SharePoint (and Project Server) Shenanigans

At a recent meeting of all the consultants, we were talking about the various tools that we use and how we use them. These can include various PowerPoint presentations. One of the more senior people in the room asked; “Wouldn’t it be great if we could have one central repository of all the PowerPoint slides that might want to use? It would be even better if we were told automatically when these slides are updated and we can be sure that we are using the most up to date slides in our presentation.”

I thought about this for a brief moment and then said “That sounds like SharePoint slide library to me. I’m pretty sure you can do all those things from a slide library”.

And, as it turns out, you can.

Adding slides to the library

To add one more slides from a presentation to the slide library:

1. From within PowerPoint, right click on any slide to display the context men.
2. Click on the Publish Slides option

   

   Publish slides

3. This will open the Publish Slides dialogue box. The slide that was right clicked on in the previous step will already be selected. Use the checkboxes to the left of the thumbnails to select other slides. Alternatively use the Select All button to select all the slides.

   

   Select files to publish

4. Use the Browse button to locate the slide library:

   1. Clicking on the Browse button will open the “Select a slide library” dialogue box

      

      Browse to locate the slide library

   2. Enter the address of the slide library in the address bar. Alternatively enter a top level address such as http://cps.co.uk and then navigate to the required slide library
   3. Click the Select button
5. Once the required slide library has been selected, click on the Publish button
6. The required slides will be added to the slide library

Using slides from a slide library in a presentation

To add slides from a slide library to a presentation:

1. Open the slide library that contains the required slides.
2. Use the check boxes to the left of the slide thumbnails to select the required slides
3. Click on the link to copy the required slides to a presentation

   

   Select files and Copy slides to presentation

4. If PowerPoint is not already open then it will be opened a dialogue box will prompt you to add the selected slides to a new presentation

   

5. Copy slides to PowerPoint

6. If there is already a presentation open then there will be the option to add the selected slides to a new presentation or the existing one.
7. In either case the second check box should be selected. The next time the presentation is opened a dialogue box will appear, prompting the user to check for changes. 
8. Clicking on the Check button will compare slides in the current presentation to slides in the slide library. If PowerPoint detects that the latter have been changed then a dialogue box will appear giving the user the chance to updates slides in the presentation.

Et Voila! One central repository for slides and notification of changes!

After beginning my career in pharmaceutical sales I moved into IT training, initially in the pharmaceutical sector but then moved across to the NHS to teach basic computer skills and the ECDL. I then changed companies and moved into a primarily Microsoft Office training and support role. I joined CPS in 2008 as a training consultant and now provide configuration as well as training services. This article has been cross posted from carlsprake.wordpress.com/ (original article)