OOXML Hacking: Buy the Book

Posted on September 27, 2019 by jkorchok

SOLD OUT! The paper copies of the book are all gone, but the ebook version (with an additional 40 pages of new content) is available here.

After years of original research, you can finally buy the book! Filled with unique information not found anywhere else, online or in print, this manual shows you how to build SuperThemes 3 different ways, how to create custom Effects Themes, how to edit the Ribbon in macOS, and much more!

The book expands on many of the brief articles on this site, putting them in logical order and expanding the number of examples. Author John Korchok explains how Office Open XML files work, shows you where to find each XML part and how each part can be modified. With these tools, you can provide unique services to your clients or users that you can’t find at the average Office template service bureau. To give you a better idea of what it covers, here is the Table of Contents:

All techniques are covered in both Windows and macOS. The book includes a link to a downloadable text file with all the hyperlinks, XML and VBA listings, so you don’t have to retype anything from the printed page. At this time, only print copies are available, ebook versions will be here in several months. To buy the book, click here.

Presentation Summit 2019

Posted on September 14, 2019 by jkorchok

This October 6 – 9 in San Antonio, the world’s top presentation experts will be meeting at the Presentation Summit 2019. This is the place to learn how to make amazing presentations that sparkle, or network with pros who can make you shine.

For the first time, Brandwares will be a sponsor. I’ll be attending with my new book OOXML Hacking. In addition to expanded versions of my online articles, put in a logical sequence, there are new chapters from our original research. I show you three ways to build SuperThemes, how Effects Themes work and how to create them, plus much more information that can’t be found anywhere else, in print or online.

Indezine.com, the media sponsor for the Presentation summit was kind enough to interview to find out more. Here’s is the result:

Uniform Rounded Corners – Cool Code

Posted on September 10, 2019 by jkorchok

A client sent a design for a Word template that had lots of boxes and photos with uniform rounded corners. Not an unreasonable request, but Office doesn’t do that well. In PowerPoint, Word and Excel, rounded corners are proportional to the size of the shape. Making them uniform manually is picky and time-consuming. But with a dash of VBA, we can make the job easy.

The Math

As a round-cornered shape gets larger, the corner radius increases as well, in proportion to the length of the shortest side of the shape. Since we want to keep the radius the same size, we need to create a formula that makes a smaller number as the shorter side increases. We need an inverse number! We can create this by dividing the preferred corner radius by the short side size. And you thought you’d never need that high school math!

Here’s VBA code that will work in Excel, Word and PowerPoint on selected round-cornered boxes. Thanks to the Rembrandt Kuipers and Ernst Mathys who have commented below, this macro has been improved since it was originally published. Replace the number after sngRadius with your desired radius size in points.

Sub RoundedCornersFixedRadius()
    Dim oShape As Shape
    Dim sngRadius As Single
    sngRadius = 8.50394 'Radius size in points. 8.50394pt is equal to 3mm.

    For Each oShape In ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange
        With oShape
            If .AutoShapeType = msoShapeRoundedRectangle Then
                LengthOfShortSide = IIf(.Width > .Height, .Height, .Width)
                .Adjustments(1) = sngRadius / LengthOfShortSide
            End If
        End With
    Next oShape
End Sub

To set rounded corners on a PowerPoint placeholder, open Slide Master view, select the placeholder and run the above macro.

Uniform Rounded Corners for the Whole Document

To run this on a whole presentation, document or workbook, we need to customize the routine for each Office program. Here’s the Excel version:

Sub RoundAllXLCorners()
    Dim oWorksheet As Worksheet, oShape As Shape, sngRadius As Single
    sngRadius = 8.50394 'Radius size in points.

    For Each oWorksheet In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
        For Each oShape In oWorksheet.Shapes
            With oShape
                If .AutoShapeType = msoShapeRoundedRectangle Then
                    LengthOfShortSide = IIf(.Width > .Height, .Height, .Width)
                    .Adjustments(1) = sngRadius / LengthOfShortSide
                End If
            End With
        Next oShape
    Next oWorksheet
End Sub

To do the same in PowerPoint

Sub RoundAllPPCorners()
    Dim oSlide As Slide, oShape As Shape, sngRadius As Single
    sngRadius = 8.50394 'Radius size in points.

