Getting Started with the PowerPoint Writer: Title and Body

Introduction

Title slides and slides with text are common in PowerPoint presentations. By using the AttributeCreator transformer or just the PowerPointStyler transformer, these types of slides can be put together in a matter of minutes. The following tutorial is part one of six focusing on creating an informative PowerPoint presentation about street food vendors in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Step-by-step Instructions

1. Start FME Workbench

First, we are going to create the Title slide for the PowerPoint. Start FME Workbench and open up a new workspace. Add a Creator transformer to the canvas, we will use the Creator to trigger the translation. Then add an AttributeCreator transformer and connect it.

In the AttributeCreator, create a new attribute called Title and give it the value of Food Vendors. Next, create another attribute called Subtitle and give it the value of Types & Locations in Vancouver, BC.

2. Style the PowerPoint

Before we can write to PowerPoint we need to use the PowerPointStyler transformer to create our slides. Add a PowerPointStyler to the canvas and connect it to the AttributeCreator. In the parameters change the Slide Type to Title, then set the Title Slide Parameters to the attribute Title for Title and the attribute Subtitle for Subtitle. Since we only have one slide so far, we can ignore the Slide Ordering section for now.

3. Write to PowerPoint

Let’s add a Microsoft PowerPoint Writer to our workspace to test the results of the PowerPointStyler. Set the Dataset to a location you want to save your PowerPoint to and call it FoodVendors.pptx

We will also need to add a template PowerPoint file to stylize our PowerPoint. In the Parameters set the Template Microsoft PowerPoint FIle to TemplatePowerPoint.pptx. A template PowerPoint is a premade PowerPoint where the Master Slide has been stylized with fonts and a background image. For information on how to create your own please visit the Microsoft website.

Finally, ensure the Feature Type Definition is set to Automatic and then click OK to add the Writer.

In the Feature Type dialog, set the Feature Type Name to FoodVendors, then click OK.

4. Run the Translation

Connect the Writer to the AttributeCreator and then run the translation. Open up the folder containing the output and then open up the FoodVendors.pptx. As you can see the PowerPoint is stylized from the template we used.

Note: If when you open the completed PowerPoint and it is in Master View, click the "Close Master View" button on the ribbon.

5. Create Introduction Slide

Next, we will create a slide stating what a food vendor is. To do this we will use another PowerPointStyler transformer. Previously we used the AttributeCreator to create the content and then set it in the PowerPointSyler, this is a good method if you want to re-use the content, like the Title. This slide we are only going to use the content once, so we will create it directly in the PowerPointStyler. Add a PowerPointStyler to the canvas and connect it to the Creator, then open up the parameters.

Change the Slide Type to Title with Body, then for Title type: What is a Food Vendor?

Then click the ellipsis next to Body to open up a text editor. Paste the following blurb into the Text Editor.

A street food vendor sells ready to eat food or drinks that are meant to be consumed immediately. They are often found in busy city centers or at public events. A vendor can be a booth, cart or truck.

For the Slide Ordering, we can use the default option which is Automatic as long as we add the transformers to the canvas in the order in which we want the slides to appear.

If we add the transformers out of order, we can force which one will run first by setting the runtime order. To do this, right-click on either of the connection lines coming from the Creator, then select Set Connection Runtime Order.

In the Connection Runtime Order dialog, you can reorder which connection will run first. This will then be the order of your slides.

Once we add more slides it can be hard to determine the slide order based on connection runtime, so there is also an option to set the order directly. This will be demonstrated in Getting Started with the PowerPoint Writer: Tables.

6. Create Agenda Slide

We are going to create one more slide in this tutorial, a bulleted list slide for our agenda.

Add a third PowerPointStyler transformer to the canvas and connect it to the Creator. In the parameters set Slide Type to Title with Body, then for Title type: Agenda. Open the Text Editor for Body. In the text editor, paste the following:

What is a Food Vendor?
Types of Food Vendors
Food Vendor Statistics
Food Vendor Locations

7. Connect transformers and run.

Ensure that all three PowerPointStylers are connected to the PowerPointWriter and then run the translation. Save your workspace and continue on to the next tutorial, where we will be adding images to the slides.

Opening up the FoodVendors.pptx, you will see three slides: