Changing All Your Powerpoint Slides to a New Template

So someone has decided that your current Powerpoint template sucks and needs to be replaced with a shiny new template. Next question is, how do you update the 500+ legacy powerpoint presentations to the new template with a minimal amount of pain?

Not VB! I should have bit the bullet and done this in C# but it evolved from a simple sub to a larger script. In any case, it works well enough and gets most slides right. The goal was to be able to tolerate slide decks with multiple masters and only replace the background on slides using the previous template. It's very chatty so redirect the output to a log file for large runs. Also, rename the new Design to something unique so you can tell the new slides from the old ones later in case you need to re-run the script.

Save the following code to a .vbs file and modify the top variables to reflect your own environment.

EnumDesigns is taken from http://skp.mvps.org/designs.htm
CheckFolders is from http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/examples/windows/vbscriptpr_code.html

' setNewMasterDesign.vbs
' This script will find ppts under the current directory, and set the template and
' design to the current corporate template.
' Makes duplicates of all slides found.
' Works with PPT 2003 on WinXP
' (c) Dave S. Aug 11 2008

Dim currDir, templateFile, suffix, masterReplaceString, newDesign
suffix=".ppt"
''''''''
' User defined variables
currDir = "."
' Where is the source template for the new master?
templateFile = "C:\mytemplates\Default.pot"
' Change this to whatever substring matches your old master slide design(s)
masterReplaceString = "Default"
' This is the name of the new Design to be applied to slides whose Design name matches masterReplaceString
newDesign = "FreshAndClean"


'''''''''''''
WScript.Echo "Start Time:" & Now

Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set folder = FSO.GetFolder(currDir)
Set files = folder.Files

Set objPPT = CreateObject("PowerPoint.Application")
objPPT.Visible = true

WScript.Echo templateFile & " is being opened...."
Set masterPPT = objPPT.Presentations.Open(templateFile)
EnumDesigns(masterPPT)

' Search recursively for powerpoint files in the current directory
CheckFolder folder, suffix, masterReplaceString
objPPT.Quit

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' Subs Begin
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Sub CheckFolder(objCurrentFolder, suffix, masterReplaceString)
   Dim strTemp
   Dim strSearch
   Dim objNewFolder
   Dim objFile
   strSearch = suffix
   WScript.Echo "Current folder is: " & objCurrentFolder.Name
      'Recurse through all of the folders, go to bottom first
      For Each objNewFolder In objCurrentFolder.subFolders
              CheckFolder objNewFolder, suffix
      Next  
      For Each objFile In objCurrentFolder.Files
          strTemp = Right(objFile.Name, 4)
               If UCase(strTemp) = UCase(strSearch) Then
                   massagePPT objFile, masterReplaceString
               End If
      Next  
End Sub

' ppt file filtering is done in CheckFolder, not in massagePPT
Sub massagePPT(objFile, masterReplaceString)
       Dim fullfile
       fullFile = objFile.Path
       WScript.Echo fullFile & " being opened at " & Now
       Set objPresentation = objPPT.Presentations.Open(fullFile)
       objPresentation.Designs.Load templateFile
       With objPresentation
           If Not .HasTitleMaster Then .AddTitleMaster
       End With
       EnumDesigns(objPresentation)
       Dim MySlide
       Dim slideNum
       slideNum = 0
       WScript.Echo "Presentation: " & objFile.Name
       For Each MySlide In objPresentation.Slides
           slideNum = slideNum + 1
           Dim text
           Dim designName
           designName = ""
           With MySlide
                   WScript.Echo "Master:" & .Master.Name
                   WScript.Echo "Design:" & .Master.Design.Name
                   designName = .Master.Design.Name
                   WScript.Echo "SlideNum:" & slideNum
                   WScript.Echo "Layout:" & .Layout
           End With
           ' Test if the design name is the one we want to replace
           If InStr(1,designName,masterReplaceString) = 0 Then
               WScript.Echo "Skipping slide " & slideNum & " due to non-matching master design: " & designName
           Else
               WScript.Echo "Slide " & slideNum & " Master Design name matches: " & masterReplaceString
' This section controls which design elements will propagate to the target slides
' In my case, I care mostly about the background but want to leave out master shapes and color schemes
           With MySlide
               .FollowMasterBackground = True
'               .ColorScheme = objPresentation.SlideMaster.ColorScheme
               .DisplayMasterShapes = False
               .Design = objPresentation.Designs(newDesign)
               End With
           End If
       Next
       objPresentation.SaveAs(objFile.Path & "." & newDesign & ".ppt")
       objPresentation.Close
End Sub
      


Sub EnumDesigns(oPres)
   Dim lCtrA
   With oPres
       WScript.Echo "Number of applied templates: " & .Designs.Count
       For lCtrA = 1 To .Designs.Count
           WScript.Echo "Template Design name: " & .Designs(lCtrA).Name
           WScript.Echo vbTab & "Slide master name: " & .Designs(lCtrA).SlideMaster.Name
           If .Designs(lCtrA).HasTitleMaster Then
               WScript.Echo vbTab & "Title master name: " & .Designs(lCtrA).TitleMaster.Name
           Else
               WScript.Echo vbTab & "No Title master present"
           End If
       Next
   End With
End Sub