There is a wide range of features available in SlideFab 2. The ordinary and most relevant ones are located in the Iteration Loop and the Slide Linking side panes. However, there are features which are more special and rarely used. And so they wait in the Advanced Settings side pane for action. Indeed, all these special capabilities can be huge time-savers.
First Control Box of Advanced Settings: Output Settings
SlideFab 2 opens the created file when slide making is finished. Then the user may save or discard the created presentation. Alternatively, SlideFab 2 will save it every time, if a PowerPoint Destination File is specified.
The Iteration Loop creates slide(s) for every element of the Loop Candidates Range. If Decompose in multiple files is checked, then it creates multiple PowerPoint files. One file per Loop Candidate. How this works can be seen in the output file decomposition example.
Second Control Box of Advanced Settings: Various Settings
SlideFab 2 cannot only decompose slides into files. It can Create Sections as well. So for each element of the Loop Candidates Range it creates one section.
Typically, SlideFab 2 considers all slides of the template presentation for automation. Hidden slides are considered as well, unless Exclude hidden slides is checked. In this case hidden slides won’t make it into the created presentation.
There is a natural order in which the slides are created: SlideFab 2 creates slides for the first element of the Loop Candidate Range. Then it creates slides for the second element. And so on. Of course, this can be changed. So, Sort slides according to cell content needs to be checked. Then the user can choose an Excel cell for sorting the slides. In order to work properly, this cell should contain a formula calculating a number (e.g. revenue, price, age, etc.) or a text (e.g. name, category, etc.) to being sorted by. During slide making SlideFab 2 will store the Excel Sort Cell content for each created slide. After finishing it sorts all slides using this information following the chosen Sort Order. Moreover, SlideFab 2 offers to sort created slides either globally or locally per Loop Candidate Range element.
SlideFab 2 works without writing a single line of code. Nevertheless, this is possible within the VBA code calls editor. SlideFab 2 supports Excel VBA macros. Either it can run macros before writing the next Loop Candidate into the Loop Master Cell or afterwards. Most users, won’t require this VBA code feature frequently. However, for filtering a Pivot Table based on the Loop Master Cell this is quite handy. The category tree example explains how it works.
