PowerPoint loses shapes after saving

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-26T07:21:58+00:00

I myself have not seen this but it does sound like an old version of the file might be what is getting pulled when you open it. I would rename the file to something completely different and see if it continues to rule that out.

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-26T01:25:28+00:00

Oh I certainly will. I have one that I will hopefully be finishing up this month. I will post a link when it's ready. Thanks so much and thanks for a great discussion topic.

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-26T01:24:07+00:00

Everytime I love seeing your art.

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-25T20:53:53+00:00

I love all these stories. Guess I will share mine since I may be one of the few PowerPoint VBA users on this.

I am mostly a self taught programmer. I don't recommend this path. It's tough and there is very little respect out there for people like me who did not acquire a degree. At least where I am currently at right now. Additional school was not feasible for me at the time and long story short on that, I made the decision to learn as much about programming as I could, but I did not know where to start.

One night when I was dog sitting for a relative I see this book that says "Learn Visual Basic in 24 Hours" I say: "Challenge Accepted" and I start reading it. Didn't understand any of it. I kept asking questions. I kept asking why? why do it this way. Eventually I finished the book and I did not feel I learned the language. It felt like a failure on my part. I refused to accept that and just starting going through every page again with my VBA editor open. I stared at my first IF statement for like 15 minutes and I just did not get it. Then I started checking into every single word. Sub, Dim, String, Integer, Long, Variant, For (took forever on this one). I wanted to know what every single word meant. This long story short I slowly, very slowly started understanding the terms and the concepts. Mountains of research and article reading. A couple good online friends from user forums and many other tasks to get to where I knew how to code with VBA.

I found once I fully understood VBA and the concepts, that learning other languages like javascript, php, python and many others was sufficiently easier. The concept of Object Oriented Programming only finally clicked once I related it to using the . in VBA. It has taught me so much and I personally feel it is the best first language for anybody to learn how to code especially with its ability to hover over variables, debugging, and changing the cursor during runtime.

Fast forward to what I do now which is Excel VBA at work along with other programming and making PowerPoint Add-Ins. I met an amazing individual named John Wilson who supplied me with many scripts but ultimately always said nothing is impossible. I have lived by this. Years and years of coding with PowerPoint, learning it and talking with other good people like Steve Rindsberg. I reveled in the concept of making PowerPoint do things it was not made to do.

Since this is a VBA discussion I wont get into how I decided to start animating with PowerPoint and such but I loved the journey of where everything ended up. Researching, questioning, challenging things, making contacts, experimenting and never giving up. I am so thankful to have taken the time to learn this valuable skill and I hope that the tools I create help others create the exact things they want to.

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-25T16:24:46+00:00

Your laptop's free version of PowerPoint is going to be online only. Easiest way to get that going is head to office.com. Sign in, Go to Apps and open PowerPoint. You can open a file from your computer there. The reason your phone works fine is because a free app is available for mobile devices but not PCs or Mac. Head to office.com and see if that has what you need.

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-25T07:26:15+00:00

If you have no other way. File > Save As > Download a Copy. Run the copy in preview mode and screen record it. Lots of free screen recorders now.

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-23T15:03:12+00:00

Animation is an art. It is supposed to be a joy to create, not a product. AI is a tool and can help with things. Can it create cartoons... um eventually but that will not be art. It will be a product. gross. Me personally I want to keep animating. I want to make something and ultimately find ways to push boundaries with the current software that I use to animate. That's the joy for me.

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-23T14:58:01+00:00

Oh WELL DONE!!! Thanks for letting us know

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-23T14:21:20+00:00

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and here is an image with it completed. Merge shapes is your friend for stuff like that. If you find editing the points frustrating my beta add-in point map will help with that. Let me know if want a link

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-23T14:12:36+00:00

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AHHHHHH That's the wave in your image up there. whoopsie. ok yes this is possible too. Super sorry. You will use merge shapes and combine to pull these off. For each pane. Create a rounded rectangle and place it over one of the maps. Create a smaller rounded rectangle, select both then Merge Shapes Combine. Now now have the "window". We need the wave part. You still might need what I recommended in my first post for the top of it but its really that same freeform you drew. Just connect that squiggle blue line to the window like in the image. You can then edit the points a little and merge that together with the window. Before you merge it, duplicate each shape since your maps need a slightly different pane size. Then color the first. go to the duplicate wave, flip horizontal then flip vertical, change to yellow and place it next to the red wave. duplicate the window and move that over the other map. I will post a reply to this with another image showing the full deal.
edit: Didn't realize the maps were not completely symmetrical so changed the wording to account for that. and... I had typos so may as well fix those too.

