Slide Index Monitor

The "Slide Index Monitor" add-in has been developed to enable software developers to capture the index of the slide being viewed in a PowerPoint presentation. It does so using JavaScript, so it is specially handy for web applications.

In practice, inserting this add-in in one of your presentations will trigger a message whenever the add-in detects that the index of the slide being viewed has changed.

More details in our little Q&A below.

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Q&A

Q: Why was this add-in created?

A: It was created so our company could use embed power point presentations in our web app and monitor what slides of those presentations are viewed by our users.

Q: What does this add-in offer?

A: This add-in provides a way to programmatically monitor the index of the slides viewed in a power point presentation.

Q: How does it work?

A: It works by polling the power point presentation every quarter of a second. If the index of the slide being viewed at the polling time is different from the one at the last check, this "new" index is "broadcast".

Q: Can you give us an example as to why this is relevant?

A: Of course. Imagine you are developing a learning management system, that this system offers classes, and that the content of these classes are a bunch of power point presentations.

Those presentations are shown in your LMS (learning management system) using Microsoft's live office and are therefore "embed" in your system. It works pretty well, but you are left with a problem, how can you monitor your students' progress?

The PowerPoint presentations are a really nice way to deliver content, but there's not way for you to know how much of that content has actually been viewed by the students. This is one scenario where this add-in would be pretty useful. Using this add-in, your system will gain access to the index of the slides viewed by your users, enabling you to track their progress.

Q: So, this add-in is actually meant for developers?

A: Yes, pretty much. Even though "regular users" could add it to their presentation, the only effect they would see is an "ugly box" in their power point presentation, that displays the number (index) of the slide it was placed in.

Q: An ugly box?

A: Don't worry, it can be resized or dragged out of view (displaying the add-in is not the goal here).

Q: How do I configure this add-in?

A: You don't. To use it, simply add it to a power point presentation.

Q: But how can I use it?

A: After it's been added to a power point presentation, the add-in will broadcast every quarter of a second the number of the slide being viewed.

That number is broadcast using JavaScript's Window.postMessage() method and can be captured by an event listener e.g. window.addEventListener("message", receiverMethod, false).

Both "message" and "event listener" are basic JavaScript concepts and are really well explained in the the article found at https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/postMessage .

Q: Do I have to add it to every slide of my presentation?

A: No, only to the first one.