determining current version of PowerPoint

[=?Utf-8?B?R2VvcmdlQXRraW5z?=]

Greetings!
I wrote a small Exe that simply runs Shell to load PowerPoint and launch a
particular file, depending on the day of the week. However, it was set up for
office 2003 (I naively hardcoded the path) and I also used Shell. Does
anybody have a snipped showing a more efficient method for launching a
Powerpoint file, regardless of which version of Office is running?

My current, ineffecient code:
Sub main()
Try
Dim ps1 As New PermissionSet(P ermissionState. Unrestricted)
ps1.Demand()
Dim MyDate As Date
Dim DayOfWeek As Integer

MyDate = Today
DayOfWeek = Weekday(MyDate)

' Launch the powerpoint file for the current day of the week.
Select Case DayOfWeek
Case 1
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Sunday.ppt""" )
Case 2
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Monday.ppt""" )
Case 3
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Tuesday.ppt"" ")
Case 4
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Wednesday.ppt """)
Case 5
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Thursday.ppt" "")
Case 6
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Friday.ppt""" )
Case 7
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Saturday.ppt" "")
End Select
Catch e As SecurityExcepti on
MsgBox(e.Messag e)
End Try
End
End Sub

Thanks for any advise!
George Atkins

[Newbie Coder]

Re: determining current version of PowerPoint

George,

Here's a way to do it:

Imports Microsoft.Win32
Imports System.Diagnost ics.Process

#Region "Get PowerPoint Path"

Private Function GetPowerPointPa th() As String
Dim reg As RegistryKey
Try
reg =
Registry.LocalM achine.OpenSubK ey("SOFTWARE\Mi crosoft\Windows \CurrentVersion \App
Paths\powerpnt. exe", False)
Dim strShortPath As String = reg.GetValue("" , "")
reg.Close()
Return strShortPath
Catch ex As Exception
' Some error handling here
End Try
End Function

#End Region

#Region "Get Day Of Week"

Private Function GetDayOfWeek() As String
Dim dt As DateTime = DateTime.Today
Return dt.DayOfWeek.To String
End Function

#End Region

#Region "Run PowerPoint Presentation"

Private Sub RunPowerPointPr esentation()
Dim strPPT As String = "C:\PPTs" & "\" & GetDayOfWeek() & ".ppt"
Dim psi As New ProcessStartInf o(GetPowerPoint Path())
Try
With psi
.Arguments = "/s " & strPPT
.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowSt yle.Maximized
End With
Process.Start(p si)
Catch ex As Exception
' Error Handling Here
End Try
End Sub

I have chosen 'C:\PPTs' as the path I stored the PowerPoint files in

Hope this helps,

--
Newbie Coder
(It's just a name)



"GeorgeAtki ns" <GeorgeAtkins@d iscussions.micr osoft.comwrote in message
news:72827EEC-899E-429E-A6A8-40B2A764FE00@mi crosoft.com...

Greetings!
I wrote a small Exe that simply runs Shell to load PowerPoint and launch a
particular file, depending on the day of the week. However, it was set up for
office 2003 (I naively hardcoded the path) and I also used Shell. Does
anybody have a snipped showing a more efficient method for launching a
Powerpoint file, regardless of which version of Office is running?
>
My current, ineffecient code:
Sub main()
Try
Dim ps1 As New PermissionSet(P ermissionState. Unrestricted)
ps1.Demand()
Dim MyDate As Date
Dim DayOfWeek As Integer
>
MyDate = Today
DayOfWeek = Weekday(MyDate)
>
' Launch the powerpoint file for the current day of the week.
Select Case DayOfWeek
Case 1
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Sunday.ppt""" )
Case 2
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Monday.ppt""" )
Case 3
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Tuesday.ppt"" ")
Case 4
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Wednesday.ppt """)
Case 5
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Thursday.ppt" "")
Case 6
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Friday.ppt""" )
Case 7
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Saturday.ppt" "")
End Select
Catch e As SecurityExcepti on
MsgBox(e.Messag e)
End Try
End
End Sub
>
Thanks for any advise!
George Atkins
>

