Control the media player

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The media player in PowerPoint can be displayed during the slide show or during the authoring experience when you click on a media object based on the settings you chose. You can also control them programmatically via the object model in either view.

The example below illustrates how this can be done. One thing to note is that the slide with the media shape must be the active slide for the code to work. If the slide is not active you are bound to run into a variety of errors. You can test out the code by inserting a media object on the slide and then running PlayMediaInDocument or PlayMediaInSlideShow.

The media player object has several option to control the player including support to jump to previous/next bookmarks.

Supported versions: PowerPoint 2013 or later

' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

' Copyright ©1999-2022, Shyam Pillai, All Rights Reserved.

' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

' You are free to use this code within your own applications, add-ins,

' documents etc but you are expressly forbidden from selling or

' otherwise distributing this source code without prior consent.

' This includes both posting free demo projects made from this

' code as well as reproducing the code in text or html format.

' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Option Explicit

Private shapeId As Integer

Private mediaPlayer As Player



Function MediaPlayerRefInDocumentWindow(Index As Long) As Boolean

 

    shapeId = GetMediaShapeId(Index)

    

    If shapeId > 0 Then

        ActiveWindow.View.GotoSlide Index

        ActiveWindow.ViewType = ppViewNormal

        ActiveWindow.Panes(2).Activate

        

        Set mediaPlayer = ActiveWindow.View.Player(shapeId)

        MediaPlayerRefInDocumentWindow = True

    Else

        MsgBox "No media shape found on the slide."

    End If

End Function



Function MediaPlayerRefInSlideShowWindow(Index As Long) As Boolean

    shapeId = GetMediaShapeId(Index)

    If shapeId > 0 Then

        Set mediaPlayer = SlideShowWindows(1).View.Player(shapeId)

        MediaPlayerRefInSlideShowWindow = True

    Else

        MsgBox "No media shape found on the slide."

    End If

 

End Function



Function GetMediaShapeId(Index As Long) As Long

    Dim shp As Shape

    

    For Each shp In ActivePresentation.Slides(Index).Shapes

        If shp.Type = msoMedia Then

            GetMediaShapeId = shp.Id

            Exit Function

        End If

    Next shp

    

    GetMediaShapeId = -1

End Function



Sub PlayMediaInDocument()



If MediaPlayerRefInDocumentWindow(ActiveWindow.Selection.SlideRange(1).SlideIndex) Then

    If mediaPlayer.State = ppStopped Or mediaPlayer.State = ppPaused Then

        mediaPlayer.Play

    End If

End If



End Sub



Sub PlayMediaInSlideShow()



If MediaPlayerRefInSlideShowWindow(SlideShowWindows(1).View.CurrentShowPosition) Then

    If mediaPlayer.State = ppStopped Or mediaPlayer.State = ppPaused Then

        mediaPlayer.Play

    End If

End If



End Sub