Run script in a fullscreen program (Powerpoint Office:Mac 2011)

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I have an applescript that does screen capture of a specific monitor (in a dual-monitor configuration) to a user-defined folder. I wish to run this using a shortcut keyboard command during a powerpoint presentation.

However, it seems that presentation mode on Office:Mac (using presenter view and the presentation view) does not allow me to run programs in the background. What happens is that when the script runs, powerpoint minimizes, and then restores at the end of the script, so I end up taking a picture of the desktop/blank screen instead.

I've tried restoring Powerpoint as the active window before taking a screenshot, which gives me a screenshot of the slide (yes!), but it's not a complete solution. This solution doesn't work because we are trying to get an image of on-screen annotations (using Omnidazzle's Scribble) over the slides, and this erases the annotations.

What are my options? Can powerpoint macros be run simultaneously in presentation mode?

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macososx-lionms-officepowerpointscreen-capture
>> "Can powerpoint macros be run simultaneously in presentation mode?" Yes. For example, an action button on a slide can trigger a VBA subroutine or function. Perhaps you could use a bit of VBA to launch the screen capture. – Steve Rindsberg
I resolved the issue by using Run Applescript instead of Launch Application (of my applescript saved as .app). This runs without closing the screen. – curiositykilledthekittycat

1 Answers

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How did you set up the keyboard shortcut?

I suspect what's happening is that your script is being launched as an application, which is making Powerpoint lose "active" status, so it minimizes. If you can run your script in the background, that might avoid the problem. Whether you can do that or not depends on what you're using to launch it.

Another approach may be to set up a "service". You can use Automator to create one from your script. Then, you can set up a keyboard shortcut for it. That should not take active status away from Powerpoint.