Where can I learn more about VBA programming in PowerPoint?
If you're new to Visual Basic and PowerPoint programming, read through this tutorial / mini-site I created for a VB Programming session I taught at PPTLive. The screens and some of the information is a bit dated, but the information's still good.
Or scroll on down to the PPT FAQ entries below this one for lots of example code.
Got books?
PowerPoint MVP David Marcovitz has written Powerful PowerPoint for Educators: Using Visual Basic for Application to Make PowerPoint Interactive and created a companion web site, Powerful PowerPoint for Educators. Recommended reading.
And more books
VBA is very similar to regular Visual Basic. If you're just beginning to learn VBA, find yourself a good book on VB5 or VB6. That'll get you off to a good start. Everything you learn about VB will apply to VBA as well, with very few exceptions.
Already a coder and just need to know how to get started coding in PPT?
If you just need a quick tutorial on how to pop some VBA code into PowerPoint so you can try it out, we have the Visual Basic Basics here
If you already know VB and need to get up to speed on the specifics of VBA in Microsoft Office apps, get a copy of the Office 2000 Visual Basic Programmer's Guide from Microsoft Press. It may be out of date but It'll get you up to speed on the basics.
Better yet, it seems to be on line here
There's also a programmer's guide for Office 97. Here's a link to the PowerPoint section
Check out http://msdn.microsoft.com for examples.
There's also an online version of the earlier Office 97 VBA programmer's guide. The object model for Office 2000 has changed a bit and there are some additions to VBA, but for the most part, anything that works in PowerPoint 97 shoud work in later versions.
There's a wealth of PowerPoint-specific example code at PowerPoint MVP Shyam Pillai's site
PowerPoint MVP John Wilson's PPTAlchemy is another source of information and sample code
Chirag Dalal has some highly useful add-ins and examples on his site.
Haunt the newsgroups and VB/VBA web sites. There's a ton of good code out there, already written.
See How do I join the PowerPoint newsgroup The same info applies to getting hooked up to any of the other Microsoft newsgroups at msnews.microsoft.com. Check out the various VB-related groups and the groups that cover the other Office apps. In many cases, you can easily adapt existing Excel or Word code to work in PowerPoint.
Chris Ray's site hasn't been updated in a while, but has some potentially useful routines.
Don't limit your search to PowerPoint
Other than the application-specific stuff, VBA is VBA. Those Excel and Word folks have been doing this stuff a lot longer than we have in PPT and have a LOT to offer.
Start at MVPs.org where you'll find links to dozens of sites maintained by MS MVPs who support the various VB/Office products. These people are your friends. Even though their specialty may be Excel or Word, they've solved a LOT of the problems you'll run into in VB or VBA.
For example, some of the Excel MVPs:
Howard Kaikow has a useful list (with thoughtful reviews) of books about Word and Office VBA and general VB.