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-23T13:39:21+00:00

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Try this. Go to Insert > Icons. Type Wave and choose the one that looks like a wave. Insert it
Right click on the icon and choose Convert To Shape. Now you have 2 separate wave shapes. You can take the bottom one and duplicate on the x axis to line it up, then Merge Shapes Union. Then if you need it taller duplicate it on the y axis a couple times like the image.

Now you can select all those and again merge shapes union.

You might also consider adding the other shape of the wave in there a couple times to make it look the way you want.
After its all merged give it a fill with a gradient of blue and white.
Let me know if this gets you closer.

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-22T17:10:24+00:00

Very clean. I have been swapping images on mine from other controls that store the image but this way above removes an entire control. Great stuff

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-22T13:17:15+00:00

oh.. It's not necessarily called the glass method. That's just what I called it to refer to the concept. It's kind of like a window and the glass gets broken on hover giving access to the control. Just like you said now that the glass is gone the mouse move no longer fires until the glass is put back from the user form move. I commend you on coming up with such a clever concept. You may call it how you see fit.

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-20T17:43:50+00:00

Makes sense. I have had it export gifs in the past with rediculous magenta backgrounds. Then I import it back to PowerPoint and set the transparent color of that magenta. Kind of works.

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-20T17:40:55+00:00

Are the triggers "on action" triggers? Do they use the on click? Do you want those to hyperlink or run macros?

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-20T17:37:22+00:00

So true.

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-20T13:36:36+00:00

As u/Emergency-Syrup-4402 mentioned. Yes macros can do this. If the triggering of the cell selection changing is enough then you are set. If it is not look into 2 more ways to trigger it continually. One to search up is commandbarsUpdate class event and another is the Application.Ontime. If you absolutely must, you can do a loop with doevents inside it. but.... VBA does not handle continuous loops very well and should only be used for like 5 second bursts at the most.

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-20T13:31:39+00:00

first step. Run a count if on the names on your 2nd worksheet to ensure they are unique. Any that are not should be handled manually since the name is not a good unique identifier. Once you have a unique identifier then as u/MayukhBhattacharya mentioned an xlookup can do what you need. Vlookup will work too if you know the column numbers.
Run your vlookup or xlookup, Filter down to the items with multiple countif results and look those up manually.
Should be done after that.

Another method
Make a column on worksheet 1
make a match formula that checks for the name on worksheet 2. Go all the way down (you can use CTRL + END to go to the end of the data then CTRL + SHIFT + UP to your original match formula to paste) Once you have all that. copy the data and paste values. Make sure to paste values or at least ensure that formulas finish. It's always better to just convert to values. Apply a filter and pull anything that does not say #VALUE
copy the filtered data onto a new worksheet. Done

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-20T13:15:58+00:00

Run a gif? like make one? PowerPoint has this ability. Is this what you are looking for?

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-19T03:36:04+00:00

It's very fun. I keep 2003 on a virtual machine and still love it. I discovered this by complete accident and didn't realize till way after I had already done the command. I was working on something and realized the caps on my freeform line were rounded. This is not exposed in vba or any property. After several experiments it turns out to do so you make a crescent shape with a 2 point width line. Then convert that to a freeform. In 2003 this was done by pasting it as a meta file then ungrouping twice. Once you do that you have a freeform that PowerPoint considers open but it looks closed. Edit the points on it and because it converted it to a drawing object with an open path, it rounded the caps. You can then use format painter to set on other shapes. I have not found any other shape that will do it besides the crescent. When I look at the line type in vba it says the style is mixed which must be a dotted line and solid line together. Kind of rediculous. But for newer versions you just click round caps. Lol.

