How can I check if a PowerPoint slideshow is running?

I have made a script that adds a slide to a PowerPoint Presentation by using the ActiveX session. It then runs a slideshow by using GotoSlide()

I want to know how I can use MATLAB to find out whether there is a PowerPoint slideshow running or not, because the next action is based on if the slideshow is closed by the Esc-key

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

You're in luck. I just happen to have the code, though I've just tested it on Powerpoint, not the slide show version of it. You can find the process name by typing control-shift-Esc.

% find_running_process.m
% Finds out if a process is running.
% Let's you monitor the process until it shutsdown.

clc;    % Clear the command window.
workspace;  % Make sure the workspace panel is showing.
format long g;
format compact;

% Execute the system command
%    tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq Powerpnt.exe"
% First define the name of the program we're looking for.
% You can run it then execute "tasklist" in a
% CMD console window if you don't know the exact name.
taskToLookFor = 'Powerpnt.exe';
% Now make up the command line with the proper argument
% that will find only the process we are looking for.
commandLine = sprintf('tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq %s"', taskToLookFor)
% Now execute that command line and accept the result into "result".
[status result] = system(commandLine)
% Look for our program's name in the result variable.
itIsRunning = strfind(lower(result), lower(taskToLookFor))
if itIsRunning
  message = sprintf('%s is running.', taskToLookFor);
else
  message = sprintf('%s is not running.', taskToLookFor);
end
uiwait(helpdlg(message));

message = sprintf('Do you want to monitor it until it finishes?');
button = questdlg(message, 'Wait for shutdown?', 'Yes', 'No', 'Yes');
drawnow;  % Refresh screen to get rid of dialog box remnants.
if strcmpi(button, 'No')
  return;
end

% Go into a loop waiting for it to finish.
maxChecks = 10; % Max seconds to wait before exiting - a failsafe.
numberOfChecks = 1;
while itIsRunning && numberOfChecks < maxChecks
  % Now execute that command line and accept the result into "result".
  [status result] = system(commandLine);
  % Look for our program's name in the result variable.
  itIsRunning = strfind(lower(result), lower(taskToLookFor));
  if itIsRunning
    message = sprintf('%s is still running after %d seconds.\n',...
      taskToLookFor, numberOfChecks);
    fprintf('%s', message);
  else
    message = sprintf('%s is not running anymore.\n', taskToLookFor);
    fprintf('%s', message);
    uiwait(helpdlg(message));
    break; % Exit loop.
  end
  pause(1); % Wait a second before checking again.
  numberOfChecks = numberOfChecks + 1;
end
msgbox('Done with demo!');

[Michael]

Your code works fine, but unfortunately the process name for the powerpoint slideshow is still 'Powerpnt.exe'. So MATLAB cannot distinguish between the two of them.

I tried 'pptShow.View.State', which gave me 'ppSlideShowRunning' when the slideshow was running, but when I closed the slideshow it displayed an error message:

SlideShowWindow.View : Object does not exist

Is there any way to use the ActiveX session to find the state of the slideshow? Maybe by checking if the object 'SlideShowWindow.View' exists? I have tried exist('SlideShowWindow.View') and exist('SlideShowWindow') without any luck. Both of them returned 0.

[Michael]

I think I got it. I used almost all the possibilities for ppt.(...).get to find it

'ppt.Active' shows if the presentation window is active.

strcmp(ppt.Active,'msoTrue')

will give me 0 if the slideshow is running and 1 if the slideshow is not running (the presentation window is active)