If you have PowerPoint file with lots of slides, sometimes it is very difficult to read even if you print multiple slides on single page. Copy pasting from PowerPoint to MS Word is difficult or tedious depending on what tricks are you using. If you came across this article, you already know what I am talking about.
So in order to make it extremely easy and keep most of the formatting as it is, I have created following VBA macro. VBA Macro is a program which you need to run it directly within PowerPoint.
Here are the steps to to convert PowerPoint slides to Word document.
Close all Microsoft Word files that you have open. Keep only blank Microsoft Word file open. This is a very important step. I have tested the macro only with single file open and if you have any other file open, there is a chance that macro will paste content into existing file.
Open only one PowerPoint file which you want to convert.
Go to Developers Tab > Visual Basic in PowerPoint. If you don’t have Developers tab. Search online on how to show Developer tab.
It will open up another window.
Right click on “VBAProject” > Insert > Module.
Paste the following code into the newly opened window.
Public LastTitle As String
Sub CopyText()
' for ms word
Dim wdApp As Word.Application, wdDoc As Word.Document
Set wdApp = GetObject(, "Word.Application")
If wdApp Is Nothing Then Set wdApp = New Word.Application
Set wdDoc = wdApp.ActiveDocument
Dim sld As Slide
Dim shp As Shape
Set sld = Application.ActiveWindow.View.Slide
Dim isTitle As Boolean
Dim showTitle As Boolean
For Each sld In ActivePresentation.Slides
isTitle = False
showTitle = True
For Each shp In sld.Shapes
If shp.HasTextFrame Then
If shp.TextFrame.HasText Then
If LastTitle = shp.TextFrame.TextRange.Text Then
showTitle = False
End If
shp.TextFrame.TextRange.Copy
If Not isTitle Then
If showTitle Then
wdApp.Selection.Style = wdDoc.Styles("Heading 1")
wdApp.Selection.PasteAndFormat wdPasteDefault
wdApp.Selection.Move
'wdApp.Selection.Paste
'wdApp.Selection.PasteSpecial DataType:=wdPasteText
LastTitle = shp.TextFrame.TextRange.Text
End If
isTitle = True
Else
wdApp.Selection.TypeParagraph
wdApp.Selection.PasteAndFormat wdPasteDefault
wdApp.Selection.Move
End If
End If
Else
shp.Copy
wdApp.Selection.PasteAndFormat wdPasteDefault
'wdApp.Selection.Paragraphs.Add
wdApp.Selection.Move
wdDoc.Content.InsertAfter (vbCrLf)
End If
Next shp
Next sld
End Sub
Then click on the next line of “Sub CopyText” and click on green arrow button to run VBA macro. You may also use keyboard shortcut F5 to execute/run macro.
Within a minute or less, you will get all your content in MS Word.
Limitations
After each image, the text/title will be shown on the same line. You may need to move the text/title to the next line using Enter key.
Generally PowerPoint has bulleted points which keeps too much space in Word document. Select all content and go to Paragraph Settings (Home Tab > Paragraph section, small button on bottom right corner). Under “Indent and Spacing” tab > “Spacing” section, tick “Don’t add space between paragraphs of same style” and click “OK” button.
You may need to adjust image sizes
You may want to further reduce number of pages by reducing margin and adding columns.