[=?Utf-8?B?R2VvcmdlQXRraW5z?=]

Re: determining current version of PowerPoint

Sorry that I missed your post; I forgot to mark the Notify box and work has
kept me busy. I'll try this out when I get back to work, first thing. Thanks
a whole lot for the solution.
george atkins

"Newbie Coder" wrote:

George,
>
Here's a way to do it:
>
Imports Microsoft.Win32
Imports System.Diagnost ics.Process
>
#Region "Get PowerPoint Path"
>
Private Function GetPowerPointPa th() As String
Dim reg As RegistryKey
Try
reg =
Registry.LocalM achine.OpenSubK ey("SOFTWARE\Mi crosoft\Windows \CurrentVersion \App
Paths\powerpnt. exe", False)
Dim strShortPath As String = reg.GetValue("" , "")
reg.Close()
Return strShortPath
Catch ex As Exception
' Some error handling here
End Try
End Function
>
#End Region
>
#Region "Get Day Of Week"
>
Private Function GetDayOfWeek() As String
Dim dt As DateTime = DateTime.Today
Return dt.DayOfWeek.To String
End Function
>
#End Region
>
#Region "Run PowerPoint Presentation"
>
Private Sub RunPowerPointPr esentation()
Dim strPPT As String = "C:\PPTs" & "\" & GetDayOfWeek() & ".ppt"
Dim psi As New ProcessStartInf o(GetPowerPoint Path())
Try
With psi
.Arguments = "/s " & strPPT
.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowSt yle.Maximized
End With
Process.Start(p si)
Catch ex As Exception
' Error Handling Here
End Try
End Sub
>
I have chosen 'C:\PPTs' as the path I stored the PowerPoint files in
>
Hope this helps,
>
--
Newbie Coder
(It's just a name)
>
>
>
"GeorgeAtki ns" <GeorgeAtkins@d iscussions.micr osoft.comwrote in message
news:72827EEC-899E-429E-A6A8-40B2A764FE00@mi crosoft.com...

Greetings!
I wrote a small Exe that simply runs Shell to load PowerPoint and launch a
particular file, depending on the day of the week. However, it was set up for
office 2003 (I naively hardcoded the path) and I also used Shell. Does
anybody have a snipped showing a more efficient method for launching a
Powerpoint file, regardless of which version of Office is running?

My current, ineffecient code:
Sub main()
Try
Dim ps1 As New PermissionSet(P ermissionState. Unrestricted)
ps1.Demand()
Dim MyDate As Date
Dim DayOfWeek As Integer

MyDate = Today
DayOfWeek = Weekday(MyDate)

' Launch the powerpoint file for the current day of the week.
Select Case DayOfWeek
Case 1
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Sunday.ppt""" )
Case 2
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Monday.ppt""" )
Case 3
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Tuesday.ppt"" ")
Case 4
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Wednesday.ppt """)
Case 5
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Thursday.ppt" "")
Case 6
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Friday.ppt""" )
Case 7
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Saturday.ppt" "")
End Select
Catch e As SecurityExcepti on
MsgBox(e.Messag e)
End Try
End
End Sub

Thanks for any advise!
George Atkins

>
>
>

[=?Utf-8?B?R2VvcmdlQXRraW5z?=]

Re: determining current version of PowerPoint

Thanks for the code. When I tried to run it, I received the following
"warning" that prevents the code from running or compiling:

"Warning 1 Function 'GetPowerPointP ath' doesn't return a value on all code
paths. A null reference exception could occur at run time when the result is
used."

I'm running a standard installation of PowerPoint 2007 on an XP SP2 machine.
Do you have any troubleshooting advise? I checked for the path in the
Registry and it is correct.

George

"Newbie Coder" wrote:

George,
>
Here's a way to do it:
>
Imports Microsoft.Win32
Imports System.Diagnost ics.Process
>
#Region "Get PowerPoint Path"
>
Private Function GetPowerPointPa th() As String
Dim reg As RegistryKey
Try
reg =
Registry.LocalM achine.OpenSubK ey("SOFTWARE\Mi crosoft\Windows \CurrentVersion \App
Paths\powerpnt. exe", False)
Dim strShortPath As String = reg.GetValue("" , "")
reg.Close()
Return strShortPath
Catch ex As Exception
' Some error handling here
End Try
End Function
>
#End Region
>
#Region "Get Day Of Week"
>
Private Function GetDayOfWeek() As String
Dim dt As DateTime = DateTime.Today
Return dt.DayOfWeek.To String
End Function
>
#End Region
>
#Region "Run PowerPoint Presentation"
>
Private Sub RunPowerPointPr esentation()
Dim strPPT As String = "C:\PPTs" & "\" & GetDayOfWeek() & ".ppt"
Dim psi As New ProcessStartInf o(GetPowerPoint Path())
Try
With psi
.Arguments = "/s " & strPPT
.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowSt yle.Maximized
End With
Process.Start(p si)
Catch ex As Exception
' Error Handling Here
End Try
End Sub
>
I have chosen 'C:\PPTs' as the path I stored the PowerPoint files in
>
Hope this helps,
>
--
Newbie Coder
(It's just a name)
>
>
>
"GeorgeAtki ns" <GeorgeAtkins@d iscussions.micr osoft.comwrote in message
news:72827EEC-899E-429E-A6A8-40B2A764FE00@mi crosoft.com...

Greetings!
I wrote a small Exe that simply runs Shell to load PowerPoint and launch a
particular file, depending on the day of the week. However, it was set up for
office 2003 (I naively hardcoded the path) and I also used Shell. Does
anybody have a snipped showing a more efficient method for launching a
Powerpoint file, regardless of which version of Office is running?

My current, ineffecient code:
Sub main()
Try
Dim ps1 As New PermissionSet(P ermissionState. Unrestricted)
ps1.Demand()
Dim MyDate As Date
Dim DayOfWeek As Integer

MyDate = Today
DayOfWeek = Weekday(MyDate)

' Launch the powerpoint file for the current day of the week.
Select Case DayOfWeek
Case 1
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Sunday.ppt""" )
Case 2
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Monday.ppt""" )
Case 3
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Tuesday.ppt"" ")
Case 4
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Wednesday.ppt """)
Case 5
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Thursday.ppt" "")
Case 6
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Friday.ppt""" )
Case 7
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Saturday.ppt" "")
End Select
Catch e As SecurityExcepti on
MsgBox(e.Messag e)
End Try
End
End Sub

Thanks for any advise!
George Atkins

>
>
>

[=?Utf-8?B?R2VvcmdlQXRraW5z?=]

Re: determining current version of PowerPoint

Well, I think I may have an inkling of the problem.
The function that determines the PPT path, returns the following string:
"C:\PROGRA~1\MI CROS~2\Office12 \POWERPNT.EXE"

Why Microsoft records these old-fashioned, truncated names is beyond me. But
I believe the ~1 and ~2 syntax is what is causing the problem. I could edit
the syntax, but as I'm going to run this on other machines, this is not a
good solution.

I revised the code to show: reg.GetValue("P ath", ""). This returns a valid,
full path, but the code continues to fail with the warning previously
reported.

Any other ideas?
George



"Newbie Coder" wrote:

