Introduction
This tutorial builds upon the previous one which created the link between the Excel file and the PowerPoint presentation. In this step the tutorial teaches how to create PowerPoint slides from the Excel rows. This means one slide per product.
What is required for this step on How to create PowerPoint slides from Excel rows
We will start with the template PowerPoint presentation that SlideFab linked to the Excel workbook, as depicted here:

Apart from that understanding how SlideFab works is important: The rows which SlideFab will create slides for need to have a column with a unique identifier (here it is the product name). These unique identifiers will be the Candidate Range. In every iteration SlideFab will take one and write it into one designated cell, called the Master Cell. This is important to allow Excel formulas know which is the current entry.
So it works like this:
- Take the next entry from the Candidate Range (here: product name list)
- Write it the entry (here: product name) into the Master Cell
- Recalculate all Excel formulas
- Duplicate the template slide(s)
- Write or update the data from Excel into the new slide (The next Tutorial answers how the set up works)
SlideFab repeats this for all entries from the Candidate Range.
Follow these steps to set up the automation required for creating PowerPoint slides from the Excel rows
Time needed: 2 minutes
- Setting up the Candidate Range for the product rows
– Select the column with unique identifiers (here the product name is a unique identifier for each row).
– Open the Iteration Loop side pane via the ribbon.
– Click the crosshair icon in the “Loop Candidate Range” control to define the link. SlideFab will write the address of the selected cells into the control field. - Setting up the Master Cell for the current product name
– Select the cell into which one value (i.e. product name) from the Candidate Range shall be written.
– Click the crosshair icon in the “Loop Master Cell” control to define the link. SlideFab will write the address of the selected cell into the control field. - Click the “Make Slides” button in the SlideFab tab of the Powerpoint ribbon to open up the actual window for this.
- When hitting the “Start” button, SlideFab will run the automation and answer “How to create PowerPoint slides from Excel rows”
- Checking the created output
Short recap: So far we linked the Excel file and the PowerPoint presentation. Additionally, we also set up the iteration loop. This way we can expect an output which contains one slide per row.
However, the question on how to get the product names and prices from the Excel workbook to the PowerPoint slides we will answer later.
What comes after establishing the link between the Excel file and the Powerpoint presentation
So far the automation works properly, even though the contents are still missing. This is no problem and will be explained in the next step. So we can dump the created output at this point in time and re-run it later on once the product names and prices are set up as well.