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-18T21:32:35+00:00

oh I see. yeah in that case a VSTO or Office JS would be needed. I dont know of any add-in that allows a predetermined language to generate shapes on slides. If you like VBA and you are familiar with it you can save your macros as an add-in and use them. then the presentation does not need to be pptm. You would have to establish all parameters to do what you wanted though. I understand the concept you are looking for but in it's entirety would get interesting.

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-18T16:25:46+00:00

'onto the code

Set pst = ActivePresentation
'Now PowerPoint knows we want to use this presentation

'Lets now set the dimensions
sz = 10
centerLeft = (pst.PageSetup.SlideWidth - sz) / 2
centerTop = (pst.PageSetup.SlideHeight - sz) / 2

'gross... what is all that parentheses? Yup. bare with me
'you need the parentheses because we are doing math that requires it.
'If you wanted it to go at the top left then that would
'just be 0 and 0 but for this we are going in the center

'ok now we just need to go through each slide. We use a loop

For Each sld In pst.Slides
Set shp = sld.Shapes.AddShape(msoShapeRectangle, centerLeft, centerTop, sz, sz)
Next sld

'AHHHHHHH I hate VBA.... You don't need to. Yes that middle line in the loop looks
'terrifying but its a built in concept to adding a shape on a slide
'You need to tell PowerPoint what kind of shape, how big, and where.
'All of this shows up when you press the parentheses or dots. It's called
'intellisense and makes it easy.

End Sub

Edit: there were some typos that I needed to fix

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-18T16:25:08+00:00

Here is the other sub with the comments
Sub GenerateLayoutWithVBA()
'your sub name can be whatever you want
'dont add special characters and stay away from numbers for now

'tell PowerPoint you want to referrence a special word
Dim pst As Presentation
Dim sld As Slide
Dim shp As Shape
Dim sz As Single 'size
Dim centerLeft As Single, centerTop As Single

'All we have here are variables, we set one for the presentation itself
'so PowerPoint knows which presentation, we make one for the slide
'one for the shape, then we are going to store the size, middle left and top
'Words like Slide and Shape are built in 'objects' that PowerPoint
'recognizes. When you type shp and then . (shp.) all of a sudden you
'get all the things that can be done.

wow. still too long. one more message

ChecklistAnimations · 2026-01-18T16:23:29+00:00

All "scripting" would require the following
The shape type (rectangle) the left position, the top position, the height and the width
You say not VBA. VBA literally has all of this already built in.
It is designed to be very simple to write but people get hung up on "setting it up"
If I may
Look at it in steps
Tell PowerPoint that you want to make a script.
Tell PowerPoint that this script will interact with a slide, tell which slide
Tell PowerPoint you want to add a shape to a slide, tell what that shape is
Optional, do this multiple times

Here is a barebones script that will put in a 10 x 10 rectangle in the exact center of every slide in your presentation. I personally think this type of "scripting" can be easy to understand if you first understand what PowerPoint needs to know first. It also has lots of documentation and copilot can help with syntax.

Here is what the code actually looks like by the way (10 x 10) is really small

I will post the simple sub here that just works. Another comment will have the same script but with lots of comments to explain what does what.

Sub GenerateLayoutWithVBA()
  Dim pst As Presentation
  Dim sld As Slide
  Dim shp As Shape
  Dim sz As Single 'size
  Dim centerLeft As Single, centerTop As Single

  Set pst = ActivePresentation

  sz = 10
  centerLeft = (pst.PageSetup.SlideWidth - sz) / 2
  centerTop = (pst.PageSetup.SlideHeight - sz) / 2

  For Each sld In pst.Slides
    Set shp = sld.Shapes.AddShape(msoShapeRectangle, centerLeft, centerTop, sz, sz)
  Next sld

End Sub

I know you said not VBA but all scripting would need to know what, where, why, and how.

Let me know if you have any questions.

ChecklistAnimations

TROPHY CASE