George,
>
Here's a way to do it:
>
Imports Microsoft.Win32
Imports System.Diagnost ics.Process
>
#Region "Get PowerPoint Path"
>
Private Function GetPowerPointPa th() As String
Dim reg As RegistryKey
Try
reg =
Registry.LocalM achine.OpenSubK ey("SOFTWARE\Mi crosoft\Windows \CurrentVersion \App
Paths\powerpnt. exe", False)
Dim strShortPath As String = reg.GetValue("" , "")
reg.Close()
Return strShortPath
Catch ex As Exception
' Some error handling here
End Try
End Function
>
#End Region
>
#Region "Get Day Of Week"
>
Private Function GetDayOfWeek() As String
Dim dt As DateTime = DateTime.Today
Return dt.DayOfWeek.To String
End Function
>
#End Region
>
#Region "Run PowerPoint Presentation"
>
Private Sub RunPowerPointPr esentation()
Dim strPPT As String = "C:\PPTs" & "\" & GetDayOfWeek() & ".ppt"
Dim psi As New ProcessStartInf o(GetPowerPoint Path())
Try
With psi
.Arguments = "/s " & strPPT
.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowSt yle.Maximized
End With
Process.Start(p si)
Catch ex As Exception
' Error Handling Here
End Try
End Sub
>
I have chosen 'C:\PPTs' as the path I stored the PowerPoint files in
>
Hope this helps,
>
--
Newbie Coder
(It's just a name)
>
>
>
"GeorgeAtki ns" <GeorgeAtkins@d iscussions.micr osoft.comwrote in message
news:72827EEC-899E-429E-A6A8-40B2A764FE00@mi crosoft.com...

Greetings!
I wrote a small Exe that simply runs Shell to load PowerPoint and launch a
particular file, depending on the day of the week. However, it was set up for
office 2003 (I naively hardcoded the path) and I also used Shell. Does
anybody have a snipped showing a more efficient method for launching a
Powerpoint file, regardless of which version of Office is running?

My current, ineffecient code:
Sub main()
Try
Dim ps1 As New PermissionSet(P ermissionState. Unrestricted)
ps1.Demand()
Dim MyDate As Date
Dim DayOfWeek As Integer

MyDate = Today
DayOfWeek = Weekday(MyDate)

' Launch the powerpoint file for the current day of the week.
Select Case DayOfWeek
Case 1
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Sunday.ppt""" )
Case 2
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Monday.ppt""" )
Case 3
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Tuesday.ppt"" ")
Case 4
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Wednesday.ppt """)
Case 5
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Thursday.ppt" "")
Case 6
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Friday.ppt""" )
Case 7
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() & "\Saturday.ppt" "")
End Select
Catch e As SecurityExcepti on
MsgBox(e.Messag e)
End Try
End
End Sub

Thanks for any advise!
George Atkins

>
>
>

[Newbie Coder]

Re: determining current version of PowerPoint

George,

In my original code I wrote:

GetValue("", "")

This gets the default value & if doesn't exist returns "". You can change the
second "" to the default path to MS Powerpoint, which will stop the error

--
Newbie Coder
(It's just a name)

"GeorgeAtki ns" <GeorgeAtkins@d iscussions.micr osoft.comwrote in message
news:7C3A1A2B-B045-4054-9659-0F0FAF667690@mi crosoft.com...

Thanks for the code. When I tried to run it, I received the following
"warning" that prevents the code from running or compiling:
>
"Warning 1 Function 'GetPowerPointP ath' doesn't return a value on all code
paths. A null reference exception could occur at run time when the result is
used."
>
I'm running a standard installation of PowerPoint 2007 on an XP SP2 machine.
Do you have any troubleshooting advise? I checked for the path in the
Registry and it is correct.
>
George
>
"Newbie Coder" wrote:
>

George,

Here's a way to do it:

Imports Microsoft.Win32
Imports System.Diagnost ics.Process

#Region "Get PowerPoint Path"

Private Function GetPowerPointPa th() As String
Dim reg As RegistryKey
Try
reg =

Registry.LocalM achine.OpenSubK ey("SOFTWARE\Mi crosoft\Windows \CurrentVersion \App

Paths\powerpnt. exe", False)
Dim strShortPath As String = reg.GetValue("" , "")
reg.Close()
Return strShortPath
Catch ex As Exception
' Some error handling here
End Try
End Function

#End Region

#Region "Get Day Of Week"

Private Function GetDayOfWeek() As String
Dim dt As DateTime = DateTime.Today
Return dt.DayOfWeek.To String
End Function

#End Region

#Region "Run PowerPoint Presentation"

