PowerPoint - Template building: Basics
- Daniel Schwarz
- Dinah Bolli (Unlicensed)
PowerPoint templates in primedocs are made up of a number of different template types:
The primedocs Master Template - which contains the basic configuration of the PowerPoint template. This Master contains only slide layouts and if you have imported a presentation, you should clear (delete) all content slides.
The (content) template itself - This contains the actual content slides which should automatically be part of the presentation when the user creates a new presentation.
The slide set template - This contains content slides which can be added automatically to the presentation after creation, and which are available via “Insert Slide”.
The first step in creating a primedocs PowerPoint template is the creation of a standalone PowerPoint template. This regular template can be independently tested and is a regular PowerPoint - however, it makes sense to bear in mind certain layout-relevant topics which will be a part of the primedocs template later. One typical example of this is the handling of the slide footer, which is managed differently from the PowerPoint standard.
Master template: Creating and setting it up
New template - Master
Once this standalone template has been tested and finalised, go to the Administrator view and choose “New template”, give the new template a name, and then scroll down the Template type dropdown menu and select the type of PowerPoint template you wish to set up. You will start with a Master template (unless it already exists).
Edit and import template
Once this exists, go into the “Edit Template” window and import the standalone template file you created. Delete any content slides that may have been imported along with the master. The primedocs Master Template (pd Master) should be empty.
Document functions
Once the pd Master has been populated, switch to the Document Functions tab and activated the two document functions “Placeholder Definitions” and “Slide Layout”. They will then appear on the right on the main “properties page as follows:
Placeholder definitions
In the Placeholder Definitions, you can declare the placeholder fields that you intend later to place onto your slides, so that these can be populated by and linked to fields in the data entry form that appears when you create a new presentation. More on this later. This is an example of a set of such fields:
“Boolean” are fields declarations for what will later be a checkbox with a status selected (true) or not selected (false). “Text” will later be text entry fields. Note that these field definitions will be available to all presentation templates which are based upon this master - but not every presentation template needs to use all the fields.
Slide layout
The Slide Layout document function lists the slide layouts that this pd Master will contain - and these (for the timebeing) need to be added manually:
The “AssetFilter” defines whether this slide layout has access to the image gallery, and if so, to which folder - but this can be added later. There is also an option for “MigrationFallBack”, which identifies the layout to be used if the slide migration is unable to automatically map an existing slide layout to a layout in the pd Master. This can also be added later.
This concludes the initial setup of the pd Master.
Content template: Creating and setting it up
The template file (which is what the end users will see) contains those content slides which will be opened when the user creates a new presentation.
It is essential that the pd Master and this template contain precisely the same slide masters (PowerPoint slide layouts in the Master view), so we strongly recommend importing the exact same standalone PPT file when creating the pd Master and when creating this file. This will avoid issues later.
New template - Content
Now, in primedocs, in the Administrator view, create a new template, and this time, select “PowerPoint Template”.
Edit and import template
Again, switch to Edit Template and import the exact same PowerPoint file that you imported when creating the pd Master:
Be careful here and make sure that the “Based on” field is correctly filled in. Point this template to the pd Master you created previously.
If this is left blank… strange things may happen.
Document functions
Now go to the Document Functions and activate all three functions: “Forms”, “Fields” and “Placeholder Mapping”. You are going to need all three.
Placeholder Mapping
The Placeholder Mapping links fields that you will be able to place on the slide to technical fields, such as user profile fields or data entry fields from the Form the users can fill in when creating the new presentation.
Again, “Boolean” refers to a checkbox, “Text” is a text field.
Fields
Fields is where the content of the various fields are calculated.
Example: FooterFullString
In the following example, the field “FooterFullString” is filled by concatenating the translation of “page”, plus a space, followed by the Slide Number, another space, and the translation of the “of pages” (= total number of pages), space and the total number of pages (cut off in the screenshot).
Then the presentation date and the classification is added.
If the checkbox “show total number of slides” is not selected, simply show the translated text “slide” and the slide number.
function main () {
if ($("Forms.Presentation.TotalSlideNumber")) {
var elements =
[
$("translationPage") + " " + $("PowerPoint.SlideNumber") + " " + $("translationPageOf") + " " + $("PowerPoint.SlideCount"),
$("Forms.Presentation.Footer"),
$.getDateAsString("Forms.Presentation.Date"),
$("Forms.Presentation.Classification"),
];
} else {
var elements =
[
$("translationPage") + " " + $("PowerPoint.SlideNumber"),
$("Forms.Presentation.Footer"),
$.getDateAsString("Forms.Presentation.Date"),
$("Forms.Presentation.Classification"),
];
}
var result = $.joinNonEmpty(", ", elements);
return result;
}Such operations are currently realised in JavaScript, which brings great flexibility but of course requires corresponding know-how.
Forms
Probably the easiest part of this is the creation of the Form. This is straightforward and largely intuitive. To get started, simply double click on the form preview or on “Edit”:
This opens the Forms edit panel:
You can add new elements by clicking on the “Add element” button in the lower centre of the panel, which will open this dialogue:
The options are as follows:
Text is a simple text entry field
Choice is a dropdown menu
Yes/No Question is a checkbox
Date is a date selection field
Info is a text with no interactive functionality for the user. Use this to add an instruction, for instance.
Group lets you create a subgroup of fields that are optically arranged in a group
Note in the screenshot above that the grey-marked text entry field consists of three subfields:
Id is the technical Id that you can use to refer to this field (more on this later)
Label is the Text beside the text entry field which describes the text entry field
Text is the actual text entry field. Enter text here to have that text appear pre-filled-in.
The rubbish bin symbol deletes this field entirely, and the cogwheel symbol opens an attributes menu for this field:
These options expand the functionality of the field significantly:
Description is the text that appears on mouseover
Required (if selected) means that the OK button is greyed out until this field is filled in.
The validation message is the text that appears if the this field is NOT filled in.
Multi-line activates the text scrolling functionality for this field, so that multiple lines of text may be entered
Visible only on generation shows this field only when a new presentation is being created, but not if the user later, from an existing presentation, if the user clicks on “Properties” in the primedocs menu ribbon.
As you build your data entry form, you can click on the “Preview” button at any time to see the end result - there is no need to actually exit and start to create a document or presentation to test this.
There are some limitations to the Forms method of creating a data entry form, though, compared to the Document Parameter approach in a system such as OneOffixx. First and foremost:
Fields can only be placed one above the other. We have no ability to place fields (even checkboxes) beside one another. This limits the number of fields we can use, because the form should not become so long that the user can no longer press the “OK” button.
We have no capability to create adaptive fields - fields which are set to appear or hide based upon the selection (or non-selection) pr another field or checkbox.
We have no radio button ability - only multiselect checkboxes.
So there are limitations compared to, say, OneOffixx - but primedocs is constantly evolving and growing, and these are areas that are specifically being focused upon.
Slide Set template - Creating and configuring it
So - by this point we have the master template and the content template (which primedocs simply calls “the template”). But we’re not done quite yet. We also need a slide set - which, put simply, lists the slides that the user will be able to insert using the primedocs ribbon button “Insert slides”.
So back we go to the “New template” dropdown menu, and this time around, we choose “Slide set Template”:
And once again, we import the exact same file we used for the previous two template types. This is important to ensure that the slide masters are identical to PowerPoint in each of the three template types, to avoid conflicts.
Before doing anything else, ensure that you have filled in the “Based on” field correctly, by pointing it at the Master template you built in the first step above.
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