-( Austin Myers MS PowerPoint MVP Team Provider of PFCMedia, PFCPro, PFCExpress http://www.pfcmedia.com > Raises a question, that does: inserting a file that's "owned" by an OLE > server > vs inserting an OLE control seems to have different behaviors. > > Except that I take it PPT isn't automatically using your OLE server's Play verb? > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > then select "Play" from the dropdown list, but that's the manual step > I'm trying to make automatic. Hmm. Assuming you've got Visual Studio installed, maybe try poking around with the included Ole/Com viewer; compare what your server looks like to it vs what a server that automatically creates a Play action looks like. Afraid I've no clue what to look for exactly, but maybe you'll see something to trigger the Aha! experience. ----------------------------------------- Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com PPTools: www.pptools.com ================================================ > But look at what happens when you insert a WAV as an object. Action > setting's set to Play automatically, and unless I'm WAY off the mark, that's > what Bob's after. No code other than what's in the inserted object and/or > OLE server that owns it. That about right, Bob? Thank you, and Austin too, for all the ideas, and for sticking with me on this. Steve your assessment (above) of my situation is EXACTLY right. > Hmm. Assuming you've got Visual Studio installed, maybe try poking around with the > included Ole/Com viewer; compare what your server looks like to it vs what a server > that automatically creates a Play action looks like. Afraid I've no clue what to > look for exactly, but maybe you'll see something to trigger the Aha! experience. I have studied the OLE viewer, and unfortunately I have been unable to discern a meaningful difference between my ole server and the windows sound recorder. Along the way in this whole investigation I started to wonder if maybe the windows sound recorder ole server itself, on instantiation, attempts to figure out whether it's being embedded in PowerPoint, and if so navigates the PowerPoint object model to find "itself" as a shape within the presentation, and then sets that shape's ActionSettings(ppMouseClick).ActionVerb to "play". I tried this and it works! Here's how I did it (from the point of view of my ole server code): - queryinterface myself for IOleObject - call IOleObject::GetClientSite() to get the IOleClientSite that holds me - call IOleClientSite::GetContainer() to get the IOleContainer for that site. - queryinterface the IOleContainer for the PowerPoint "_Presentation" interface (PowerPoint::_Presentation) to see if it supports it (if so I think it's safe to I assume I'm embedded in a PowerPoint presentation) - Using the PowerPoint object model, I'm then able to sift through all the slides of the presentation, and all the shapes on each slide. For each shape I - check its type to see if the shape is an ole embedded object (Type == msoEmbeddedOLEObject) - if so I get the Object property of the OLEFormat container of the shape, and I queryinterface for its IUnknown *. finally I compare that pointer to my own IUnknown *. If they match, then I have "found myself." I know, it's crazy isn't it!?!? It works, but it's less than ideal because, while it's reasonably quick for a presentation with only a few slides, a large presentation hesitates a bit when you add a new object because it has to search through every slide, which is uncool. It's not outlandishly slow, but noticeable in some cases and I'm not happy about that. So I posted in the microsoft.public.win32.programmer.ole group to see if anyone knew how I could just step up one level from my ole object itself to get the shape that contains it instead of the above round- about search process. In the mean time I'm going to stick with this approach unless you guys can conceive of either a better way to do the above, or MUCH more preferably, a way of registering my "play" verb so that PowerPoint simply says, "hey this object should 'play' when clicked," whenever a new object of my type is added. Again thank you for all your help! What a roundabout way to have to go at it but you gotta admit, it was pretty much brilliant of you to come up with it. Neat work. I wonder if you can navigate from the object upward through the chain of .Parent properties. For example, if you have a reference to the shape, then it's .Parent is the slide it's on and so forth. > > But look at what happens when you insert a WAV as an object. Action > > setting's set to Play automatically, and unless I'm WAY off the mark, that's [quoted text clipped - 65 lines] > > Again thank you for all your help! ----------------------------------------- Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com PPTools: www.pptools.com ================================================ <g> thanks. > I wonder if you can navigate from the object upward through the chain of .Parent > properties. > > For example, if you have a reference to the shape, then it's .Parent is the slide it's > on and so forth. The trouble I'm having with that is getting "my" Shape to begin with. My ole server object is all my code, and the powerpoint Shape object is the thing in the PowerPoint object model that contains me, but it seems it's entirely up to the container application (PowerPoint) as to whether (and how) it lets outsiders gain access to its object model. And even though my object is embedded in PowerPoint, it's still technically an "outsider" and I have not been able to discover a way (other than the "round-about way" described in my prior post) to get from my embedded object to the Shape that contains it. It's very disappointing, but I guess I should be happy with what I've got. We'll see if anyone over in the programmer.ole group has any new ideas. I think there MUST be a way, and I imagine SOMEONE out there would look at the problem and say, "Duh of course you just have to <insert answer here>," so it's just a matter of tracking down that person. Thanks for your help. If you ever run into someone you think might fit the above description, send 'em my way!! > > For example, if you have a reference to the shape, then it's .Parent is the slide it's > > on and so forth. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > (other than the "round-about way" described in my prior post) to get > from my embedded object to the Shape that contains it. I was afraid that might be the case, but it seemed such a nice clean way out, I couldn't resist suggesting it. <g> > It's very disappointing, but I guess I should be happy with what I've > got. We'll see if anyone over in the programmer.ole group has any new [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > Thanks for your help. If you ever run into someone you think might > fit the above description, send 'em my way!! Of course ... and if you find that person, squirt the answer back this way. ----------------------------------------- Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com PPTools: www.pptools.com ================================================ |
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