Private Sub RunPowerPointPr esentation()
Dim strPPT As String = "C:\PPTs" & "\" & GetDayOfWeek() & ".ppt"
Dim psi As New ProcessStartInf o(GetPowerPoint Path())
Try
With psi
.Arguments = "/s " & strPPT
.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowSt yle.Maximized
End With
Process.Start(p si)
Catch ex As Exception
' Error Handling Here
End Try
End Sub

I have chosen 'C:\PPTs' as the path I stored the PowerPoint files in

Hope this helps,

--
Newbie Coder
(It's just a name)



"GeorgeAtki ns" <GeorgeAtkins@d iscussions.micr osoft.comwrote in message
news:72827EEC-899E-429E-A6A8-40B2A764FE00@mi crosoft.com...

Greetings!
I wrote a small Exe that simply runs Shell to load PowerPoint and launch a
particular file, depending on the day of the week. However, it was set up

for

office 2003 (I naively hardcoded the path) and I also used Shell. Does
anybody have a snipped showing a more efficient method for launching a
Powerpoint file, regardless of which version of Office is running?
>
My current, ineffecient code:
Sub main()
Try
Dim ps1 As New PermissionSet(P ermissionState. Unrestricted)
ps1.Demand()
Dim MyDate As Date
Dim DayOfWeek As Integer
>
MyDate = Today
DayOfWeek = Weekday(MyDate)
>
' Launch the powerpoint file for the current day of the week.
Select Case DayOfWeek
Case 1
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Sunday.ppt""" )

Case 2
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Monday.ppt""" )

Case 3
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Tuesday.ppt"" ")

Case 4
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Wednesday.ppt """)

Case 5
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Thursday.ppt" "")

Case 6
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Friday.ppt""" )

Case 7
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Saturday.ppt" "")

End Select
Catch e As SecurityExcepti on
MsgBox(e.Messag e)
End Try
End
End Sub
>
Thanks for any advise!
George Atkins
>

[Newbie Coder]

Re: determining current version of PowerPoint

George,

' Import
Imports System.IO

To get the Long Path Name use this function:

Public Shared Function GetLongPath(ByV al path As String) As String
Dim root As String = System.IO.Path. GetPathRoot(pat h)
Dim folders As String() = path.Substring( root.Length). _
Split(System.IO .Path.Directory SeparatorChar)
Dim res As String = root
Dim name As String
For Each name In folders
Dim di = New DirectoryInfo(r es)
Dim fsi As System.IO.FileS ystemInfo() = _
di.GetFileSyste mInfos(name)
If fsi.Length = 1 Then
res = fsi(0).FullName
Else
' Error handling here
End If
Next
Return res
End Function

The above isn't my function but it works fine

--
Newbie Coder
(It's just a name)



"GeorgeAtki ns" <GeorgeAtkins@d iscussions.micr osoft.comwrote in message
news:97B4C3C3-A9F5-475E-9A96-8C2D1582BBC1@mi crosoft.com...

Well, I think I may have an inkling of the problem.
The function that determines the PPT path, returns the following string:
"C:\PROGRA~1\MI CROS~2\Office12 \POWERPNT.EXE"
>
Why Microsoft records these old-fashioned, truncated names is beyond me. But
I believe the ~1 and ~2 syntax is what is causing the problem. I could edit
the syntax, but as I'm going to run this on other machines, this is not a
good solution.
>
I revised the code to show: reg.GetValue("P ath", ""). This returns a valid,
full path, but the code continues to fail with the warning previously
reported.
>
Any other ideas?
George
>
>
>
"Newbie Coder" wrote:
>

George,

Here's a way to do it:

Imports Microsoft.Win32
Imports System.Diagnost ics.Process

#Region "Get PowerPoint Path"

Private Function GetPowerPointPa th() As String
Dim reg As RegistryKey
Try
reg =

Registry.LocalM achine.OpenSubK ey("SOFTWARE\Mi crosoft\Windows \CurrentVersion \App

