Export the text of a presentation to a CSV/Excel file

Problem

Can PowerPoint save all the text in a presentation into a format that can be used in Excel?

Solution

This macro will export all the text in your PPT file to a comma-separated-value (CSV) formatted file that can be opened in Excel.

The file will be named AllText.CSV and will be saved to the same folder as your PPT file, unless you edit the macro to change this.

The CSV file will have one row of data per slide, with the text in the order in which it appears in the PPT (ie, in Z-order; to see what the order will be, you can press TAB repeatedly while viewing the slide in normal or slide view.)

Sub ExportTextToCSV()

  Dim oPres As Presentation
  Dim oSlides As Slides
  Dim oSld As Slide         'Slide Object
  Dim oShp As Shape         'Shape Object 
  Dim iFile As Integer      'File handle for output
  Dim sTempString As String

  Dim PathSep As String
  Dim Quote As String
  Dim Comma As String
  iFile = FreeFile          'Get a free file number

  #If Mac Then
    PathSep = ":"
  #Else
    PathSep = "\"
  #End If

  Quote = Chr$(34)
  Comma = ","

  Set oPres = ActivePresentation
  Set oSlides = oPres.Slides

  'Open output file
  ' NOTE:  errors here if original PPT file hasn't been saved
  Open oPres.Path & PathSep & "AllText.CSV" For Output As iFile

  For Each oSld In oSlides    'Loop thru each slide
    For Each oShp In oSld.Shapes                'Loop thru each shape on slide

      'Check to see if shape has a text frame and text
      If oShp.HasTextFrame And oShp.TextFrame.HasText Then
          sTempString = sTempString & Quote & oShp.TextFrame.TextRange.Text & Quote & Comma
      End If

    Next oShp

    ' print the result to file:
    Print #iFile, sTempString
    sTempString = ""

  Next oSld

  'Close output file
  Close #iFile

End Sub

See How do I use VBA code in PowerPoint? to learn how to use this example code.

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