Show me the text in an ActiveX / OLE text control on a slide

Problem

You have text box controls (as opposed to normal PowerPoint text boxes) on a slide so that users can enter text during a presentation.

Works great.

But now you want to retrieve the text they entered.

How to retrieve text from an ActiveX / OLE text control

Function TextBoxControlText(oTextBox As Shape) As String
' Pass me a text box control
' I'll return the text in the text box
' See the Test subroutine below for a usage example

    ' safety precaution:
    If oTextBox.Type = msoOLEControlObject Then
        TextBoxControlText = oTextBox.OLEFormat.Object.Text
    Else
        TextBoxControlText = "This isn't a text control!  It's a Type " _
            & CStr(oTextBox.Type) & " shape."
    End If

End Function

Sub Test()
' Assumes you've selected the text box control in  edit mode

    MsgBox TextBoxControlText(ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange(1))

End Sub

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

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