    For Each oSlide In ActivePresentation.Slides
        For Each oShape In oSlide.Shapes
            With oShape
                If .AutoShapeType = msoShapeRoundedRectangle Then
                    LengthOfShortSide = IIf(.Width > .Height, .Height, .Width)
                    .Adjustments(1) = sngRadius / LengthOfShortSide
                End If
            End With
        Next oShape
    Next oSlide
End Sub

And finally, for Word

Sub RoundAllWDCorners()
    Dim oShape As Shape, sngRadius As Single
    sngRadius = 8.50394 'Radius size in points.

    For Each oShape In ActiveDocument.Shapes
        With oShape
            If .AutoShapeType = msoShapeRoundedRectangle Then
                LengthOfShortSide = IIf(.Width > .Height, .Height, .Width)
                .Adjustments(1) = sngRadius / LengthOfShortSide
            End If
        End With
    Next oShape
End Sub

Before: Rounded Corners, but not Uniform

The Word version is a little simpler because a Word document is one big object, while Excel and PowerPoint both have multiple objects for each worksheet and slide, respectively. But the similarites point out that when you’re searching online for VBA code, finding something for a different program and modifying it can be a huge time-saver. By far, Excel has way more code written for it, so Excel VBA sites can be a fruitful source for Word and PowerPoint code ideas.

These macros have been tested under both Windows and macOS and work well under both.

To use these macros with other shapes, please see my article Every AutoShape – Cool Code for a downloadable reference file showing all AutoShapes along with their XML and VBA names. Then replace msoShapeRoundedRectangle with the mso shape name you need.

Logos Over Photos – Best Practices

Posted on August 3, 2019 by jkorchok

Back at the dawn of time, when PowerPoint was first being programmed, a fateful and incorrect decision was made. Placeholder content would always appear in front of static content, regardless of how placeholders and other content were stacked on the layout. This has led to countless bald designers, from them tearing out their hair because there’s no way to place logos over photos.

The Locked Graphics Workaround

One way to circumvent this design flaw is to place a picture placeholder on the layout as usual. Then create a sample slide from it. Place the logo over the photo and lock its position in the XML. Here’s my article on how to do that: OOXML Hacking: Locking Graphics. This allows the user to replace the photo while keeping the logo in front.

The disadvantage is that you can’t create a new slide from the layout. Instead, the user must copy and paste the sample slide to create another one.

The Background Picture Fill Workaround

If the photo is a full-screen photo, there’s another method. This time, don’t place a picture placeholder on the layout. Instead, just place the logo there. In use, the user right-clicks on the background and chooses Format Background. On the Format Background task pane, choose Picture or texture fill, then click on the File button and choose the background photo. The logo will stay on top.

The disadvantage to this technique is you have to include instructions to the end user, who may never have used a picture fill previously. My thanks to Jaakko Tuomivaara of Supergroup Studios in the UK for this tip.

The Holey Placeholder Workaround

For simple logos, or logos contained in a simple shape like a circle or square, create a logo-shaped hole in the placeholder. Here’s a Windows-only version.

On the layout, create the picture placeholder.
Insert the logo as an EMF vector file, then ungroup it twice, confirming with PowerPoint that you want to do this. This changes it from a placed picture to a set of vectors embedded on the layout.
With the logo parts selected, hold the Shift key and click on the placeholder.
Choose Drawing Tools Format>Merge Shapes>Subtract.
Fill the background, or a shape placed behind the logo hole, with the logo color.

If the logo is in a shape, you can use similar steps on both Windows and macOS computers. Using Mac command names: Place the logo over the placeholder, then draw a Shape exactly the same size as the logo, placed over the logo precisely. Select the shape and the placeholder, then use Shape Format>Merge Shapes>Fragment, then delete the shape to reveal the logo-sized hole in the placeholder. For some reason, Merge Shapes>Subtract works differently on a Mac, deleting both the shape and the placeholder, but Fragment still get the job done. Thanks to Ute Simon for suggesting this method in the comments.

A variation on this that can be more detailed is to place a copy of the logo above the placeholder. Then, shape-by-shape, use the logo over the placeholder with the Combine variant of Merge Shapes to knock holes in the placeholder. Then add colored shapes below the placeholder to “fill” the holes. If you have compound shapes (like the letter O or A), you’ll have to release the compound shapes, then connect the inner shape with the outer one. Here’s what the end result looks like in Illustrator.

De-compounded letter shapes — Outside line connected to inside to simulate a compound shape

Logos Over Photos: The Placeholder Picture Fill Workaround

This works with any size photo, it doesn’t have to be full-frame like the previous hack. No copy and paste, no instructions required. I heard about this one from Joshua Finto (Make It So Studio in Austin, TX).

