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Macro Basics
Macros are recorded sets of steps that you can play back to perform tasks more easily. For example, suppose you frequently need to import your company logo, resize it, and move it to the top left corner of a slide. You can create a macro that does that, and save yourself several steps.The most common way to create a macro is to record it. Macro recording works a lot like videotape recording. You click Record, and PowerPoint watches and records everything you do until you click Stop. The recording is saved under a unique name, and you can play back the recording any time to re-perform those actions.You can also write your own macros using the Visual Basic Editor provided in PowerPoint, but this gets a little tricky. To write macros, rather than record them, you must know something about Visual Basic programming, and most business users don't have the time to spend learning a programming language. (It's fascinating stuff, though-take a class!)There's no structural difference between a recorded macro and a written one; both are Visual Basic programs. Therefore, you can make changes to recorded macros in the Visual Basic Editor the same as you can a macro you created originally with the Visual Basic Editor. This comes in handy if you need to remove mistakes you made during the recording process as a shortcut for completely rerecording.| Note | Macros don't work in Slide Show view. Why? See www.mvps.org/skp/ppt00027. |
Planning a Macro
Before you record a macro, think about exactly what you want to record and from what position you want it to start. Keep in mind that everything you do after clicking Record will be recorded. For example, suppose you want to create a macro that applies certain formatting to text. You would want to type the text before you recorded the macro so you would have something to format at recording time.
| Tip | Macros work best when they store recorded keystrokes and menu commands. Mouse use sometimes does not record very well. So as you are planning your macro, try to come up with the keyboard equivalents of as many of the commands as possible. |
You also need to think about where you are going to store the macro. If the macro should be used only in the active presentation, record it while that presentation is open. If you want it to be available in every presentation based on a certain template, open that template (the .POT file). If you create any dummy content in the process of recording the macro, don't forget to delete it before saving the template so that content does not become part of the template.
Recording a Macro
When you're sure you know what you need to do, and you're sure you want to start recording, follow these steps:
Choose Tools⇨Macro⇨Record New Macro. The Record Macro dialog box opens.
Enter a name for the macro in the Macro Name box. Be descriptive. For example, if you plan to record a macro that inserts a new slide and sets its layout to Title, you might call it NewTitleSlide (see Figure 19-1).
Macro names must begin with a letter and can contain up to 80 characters. You cannot use spaces, and no symbols are allowed except the underscore character. You also can't use any Visual Basic reserved words for the name, such as Private, Public, Integer, or Sub.
If you have more than one presentation or template open, choose the one in which you want to store the macro from the Store Macro In drop-down list.
(Optional) Edit the description in the Description box, if desired. This is a good place to put an explanation of what the macro does if the name does not make it obvious.
Click OK. A tiny floating toolbar appears with a square in it, as shown in Figure 19-2. That is the Macro toolbar, and that square is the Stop button. You can click it at any time to stop the recording.
Perform the steps that you want to record.
Click the Stop button to stop the recording.
Figure 19-1: Name your macro and enter a description for it, if desired.
Figure 19-2: The Macro toolbar provides a Stop button for ending the recording.
When you finish the preceding steps, the Macro toolbar goes away, and it's as if nothing has happened. But don't be fooled; your macro is safely hidden away. I'll explain later in the chapter how to play it back and how to edit it.
| Caution | When recording macros that involve selecting text, the macro records what text was selected even if you don't want it to, and that selection becomes part of the macro. See Removing TextSelection from a Macro later in the chapter to learn how to fix this. |
Deleting a Macro
You can delete a macro only from the presentation in which it is stored, so switch to that presentation. Then, choose Tools⇨Macro⇨Macros to open the Macro dialog box. Select the macro you want to delete, click the Delete button, and click OK.
| Tip | See this article if you are having trouble deleting a macro: www.rdpslides.com/pptfaq/FAQ00169. |