Paths\powerpnt. exe", False)
Dim strShortPath As String = reg.GetValue("" , "")
reg.Close()
Return strShortPath
Catch ex As Exception
' Some error handling here
End Try
End Function

#End Region

#Region "Get Day Of Week"

Private Function GetDayOfWeek() As String
Dim dt As DateTime = DateTime.Today
Return dt.DayOfWeek.To String
End Function

#End Region

#Region "Run PowerPoint Presentation"

Private Sub RunPowerPointPr esentation()
Dim strPPT As String = "C:\PPTs" & "\" & GetDayOfWeek() & ".ppt"
Dim psi As New ProcessStartInf o(GetPowerPoint Path())
Try
With psi
.Arguments = "/s " & strPPT
.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowSt yle.Maximized
End With
Process.Start(p si)
Catch ex As Exception
' Error Handling Here
End Try
End Sub

I have chosen 'C:\PPTs' as the path I stored the PowerPoint files in

Hope this helps,

--
Newbie Coder
(It's just a name)



"GeorgeAtki ns" <GeorgeAtkins@d iscussions.micr osoft.comwrote in message
news:72827EEC-899E-429E-A6A8-40B2A764FE00@mi crosoft.com...

Greetings!
I wrote a small Exe that simply runs Shell to load PowerPoint and launch a
particular file, depending on the day of the week. However, it was set up

for

office 2003 (I naively hardcoded the path) and I also used Shell. Does
anybody have a snipped showing a more efficient method for launching a
Powerpoint file, regardless of which version of Office is running?
>
My current, ineffecient code:
Sub main()
Try
Dim ps1 As New PermissionSet(P ermissionState. Unrestricted)
ps1.Demand()
Dim MyDate As Date
Dim DayOfWeek As Integer
>
MyDate = Today
DayOfWeek = Weekday(MyDate)
>
' Launch the powerpoint file for the current day of the week.
Select Case DayOfWeek
Case 1
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Sunday.ppt""" )

Case 2
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Monday.ppt""" )

Case 3
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Tuesday.ppt"" ")

Case 4
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Wednesday.ppt """)

Case 5
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Thursday.ppt" "")

Case 6
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Friday.ppt""" )

Case 7
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Saturday.ppt" "")

End Select
Catch e As SecurityExcepti on
MsgBox(e.Messag e)
End Try
End
End Sub
>
Thanks for any advise!
George Atkins
>

[=?Utf-8?B?R2VvcmdlQXRraW5z?=]

Re: determining current version of PowerPoint

Thanks much for both tips. I'll plug this in. Have a nice weekend!
George

"Newbie Coder" wrote:

George,
>
' Import
Imports System.IO
>
To get the Long Path Name use this function:
>
Public Shared Function GetLongPath(ByV al path As String) As String
Dim root As String = System.IO.Path. GetPathRoot(pat h)
Dim folders As String() = path.Substring( root.Length). _
Split(System.IO .Path.Directory SeparatorChar)
Dim res As String = root
Dim name As String
For Each name In folders
Dim di = New DirectoryInfo(r es)
Dim fsi As System.IO.FileS ystemInfo() = _
di.GetFileSyste mInfos(name)
If fsi.Length = 1 Then
res = fsi(0).FullName
Else
' Error handling here
End If
Next
Return res
End Function
>
The above isn't my function but it works fine
>
--
Newbie Coder
(It's just a name)
>
>
>
"GeorgeAtki ns" <GeorgeAtkins@d iscussions.micr osoft.comwrote in message
news:97B4C3C3-A9F5-475E-9A96-8C2D1582BBC1@mi crosoft.com...

Well, I think I may have an inkling of the problem.
The function that determines the PPT path, returns the following string:
"C:\PROGRA~1\MI CROS~2\Office12 \POWERPNT.EXE"

Why Microsoft records these old-fashioned, truncated names is beyond me. But
I believe the ~1 and ~2 syntax is what is causing the problem. I could edit
the syntax, but as I'm going to run this on other machines, this is not a
good solution.