On the layout, insert a picture placeholder to hold the photo. Then add another placeholder on top, sized to exactly the same size as the logo. I use Online Image placeholders because they are rarely used, using a common placeholder type risks content being placed in it if you change layout types. Remove bullets, if there are any, and type a space character so no placeholder text appears.

In the Format Picture task pane, click on Picture or texture fill, then on the File button and fill the placeholder with the logo. Create a slide, place a photo and voila! The logo appears over top of the photo! After creating this, it’s wise to lock the placeholder in XML on that layout, to prevent distortion by the user playing with it. OOXML Hacking: Locking Graphics. EMF, SVG and transparent PNGs are all good logo formats for this application.

Microsoft maintains Feedback forums to collect feedback from users. I’ve created a suggestion there that the placeholder/shape stacking order on the layout should be respected on slides. Please add your vote here: Placeholders Should Not Pop to the Front. Perhaps we can persuade Microsoft to fix the mistake so we don’t need these time-wasting workarounds.

Thanks to my readers who have added some useful suggestions! Please read the comments for additional ideas and tips.

OOXML Hacking: Notes Page Repair

Posted on July 2, 2019 by jkorchok

A bug in PowerPoint Online can wreck presentations edited there. This article describes the symptoms and how to do a notes page repair – if you use Windows. Mac users cannot fix this issue because of sloppy Microsoft programming in the macOS version.

PowerPoint Online can resize the Notes Master page of a presentation. It can also resize elements on the Notes Master, leading to a really wacky combination of large and small placeholders. Almost always, the page size is made much smaller, often into a thin but tall rectangle. The exact cause hasn’t been determined yet, but it may be caused by editing Notes. PowerPoint Online can’t display either the Notes Page or the Notes Master for a presentation, so this problem goes undetected until the presentation is downloaded and viewed in the desktop version. Do a quick Google search on notes page wrong size site:microsoft.com to see lots of examples.

There are three steps to a notes page repair, and it starts with an XML hack. Open up the presentation in BBEdit or OOXML Tools (macOS) or unzip it (Windows). Find the presentation.xml part. In human-readable form, the 13th line will be the Notes Master page size. This example shows the normal values:

<p:notesSz cx="6858000" cy="9144000"/>

The hack involves resetting these values to normal, then saving and closing, or rezipping the files. But that’s just 1 of 3 steps. The next 2 steps can be done in the program.

Open the presentation in PowerPoint, then choose View>Notes Master. Very likely there will be wrong-size shapes or missing elements. To fix this, uncheck, then recheck each of the 6 elements (Header, Slide image, Footer, Date and Time, Body and Slide Number). This restores them to the designed co-ordinates.

The third step notes page repair is to reset each Notes Page to follow the Notes Master. This is where the Mac version runs into trouble. In the Windows version of PowerPoint, open the Notes Page for each slide and right-click on the background. This is the context-aware menu you’ll see:

Click on Notes Layout, then on Reapply master. The Notes Page reverts to correct formatting.

Now let’s look at the same operation on a Mac. Right-click on the Notes Page and what do we see?

This is not a “context-aware” menu. This is exactly the same menu that you get if you right-click on a slide. The available commands make sense for a slide, not for a notes page. There is no option to reset the page to the Notes master. The Mac programming team got lazy and just reused the same menu.

As a result, Mac users can’t complete a notes page repair. They can’t reset the page back to the original format.

But wait! What’s that? I hear you say, you read about a macro that can reapply the Notes master. Yup, it’s here on Steve Rindsberg’s awesome PPTFAQ site: Reapply the Notes Master to each Notes Page in a presentation. Except that macro raises an error on Mac version of PowerPoint, because the control ID can’t be found.

Microsoft has f***ed this one badly. First, through the PowerPoint Online bug that creates this, and remains unfixed until the date of this post. Second, because of the sloppy “context-aware” menu programming. And third because they can’t provide PowerPoint for Mac with a complete list of controls in the VBA object model.

As a last resort, create a new blank presentation from the same template as was used for the original file. Then copy and paste the slides from the damaged deck into it. Thanks to Christa Barnes for this suggestion in the comments.

Since I first wrote this article, John Wilson in the UK has written a pair of Windows-only repair utilities to fix this problem. Here’s the page where you can download both, one to fix the Notes Master and another to reapply the master to the Notes Pages. Give them a try, it’s a little easier than revising the XML.

