Powerpoint to Text C# - Microsoft.Interop

Question

I have been trying to read .ppt files from last 3 days. I searched a lot on internet and I came up with different source code snippets but nothing was perfect. And now i tried this code, and it is not printing "Check4" because of some unidentified problem in "Foreach" statement, and throwing an exception. Please guide me. I need it badly.

public static  void ppt2txt (String source)
        {
            string fileName = System.IO.Path.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(source);
            string filePath = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(source);
            Console.Write("Check1");
            Application pa = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.ApplicationClass ();
            Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.Presentation pp = pa.Presentations.Open (source,
            Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoTrue,
            Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoFalse,
            Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoFalse);
            Console.Write("Check2");
            String pps = "";
            Console.Write("Check3");
            foreach (Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.Slide slide in pp.Slides)
            {
            foreach (Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.Shape shape in slide.Shapes)
            pps += shape.TextFrame.TextRange.Text.ToString ();
            }

            Console.Write("Check4");

            Console.WriteLine(pps);
        }

Thrown exception is

System.ArgumentException: The specified value is out of range. at Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.TextFrame.get_TextRange() at KareneParser.Program.ppt2txt(String source) in c:\Users\Shahmeer\Desktop\New folder (2)\KareneParser\Program.cs:line 323 at KareneParser.Program.Main(String[] args) in c:\Users\Shahmeer\Desktop\New folder (2)\KareneParser\Program.cs:line 150

Line 323 on which exception is caught

pps += shape.TextFrame.TextRange.Text.ToString ();

Thanks in advance.

You haven't posted the exception. It looks like you've posted the line the exception occurs on. Could you please edit your post with the Exception type and the exception message please? — Daniel Lane, May 25 '15 at 09:06
I edited my question and added exception. Thanks for replying so quickly — Maher Shahmeer, May 25 '15 at 09:13

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered May 25 '15 at 09:51

It looks like you need to check your shape objects to see if they have a TextFrame and Text present.

In your nested foreach loop try this:

foreach (Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.Slide slide in pp.Slides)
{
   foreach (Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.Shape shape in slide.Shapes)
   {
        if(shape.HasTextFrame == Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoTrue)
        {
           var textFrame = shape.TextFrame;
           if(textFrame.HasText == Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoTriState.msoTrue)
           {
              var textRange = textFrame.TextRange;
              pps += textRange.Text.ToString ();
           }
        }

   }
}

This is of course untested on my part, it looks to me though that as your foreach loops, you're trying to access some shapes in the powerpoint doc that don't have text present, hence the out of range exception. I've added in checking to make sure it only appends text to your pps string if it has Text present.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 25 '15 at 09:34

0

Not all shapes have text. Lines etc are also shapes. Check for HasText first:

foreach (Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint.Shape shape in slide.Shapes)
{
  if(shape.TextFrame.HasText)
  {
     pps += shape.TextFrame.TextRange.Text;
  }
}

answered May 25 '15 at 09:34

LocEngineer

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Thanks a lot. This works flawless now. I'm really happy.. :-) – Maher Shahmeer May 25 '15 at 09:58

Powerpoint to Text C# - Microsoft.Interop

2 Answers2