I revised the code to show: reg.GetValue("P ath", ""). This returns a valid,
full path, but the code continues to fail with the warning previously
reported.

Any other ideas?
George



"Newbie Coder" wrote:

George,
>
Here's a way to do it:
>
Imports Microsoft.Win32
Imports System.Diagnost ics.Process
>
#Region "Get PowerPoint Path"
>
Private Function GetPowerPointPa th() As String
Dim reg As RegistryKey
Try
reg =
>

Registry.LocalM achine.OpenSubK ey("SOFTWARE\Mi crosoft\Windows \CurrentVersion \App

Paths\powerpnt. exe", False)
Dim strShortPath As String = reg.GetValue("" , "")
reg.Close()
Return strShortPath
Catch ex As Exception
' Some error handling here
End Try
End Function
>
#End Region
>
#Region "Get Day Of Week"
>
Private Function GetDayOfWeek() As String
Dim dt As DateTime = DateTime.Today
Return dt.DayOfWeek.To String
End Function
>
#End Region
>
#Region "Run PowerPoint Presentation"
>
Private Sub RunPowerPointPr esentation()
Dim strPPT As String = "C:\PPTs" & "\" & GetDayOfWeek() & ".ppt"
Dim psi As New ProcessStartInf o(GetPowerPoint Path())
Try
With psi
.Arguments = "/s " & strPPT
.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowSt yle.Maximized
End With
Process.Start(p si)
Catch ex As Exception
' Error Handling Here
End Try
End Sub
>
I have chosen 'C:\PPTs' as the path I stored the PowerPoint files in
>
Hope this helps,
>
--
Newbie Coder
(It's just a name)
>
>
>
"GeorgeAtki ns" <GeorgeAtkins@d iscussions.micr osoft.comwrote in message
news:72827EEC-899E-429E-A6A8-40B2A764FE00@mi crosoft.com...
Greetings!
I wrote a small Exe that simply runs Shell to load PowerPoint and launch a
particular file, depending on the day of the week. However, it was set up

for

office 2003 (I naively hardcoded the path) and I also used Shell. Does
anybody have a snipped showing a more efficient method for launching a
Powerpoint file, regardless of which version of Office is running?

My current, ineffecient code:
Sub main()
Try
Dim ps1 As New PermissionSet(P ermissionState. Unrestricted)
ps1.Demand()
Dim MyDate As Date
Dim DayOfWeek As Integer

MyDate = Today
DayOfWeek = Weekday(MyDate)

' Launch the powerpoint file for the current day of the week.
Select Case DayOfWeek
Case 1
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Sunday.ppt""" )

Case 2
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Monday.ppt""" )

Case 3
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Tuesday.ppt"" ")

Case 4
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Wednesday.ppt """)

Case 5
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Thursday.ppt" "")

Case 6
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Friday.ppt""" )

Case 7
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Saturday.ppt" "")

End Select
Catch e As SecurityExcepti on
MsgBox(e.Messag e)
End Try
End
End Sub

Thanks for any advise!
George Atkins

>
>
>

>
>
>

[Newbie Coder]

Re: determining current version of PowerPoint

George,

Have a great weekend too

--
Newbie Coder
(It's just a name)

"GeorgeAtki ns" <GeorgeAtkins@d iscussions.micr osoft.comwrote in message
news:D293EBF7-38F5-47CA-95C3-D88A75ACCD28@mi crosoft.com...

Thanks much for both tips. I'll plug this in. Have a nice weekend!
George
>
"Newbie Coder" wrote:
>

George,

' Import
Imports System.IO

To get the Long Path Name use this function:

Public Shared Function GetLongPath(ByV al path As String) As String
Dim root As String = System.IO.Path. GetPathRoot(pat h)
Dim folders As String() = path.Substring( root.Length). _
Split(System.IO .Path.Directory SeparatorChar)
Dim res As String = root
Dim name As String
For Each name In folders
Dim di = New DirectoryInfo(r es)
Dim fsi As System.IO.FileS ystemInfo() = _
di.GetFileSyste mInfos(name)
If fsi.Length = 1 Then
res = fsi(0).FullName
Else
' Error handling here
End If
Next
Return res
End Function

The above isn't my function but it works fine

--
Newbie Coder
(It's just a name)



"GeorgeAtki ns" <GeorgeAtkins@d iscussions.micr osoft.comwrote in message
news:97B4C3C3-A9F5-475E-9A96-8C2D1582BBC1@mi crosoft.com...