As always, if you’re new to this topic, please review the page about editing OOXML files. Mac users should also read XML Hacking: Editing in macOS. I value your feedback, please leave a comment about any concerns or questions.

OOXML Hacking: Vertical Bullet Alignment

Posted on February 21, 2019 by jkorchok

Bad design decisions haunt our lives. One poor choice was Microsoft’s selection of the text baseline for vertical bullet alignment in PowerPoint. Bigger bullets move up, smaller bullets move down, without any control in the user interface. I’m sure you’ve seen this effect as you change bullet size relative to text:

Fixing Vertical Bullet Alignment with VBA

There are a couple of ways to fix this issue. One is to download and install this free Add-in by John Wilson of PowerPoint Alchemy: Bullets Move Up and Down. The VBA code behind this add-in looks something like this:

Sub fixBulletAlignment()
  Dim oDes As Design
  Dim oMast As Master
  Dim L As Long
  Dim oCust As CustomLayout
  Dim oshp As Shape
  For Each oDes In ActivePresentation.Designs
    For Each oCust In oDes.SlideMaster.CustomLayouts
      For Each oshp In oCust.Shapes
        If oshp.Type = msoPlaceholder Then
          Select Case oshp.PlaceholderFormat.Type
          Case Is = ppPlaceholderBody, ppPlaceholderVerticalBody, ppPlaceholderObject
            For L = 1 To oshp.TextFrame.TextRange.Paragraphs.Count
              With oshp.TextFrame.TextRange.Paragraphs(L).ParagraphFormat
                .BaseLineAlignment = ppBaselineAlignCenter
              End With
            Next L
          End Select
        End If
      Next oshp
    Next oCust
  Next oDes
  MsgBox "Masters and layouts fixed", vbInformation, "PowerPoint Alchemy"
End Sub

When this runs, it adds an over-ride to the text level definitions on each slide layout that has multi-level text (any layout containing a Content or Text placeholder).

<a:lstStyle>
  <a:lvl1pPr fontAlgn="ctr">
    <a:defRPr/>
  </a:lvl1pPr>
  <a:lvl2pPr fontAlgn="ctr">
    <a:defRPr/>
  </a:lvl2pPr>
  <a:lvl3pPr fontAlgn="ctr">
    <a:defRPr/>
  </a:lvl3pPr>
  <a:lvl4pPr fontAlgn="ctr">
    <a:defRPr/>
  </a:lvl4pPr>
  <a:lvl5pPr fontAlgn="ctr">
    <a:defRPr/>
  </a:lvl5pPr>
</a:lstStyle>

This is adequate for most purposes. With correctly aligned bullets, we now get this effect when we change the bullet size:

There are a couple of downsides to the VBA approach:

You have to remember to apply it to each presentation or template.
If you add a new layout, or add a new text or content placeholder to an existing layout, you’ll have to re-run the macro.
Table text and text box text does not benefit, their bullets will still be wonky.

Fixing Vertical Bullet Alignment with XML Hacking

With XML hacking, we can fix this problem once and never have to think about it again. Start by unzipping a new blank template, then editing ppt\slideMasters\slideMaster1.xml. There are 3 sections to be edited: p:titleStyle (for all title placeholders), p:bodyStyle (for all text or content placeholders) and p:otherStyle (for table text).

The editing is the same for all sections: for each a:lvlXpPr section, where X is the level number, add fontAlgn=”ctr” to the definition. Here’s what it looks like before…

<a:lvl1pPr marL="0" indent="0" algn="l" defTabSz="914400" rtl="0" eaLnBrk="1" latinLnBrk="0" hangingPunct="1">

…and after editing:

<a:lvl1pPr fontAlgn="ctr" marL="0" indent="0" algn="l" defTabSz="914400" rtl="0" eaLnBrk="1" latinLnBrk="0" hangingPunct="1">

There are 19 level definitions in slideMaster1.xml to change. When you’re done that, open ppt\presentation.xml and make the same edit to the 9 levels of the p:defaultTextStyle section that controls formatting for text boxes and notes and handout pages.

When you’re done, rezip the XML files and rename the template blank.potx. Place it so it works as your default template, here’s an article from Steve Rindsberg with the details for each Office version. For PowerPoint 2016 and 2019 for Windows, follow the PowerPoint 2013 directions. For 2019 for Mac, use the Mac 2016 directions: Create your own default presentation.

Now that this is set in your default template, every new file created when PowerPoint opens will have the correct vertical bullet alignment. Please note that in PowerPoint for Windows, if you choose File>New>Blank Presentation, this autogenerates a new file that is not based on your default template. Such a file will have incorrect vertical bullet alignment.

