Improved drag and drop in PowerPoint

 

One of the creators of the magical draganddrop macro, Hans Werner Hofmann left a lovely comment on this blog recently saying how pleased he was that his creation had generated such a positive response and gave the great news that he has updated its functionality offering new possibilities for classroom use.

In addition to making an object follow the movement of the cursor when clicked, the macro can now also zoom in and out, rotate clockwise by 45 degrees at a time, add text and calculate mathematical formulas!

Following Hans' screencast explaining how to embed the macro into any presentation, I have updated  The Magic PowerPoint created by Jo Rhys-Jones acting Primary Languages Advisor for Hampshire to include the new instructions needed and to explain how to run the slideshow in PowerPoint 2007 which differs quite radically from previous versions.

Download TheMagicPowerpointMacroImproved.ppt

To use the draganddrop macro you must first make sure you have changed the security settings so that macros are enabled. Here's what you do:

To enable macros

In PowerPoint 2002, click Tools and Macro. In the menu which appears click Security and select the radio button next to Medium. Click OK and close PowerPoint.

In PowerPoint 2003, click Tools and Options. In the Options window that appears, click the Security Tab and the Macro Security button. Click the Security tab and select the radio button next to Medium. Click OK and close PowerPoint.

Now when you open a presentation which contains the draganddrop macro, click the Enable Macros button if it appears.

In PowerPoint 2007, click the Office Button and then PowerPoint Options

Click Trust Center and Trust Center Settings 

 

Click Macro Settings and select the radio button next to Disable all macros with notification. Click OK twice.

 

Click Options on the Security Warning message that appears

 

In the Security Options window which appears, select the radio button next to Enable this content. Click OK.

 

To apply the draganddrop macro

In PowerPoint 2002/03, right click the object you want to drag and drop, select Action Settings and then Run macro: DragandDrop and click OK.

In PowerPoint 2007, select the object you want to drag and drop, click the Insert menu and the Action icon. In the Action Settings dialogue box that appears, select Run macro: DragandDrop and click OK.

Once you've applied the macro, you can delete the other slides and run the slideshow by pressing F5 or clicking Slide Show and From Beginning. Hover over the object and you will see the cursor change to a hand as if it were a hyperlink. Now use the following key combinations to enable the different features:

• Click + move the cursor = Drag and Drop
• Click + Ctrl = Zoom out
• Click + Ctrl + Alt = Zoom in
• Click + Shift = Rotate clockwise by 45 degrees at a time
• Click + Alt = Input Text
• Click + Shift + Alt = Calculate Formulas

N.B. When adding text to an object, Fertig = OK and Abbrechen = Cancel

More magic tips

1. To avoid your presentation from accidentally ending with a mouse click or moving on to the next slide, click on Slide Show/Slide Transition and remove the tick from the box next to Advance On Mouse Click for PowerPoint 2002/3. For PowerPoint 2007, click the Animations menu and remove the tick from the box next to Advance On Mouse Click. Save your presentation.
2. To move to the next slide, add an Action Button. In PowerPoint 2002/3, click Slide Show/Action Buttons and select the Action Button which points right. In PowerPoint 2007, click the Insert menu and Shapes, then scroll down to the Action Buttons and select the Action Button which points right. Then in both cases hold down the left click and drag the Action Button shape as large as need be. Let go of the left click. A dialogue box should come up. In the dropdown menu Hyperlink to, select Next slide. Run the slideshow and click the Action Button to go to the next slide.
3. To ensure objects return to their original position, mark your presentation as read only and save it as a PPS file.
4. Have a look at Mark Purves' video tutorial on using the original version of the drag and drop macro with Jo Rhys-Jones' PowerPoint tricks presentation. Nice work.

Comments

[Jo]

A new toy! You star! Thank you Joe!

[Roy]

Hi,
I set the security into medium.

I deleted all slide except the 1st one.

I add a text box with some text in that 1st slide.

From action setting, I assigned the macro to that text box.

Saved it with a new name.

Executing PPT.

But the text is not moving while I moved the mouse having pressed the left button.

Same for the picture object.

How can it be solved? I am using MS Presentation 2002.

[Joe Dale]

Hi Roy,

Thanks for your comment which has baffled me. What you've done should make the drag and drop macro work. Could you send me the presentation and I'll see if I can make it work?

:)

[Jason]

Hey Joe,

Quick question - Does this only for for Windows based machines. I have tried several times with a Mac - PowerPoint 2004 and it does not seem to work. Any ideas or thoughts? Thanks.

[Joe Dale]

Hi Jason,

Good question. I've only tried it on Windows and as long as you can change the security settings to enable macros, it works. Don't know about Macs. ;(

[Miranda]

I'm trying to apply the drag and drop macro...I followed the steps above but after I clicked OK twice I do not get a security warning box. Nothing happens. I'm using MS Powerpoint 2007. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Joe Dale]

Hi Miranda,

Thanks for your comment.

Are you trying to do this at school? Perhaps there are issues with the way macros are dealt with there.

If you are trying this on a standalone machine, it should work.

Could you send me the presentation and I can have a look at it to see what the issue is?

Joe

[Miranda]

Can you give me an Email address where I can send the ppt?

[Joe Dale]

Sure. joedale@talk21.com