Well, I think I may have an inkling of the problem.
The function that determines the PPT path, returns the following string:
"C:\PROGRA~1\MI CROS~2\Office12 \POWERPNT.EXE"
>
Why Microsoft records these old-fashioned, truncated names is beyond me.

But

I believe the ~1 and ~2 syntax is what is causing the problem. I could

edit

the syntax, but as I'm going to run this on other machines, this is not a
good solution.
>
I revised the code to show: reg.GetValue("P ath", ""). This returns a

valid,

full path, but the code continues to fail with the warning previously
reported.
>
Any other ideas?
George
>
>
>
"Newbie Coder" wrote:
>
George,

Here's a way to do it:

Imports Microsoft.Win32
Imports System.Diagnost ics.Process

#Region "Get PowerPoint Path"

Private Function GetPowerPointPa th() As String
Dim reg As RegistryKey
Try
reg =

Registry.LocalM achine.OpenSubK ey("SOFTWARE\Mi crosoft\Windows \CurrentVersion \App

Paths\powerpnt. exe", False)
Dim strShortPath As String = reg.GetValue("" , "")
reg.Close()
Return strShortPath
Catch ex As Exception
' Some error handling here
End Try
End Function

#End Region

#Region "Get Day Of Week"

Private Function GetDayOfWeek() As String
Dim dt As DateTime = DateTime.Today
Return dt.DayOfWeek.To String
End Function

#End Region

#Region "Run PowerPoint Presentation"

Private Sub RunPowerPointPr esentation()
Dim strPPT As String = "C:\PPTs" & "\" & GetDayOfWeek() & ".ppt"
Dim psi As New ProcessStartInf o(GetPowerPoint Path())
Try
With psi
.Arguments = "/s " & strPPT
.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowSt yle.Maximized
End With
Process.Start(p si)
Catch ex As Exception
' Error Handling Here
End Try
End Sub

I have chosen 'C:\PPTs' as the path I stored the PowerPoint files in

Hope this helps,

--
Newbie Coder
(It's just a name)



"GeorgeAtki ns" <GeorgeAtkins@d iscussions.micr osoft.comwrote in message
news:72827EEC-899E-429E-A6A8-40B2A764FE00@mi crosoft.com...
Greetings!
I wrote a small Exe that simply runs Shell to load PowerPoint and

launch a

particular file, depending on the day of the week. However, it was set

up

for

office 2003 (I naively hardcoded the path) and I also used Shell. Does
anybody have a snipped showing a more efficient method for launching a
Powerpoint file, regardless of which version of Office is running?
>
My current, ineffecient code:
Sub main()
Try
Dim ps1 As New PermissionSet(P ermissionState. Unrestricted)
ps1.Demand()
Dim MyDate As Date
Dim DayOfWeek As Integer
>
MyDate = Today
DayOfWeek = Weekday(MyDate)
>
' Launch the powerpoint file for the current day of the

week.

Select Case DayOfWeek
Case 1
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Sunday.ppt""" )

Case 2
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Monday.ppt""" )

Case 3
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Tuesday.ppt"" ")

Case 4
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Wednesday.ppt """)

Case 5
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Thursday.ppt" "")

Case 6
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Friday.ppt""" )

Case 7
Shell("""C:\Pro gram Files\Microsoft
Office\OFFICE11 \powerpnt.exe"" /s " & Chr(34) + CurDir() &

"\Saturday.ppt" "")

End Select
Catch e As SecurityExcepti on
MsgBox(e.Messag e)
End Try
End
End Sub
>
Thanks for any advise!
George Atkins
>