Shared Workgroup Templates – Best Practices

Posted on January 10, 2019 by jkorchok

Groups of workers usually use the same templates. But it can be time-consuming to keep everyone updated when templates are installed separately on each desktop. Instead, you can implement shared workgroup templates with a feature already built into Office.

Shared Workgroup Templates – Multiple Uses

Every desktop version of Office, Mac and Windows, includes a Workgroup templates option that allows you to set a network share as a templates folder. Templates on this share are instantly available to all users, making updates and revisions a breeze. Automatically, everyone in the office is using the same version. As long as template names remain identical, then old Word documents automatically attach themselves to the new template.

While you can only set the Workgroup Templates location in Word, once you make the change there, it also applies to PowerPoint and Excel.

The Workgroup templates network share can serve more that just templates. With some additional subfolders, it can be a source for Document Themes, including custom SuperThemes, it can hold collection of Font and Color themes. These additional files don’t show in the File>New dialog. Theme files display under the Themes dropdown, theme colors under the Colors dropdown and theme fonts under the Fonts dropdown.

Shared Workgroup Templates – Setup

To set up shared workgroup templates, first create the network location and ensure it’s accessible to all in the office without a signin. Each computer should connect to the share automatically on restart, so users don’t have to remember to manually connect before creating a new document. Create subfolders with the following names for othe file types you want to support. Document Themes for themes, with subfolders for Theme Colors and Theme Fonts. All versions of Office expect exactly the same file structure.

If the office uses Group Policies to install and configure software, you can use that feature to add the Workgroup Template location to each user installation. If you’re using “sneakernet” for configuration, here’s how to do it manually. All Office suites use a setting in Word to set the location for all the other programs

Office 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019 for Windows

In Word, choose File>Options>Advanced.
Scroll down to the General section of Advanced and click on the File Locations… button.
Select the Workgroup templates line, then click on the Modify button.
In the dialog that opens, enter the path to the network share in the Folder name field, or use the window controls to navigate to the folder. Select the folder and click on OK. OK all the way out and close Word

Office 2007 for Windows

In Word, click on the Office button, then on Word Options, then on Advanced..
Scroll down to the General section of Advanced and click on the File Locations… button.
Select the Workgroup templates line, then click on the Modify button.
In the dialog that opens, enter the path to the network share in the Folder name field, or use the window controls to navigate to the folder. Select the folder and click on OK. OK all the way out and close Word.

Office 2003 and earlier for Windows

In Word, choose Tools>Options and click on the File Locations tab.
Select the Workgroup templates line, then click on the Modify button.
In the dialog that opens, enter the path to the network share in the Folder name field, or use the window controls to navigate to the folder. Select the folder and click on OK. OK all the way out and close Word.

Office 2016 and 2019 for Mac

In Word, choose Word>Preferences>File Locations.
Select the Workgroup templates line, then click on the Modify button.
In the dialog that opens, use the window controls to navigate to the folder. Select the folder and click on Open. OK out and close Word

Office 2011 and earlier for Mac

In Word, choose Word>Preferences>File Locations.
Select the Workgroup templates line, then click on the Modify button.
In the dialog that opens, use the window controls to navigate to the folder. Select the folder and click on Choose. OK out and close Word

Shared Workgroup Templates in Use

Here’s how to access Workgroup templates in Office programs

Office 2016 and 2019 for Windows

Choose File>New.
Click on Custom.
Click on Workgroup Templates, select a template, then click on Create.

Office 2013 for Windows

Choose FILE>New.
Click on SHARED.
Click on a template.

Office 2010 for Windows

Choose File>New>My Templates.
On the Personal Templates tab, select a template, then click on OK. This tab also shows local templates on the user’s computer.

Office 2007 for Windows

Click on the Office button, then on New.
Click on My templates…
Select the My Templates tab. Workgroup templates are displayed along with local templates in the same pane.

Office 2003 and earlier for Windows

Click on File>New. The New Document pane opens at the side of the window.
On the New Document pane, click on On my computer…
Select a template from the General pane and click on OK. This pane shows a mix of local and workgroup templates.

Office 2016 and 2019 for Mac

Choose File>New from Template…. The Document Gallery opens
In the upper left corner, click on the Work link. This link only appears when you have a Workgroup Templates location set in Preferences.
Select a template, then click on Create.

