Creating PowerPoint slides from Excel automatically can mean everything.
Fortunately, SlideFab contains many features to support all kinds of requirements.
Some might just need to write some texts into shapes.
Others might need to create a whole presentation involving charts, tables and even logical conditions.
Let’s find out what’s included.
Loops play an important role for creating one template slide more than once with different data
SlideFab has the ability to work a little like mail merge: Fill-in different data into a template slide over and over again.
To get this working, SlideFab uses loops
Iteration Loop
When your template presentation contains more than one template slide, this is the SlideFab feature to use.
Given an Excel range, this feature will iterate all its cells and create for each cell the template slides.
Slide Loop
When a template slide needs to be created more than once, this feature makes sense.
It is possible to combine the Slide Loop feature with the Iteration Loop feature for even more possibilities.
There are many SlideFab features to connect Excel contents with elements in PowerPoint
This is about the SlideFab features which bring content from Excel to PowerPoint. Depending on what it is, there are different Export Modes available.
TEXT
SlideFab writes text from Excel cells into PowerPoint shapes
It preserves the formatting
Conditional formats of the Excel cell will be applied to the shape
TABLE
SlideFab fills in data from Excel ranges into existing Powerpoint tables
It preserves the formatting
SlideFab can even manage rows and columns if the Excel range differs
SCREENSHOT
SlideFab can paste screenshots of Excel ranges into PowerPoint.
It can smartly preserve the aspect ratio
So if the screenshot does not fit, aligning it is supported, too.
CHART
SlideFab supports the automation of charts as well.
There are 5 different ways to automate charts included
Linking charts, fill-in data to charts, re-creating charts, etc.
IMAGE FROM FILE
SlideFab can read image files and put them in the presentation
It preserves aspect ratios and supports alignment
As file names come from Excel cells, this allows lots of flexibility
INDIRECT SHAPE
Excel can contain shapes as well, for example images or charts
SlideFab can copy these shapes from Excel to PowerPoint
As shape names come from Excel cells, this allows lots of flexibility
Conditions and slide sorting are helpful SlideFab features, too
The following set of SlideFab features increase help the user to create even better output slides and presentations.
Slide Condition
Sometimes it does not make sense to create all template slides
For these cases, an Excel formula can be used to make this decision
Shape Condition
Sometimes shapes shall appear on a slide and sometimes not
For these cases, an Excel formula can be used to make this decision
Slide Sorting
The output slides might require a certain order
Calculate a score for each in Excel and let SlideFab sort the output
These additional SlideFab features cover even more requirements
There are many SlideFab features which did not fit in the categories above.
Filter Pivot Tables
Data from a Pivot Table might be required during the Iteration Loop
SlideFab can set the filters of Pivot Tables on the fly
Adding Sections
When using the Iteration Loop feature,
SlideFab can create PowerPoint sections in in the output
File Decomposition
When using the Iteration Loop feature,
SlideFab can put the output slides of each round into a separate file
Saving as PDF
SlideFab can save the created output files as PDF as well
This also works in combination with File Decomposition
Writing Notes
When additional information is useful on the output slides
SlideFab can write Excel cells into the notes area of each slide
Executing VBA
For users which use custom VBA calculations,
SlideFab can execute the VBA during the Iteration Loop
Scaling Shapes
Sometimes the size of a shape needs to be data-driven
SlideFab can scale shapes in X and Y direction from different anchors
Exclude Hidden Slides
To stop SlideFab from creating certain template slides,
hiding them can optionally be used as exclusion marker
Logical Audit
When running the slide automation takes some time
the Logical Audit feature can help find issues faster upfront
Smart Referencing
Whenever possible SlideFab avoids using cell references like C3
SlideFab prefers named ranges and table references to increase robustness
Preview Mode
To give information about the PowerPoint slide automation activity
SlideFab offers a slide preview and a progress bar
UX Optimisation
SlideFab follows a friendly WYSWYG scheme for its user interface
The software concept aims to keep using the software simple
Frequently asked questions
No, there is even more included in the software. Discover this yourself with the free SlideFab Lite license.
You can find out by testing the free SlideFab Lite version. Alternatively, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Don’t worry. You can make use of the features step by step. The SlideFab Learning Area is also a good starting point for you.