Office 2011 for Mac

Choose File>New from Template. The Document Gallery opens.
Click on Workgroup Templates in the left-hand TEMPLATES list..
Select a template and click on Choose.

Office 2008 for Mac

Choose File>Project Gallery. The Project Gallery opens.
Click on My Templates in the left-hand Category list..
Select a template and click on Open. This window will show a mix of Workgroup and local templates.

Shared Workgroup Templates – Shortcomings

In addition to templates and themes, a local templates folder also serves custom Chart and SmartArt templates. Neither of these formats is supported by Workgroup Templates, so those templates must still be installed locally on each user’s computer.

OOXML Hacking: Layout Color Variations for Visual Interest

Posted on December 23, 2018 by jkorchok

Having worked with many great designers, I see that they try to create variety in chart appearance rather than uniformity. So what if there was a way to have make a chart layout with the colors in a different order? This could give you layout color variations while sticking to the branding guidelines. Well, I have a solution for you, but you’re gonna have to hack some XML!

If you’re an XML newby, please read my article XML Hacking: An Introduction. macOS users will live longer lives if they take a look at XML Hacking: Editing in macOS.

Normally, every layout under a slide master has only 1 color theme. You’re mostly stuck with those 10 colors in a fixed order. In my earlier article about Great Color Themes, I explained how the sequence of colors determines the color order of charts.

But during some recent research, I started reading about the <p:clrMapOvr> XML element. This can be applied to a slide layout to rearrange the color theme. With Accents 1 to 6 in a different order, charts can acquire a whole new look. Here’s how it works.

Layout Color Variations with clrMapOvr

At the end of most layouts, you may have seen this XML:

  <p:clrMapOvr>
    <a:masterClrMapping/>
  </p:clrMapOvr>

This tells the layout that it should use the standard color mapping as defined in the theme. We would think of this as the default or normal set of colors. But what if we want to alter this sequence? We can assign each color theme value to a different task. If you import a PowerPoint 2003 or older deck, this gets generated automatically to keep the deck looking as expected.

Here’s an alternate mapping of the same colors:

  <p:clrMapOvr>
    <a:overrideClrMapping bg1="lt1" tx1="dk1" bg2="lt2" tx2="dk2" accent1="accent6" accent2="accent5" accent3="accent4" accent4="accent3" accent5="accent2" accent6="accent1" hlink="hlink" folHlink="folHlink"/>
  </p:clrMapOvr>

This reverses the order of accent colors from the master, giving charts, fills and shapes a whole new look for the slides based on this layout.

We used to tell clients “Sorry, we have to set the color order to match only one of your designed charts.” Now we have a different message: “Different chart color sequences? No problem. Just use a different layout!”

If XML hacking doesn’t interest you, Brandwares can do it for you. We’re a full-service template creation service for all Office programs. Email me at production@brandwares.com with your project details.

Legacy Slides – Best Practices

Posted on November 12, 2018 by jkorchok

Legacy Slides – Making It Work the Way You Think It Should Work

Here’s an all-too-common scenario. An organization has a library of presentations built up over the years, full of valuable content. Time passes and a branding update becomes inevitable, to keep the corporate look contemporary. A designer is hired, a new template created and distributed. Users create new decks and start pasting in old slides. Chaos ensues: the formatting is all f***ed up! It could be something minor, like regular text changing to bold. But much more often, old formatting gets pasted in, and in Slide Master view you start seeing unwanted layouts, often with names preceded by numbers like 1_Title and Content. What went wrong?

PowerPoint has several requirements for pasting to work as expected. When you paste in old slides, and you want them to map to your new slide layouts, they must meet all 5 of these criteria:

The slide layout name must be the same. This can be set in Slide Master view.
The slide layout type (as set in XML) must be the same. If you copy an existing Title Slide layout, it will retain the layout type. But if you delete all Title Slide layouts, then realize you made a mistake, you’re in trouble. It’s possible to recreate a built-in slide layout by running a VBA macro:
```
Sub RestoreLayout()
  With ActivePresentation.Slides
    .Add(.Count + 1, ppLayoutObject).Delete
  End With
End Sub
```
The number of placeholders must be the same. When there is a different number of placeholders on the slide being pasted, PowerPoint goes mental and will reassign content randomly.
The types of placeholders must be the same. If a user is pasting a Microsoft-compatible Title and Content slide, PowerPoint is looking for:
1 Title,
1 Content,
1 Date,
1 Footer and
1 Page Number placeholder. No more, no less. If your old template layout has only a Title and Content placeholder, your new template must have the same.
For corresponding placeholders in the old and new layouts, the idx number must match. Title placeholders don’t have idx numbers, because there is only one of them on a slide at a time. The idx numbers tell PowerPoint which placeholder should receive information from a particular placeholder in the old layout. This allows you to have several of the same type of placeholder on a layout and still have PowerPoint map content correctly among them.

This simplest way to guarantee that all these criteria will be met is to not create a template from a brand new file. Instead, reformat the old template to the new branding, taking care not to delete or rename any layouts (you can add new ones), and not to add or delete any placeholders on the existing layouts.

Legacy Slides – Another Possible Hiccup

An additional wrinkle can appear if an embedded image is included, perhaps for a logo. Then the XML will include a line line this:

<a:blip r:embed="rId2">

rId numbers are used by the _rels file that corresponds with the layout to tell PowerPoint where to find the logo. If the rId number is wrong, PowerPoint will show an empty box with the text The picture could not be displayed. Of course, you could just replace the image if you see this error during file construction.

Static pictures, graphics, text boxes and shapes placed on the layout make no difference to layout mapping. Add them, remove them, they won’t stop PowerPoint finding the correct layout.

If a pasted slide does not meet all of the above criteria, PowerPoint imports the slide layout from the old deck, prepending it’s name with 1_, if it’s the first time it’s importing that layout. Very quickly, the client’s deck is polluted with multiple spurious slide layouts. When face with choices like Title and Content, 1_Title and Content, 2_Title and Content, 3_Title and Content, the user will simply give up trying to decide which one to use. Branding goes down the drain.

After 3 pastes from designer decks — After 3 pastes from “designer” decks, this is what your client is struggling with:

For maximum legacy compatibility, new templates you create for a client should include the slide layouts and placeholders of previous templates they have commissioned. Often it’s feasible to segregate these using different slide masters, one for each previous template they have used. Each slide master includes exactly the same layouts and placeholders used in a previous version, but with the branding updated to the new look. Then in the receiving template, the user is instructed to paste immediately after a slide based on an earlier version. This method can reduce the user’s pain of having to follow your shiny new template.

In a workflow where PowerPoint files are converted to Google Slides and back, none of the above will work. The XML created by Google is a mess and pasted slides will inevitably bring their non-standard Google layouts with them. There is no fix for this other than a custom VBA conversion macro.

We have years of expertise in this area and can either assess your template for legacy slide compatibility or create a template or theme for you that will work seamlessly with your old files. We’re here to help! Contact me at production@brandwares.com.

OOXML Hacking: Fix Broken PowerPoint Links

Posted on August 11, 2018 by jkorchok

Please note: Microsoft has modified the nature of OLE links. It’s no longer possible to maintain relative OLE links (linked Excel and Word) in current versions of Office. The directions below will allow you to re-establish a broken link, but when you update the linked file, PowerPoint will write an abolute path. If you’re relinking other object types, like images, audio or video, this article will allow you to create permanent relative, semi-relative and absolute paths.

Someone sends you a presentation linked to an Excel file. The links don’t work and you can’t fix them without redoing them. Here’s how to fix broken PowerPoint links with a one minute of XML Hacking.

This article is really just for PowerPoint for Mac users. If you have the Windows version, you can fix broken links by choosing File>Info, then clicking on Edit Links to Files in the right-hand column under Related Documents. (Please note, the Edit Links option only appears if you actually have a link in the open presentation.) Word and Excel for Mac already have utilities to fix links.

If you haven’t hacked XML before, please read XML Hacking: An Introduction and XML Hacking: Editing in macOS. This article mentions Excel, which I’ve used as an example, but the same advice is true for Word files linked to PowerPoint. OLE Links to other formats, like PDF, are simply not supported on macOS.

In Office, links to documents include the complete path. Of course, when you move those linked files to a new computer, the path is always different, so the links must be corrected. The symptoms of a broken link depends on the type of link that was created. If the file creator selected a workbook section or chart, then used Paste Special to paste in a link, you’ll see this message when you double-click on the Excel excerpt:

But the creator may have used Insert>Object instead, and chosen to link rather than embed the file. Then you’ll see this when you try to edit:

Then after dismissing that dialog, you’ll see the first one about the server error.

Fix Broken PowerPoint Links – The Steps

The issue is that a path is embedded in the PowerPoint file, and that path must be edited. Open the file in BBEdit.

The XML we need to change is associated with the slide(s) on which the Excel item is placed. So lets look. In the left-hand window, click on ppt. Then select slides then the _rels folder. Rels is short for relationships, and it’s the mechanism in every OOXML folder that tells PowerPoint where to find the objects in use.

The _rels folder has a .rels file for each slide in the presentation. Open the file for the slide containing the linked Excel. If the link was inserted using Paste Special, it will look like this (Pay attention to the third line and scroll all the way to the right. The path to be edited is in bold):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<Relationships xmlns="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/package/2006/relationships">
  <Relationship Id="rId3" Type="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/oleObject" Target="file:///\\192.168.1.250\Dockets\Test\Excel\Link2PowerPoint.xlsx!Sheet1!R1C1:R1C4" TargetMode="External"/>
  <Relationship Id="rId2" Type="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/slideLayout" Target="../slideLayouts/slideLayout7.xml"/>
  <Relationship Id="rId1" Type="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/vmlDrawing" Target="../drawings/vmlDrawing1.vml"/>
  <Relationship Id="rId4" Type="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/image" Target="../media/image1.emf"/>
</Relationships>

If the Excel file has been inserted as an linked object, it won’t include a range of cells, just the workbook name:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<Relationships xmlns="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/package/2006/relationships">
  <Relationship Id="rId3" Type="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/oleObject" Target="file:///\\192.168.1.250\Dockets\Test\Excel\Link2PowerPoint.xlsx" TargetMode="External"/>
  <Relationship Id="rId2" Type="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/slideLayout" Target="../slideLayouts/slideLayout7.xml"/>
  <Relationship Id="rId1" Type="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/vmlDrawing" Target="../drawings/vmlDrawing2.vml"/>
  <Relationship Id="rId4" Type="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships/image" Target="../media/image2.emf"/>
</Relationships>

Since the Excel item was inserted on a Windows computer, the path uses backslashes instead of forward slashes. There are two path syntaxes that are acceptable. If both the file linked to and the presentation containing the link are in your User folder, you can use a relative path and the linked file will open up immediately. If the file linked to is on a network share or somewhere on your disk outside your user folder, you will have to use an absolute path and you will get a challenge from Office when you open the link.

Let’s do the relative path first. In this example, the Excel file is in my user Documents folder and the PowerPoint is in my user Downloads folder. So I edit:

Target="file:///\\192.168.1.250\Dockets\Test\Excel\Link2PowerPoint.xlsx"

to:

Target="file:///../Documents/Test/Excel/Link2PowerPoint.xlsx"

In Unix/DOS speak, the 2 dots mean “go up one level”, out of the Downloads folder where the presentation is into the main user folder. Then the slashes lead you down into the Documents folder and subfolders to the Excel location. Once you set a relative path, you must leave the PowerPoint file in the same folder. Moving it will break the path.

Fix Broken PowerPoint Links – The Best Relative Path

For a linked file that you know will be moved from desktop to desktop, the best strategy is to place both files in the same folder. Then use this path:

Target="file:///Link2PowerPoint.xlsx"

Now even if you move it back to Windows, the linked Excel file will open as expected. As I noted above, when you open or update the linked Excel (or Word) file, PowerPoint will replace your relative path with an absolute one. This only happens with OLE links. For picture, audio, video and other file types, the relative link will remain unless you manually update.

Fix Broken PowerPoint Links – Absolute Paths

If the file to be linked to is on another disk, use an absolute path. With an absolute path, you can move the PowerPoint file anywhere on your computer or to other machines and it will still be able to find the linked file. Here’s what an absolute path looks like:

Target="file:///Volumes/TheNameOfYourHardDisk/Users/YourUserName/Documents/Test/Excel/Link2PowerPoint.xlsx"

Important! A macOS absolute path must begin with Volumes, followed by a slash and the name of the disk. If your network is set up for different operating systems, you’ll probably use an IP address instead, as shown in the original file path. Consult with your IT department.

Office 2016 for Mac applications are sandboxed applications, so when you first open an Office file linked with an absolute path, you’ll see a warning:

Click on Select…, then you’ll see:

Select the correct file if it isn’t already selected, then click on Grant Access. Now double-click on the linked Excel item to edit and you’ll see this again:

OK, that’s something of a hassle, but the good thing is that you won’t see those warnings again as long as the linked file says in the same place with the same name. You also only get warned once per placed file, even if there are multiple uses of that file in your presentation.

Linked files are a huge benefit when you have a data source that is constantly being updated. Using them means your presentation can always be up to date. Now that you know how to fix the links, you have a very useful new tool.