I have a Powerpoint Presentation (.pptx) file with 100 slides. I want to take all of the text from it and save it as a plain text file.
How can I do this? PowerPoint doesn't seem to let you save it as a .txt file directly, and I don't want to go through each slide to copy the text.
26 Answers
If all of the text in the presentation is visible in the Outline view, you should be able to do File | Save As | Choose Outline (RTF).
Otherwise, you'll need a bit of VBA. There are a couple of examples on my PowerPoint FAQ site:
Export Text to a text file, extract text from PowerPoint (Mac or PC):
See:
It saves the text from every shape on your notes pages to a file called NotesText.TXT in the same folder as the PowerPoint presentation itself.
Sub SaveNotesText()
Dim oPres As Presentation
Dim oSlides As Slides
Dim oSlide As Slide
Dim oShapes As Shapes
Dim oSh As Shape
Dim NotesText As String
Dim FileNum As Integer
Dim PathSep As String
#If Mac Then PathSep = ":"
#Else PathSep = "\"
#End If
Set oPres = ActivePresentation
Set oSlides = oPres.Slides
For Each oSlide In oSlides NotesText = NotesText & "Slide " & oSlide.SlideIndex & vbCrLf Set oShapes = oSlide.NotesPage.Shapes For Each oSh In oShapes If oSh.HasTextFrame Then If oSh.TextFrame.HasText Then NotesText = NotesText & oSh.TextFrame.TextRange.Text End If End If Next oSh NotesText = NotesText & vbCrLf
Next oSlide
FileNum = FreeFile
Open oPres.Path & PathSep & "NotesText.TXT" For Output As FileNum
Print #FileNum, NotesText
Close FileNum
End SubHere's a macro from Kris Lander that will export all the text on each slide in a presentation. Modified it a bit to make it work on Macs and to distinguish between title, subtitle, body and other text.
Sub ExportText() Dim oPres As Presentation Dim oSlides As Slides Dim oSld As Slide 'Slide Object Dim oShp As Shape 'Shape Object Dim iFile As Integer 'File handle for output iFile = FreeFile 'Get a free file number Dim PathSep As String Dim FileNum As Integer #If Mac Then PathSep = ":" #Else PathSep = "\" #End If Set oPres = ActivePresentation Set oSlides = oPres.Slides FileNum = FreeFile 'Open output file ' NOTE: errors here if file hasn't been saved Open oPres.Path & PathSep & "AllText.TXT" For Output As FileNum For Each oSld In oSlides 'Loop thru each slide For Each oShp In oSld.Shapes 'Loop thru each shape on slide 'Check to see if shape has a text frame and text If oShp.HasTextFrame And oShp.TextFrame.HasText Then If oShp.Type = msoPlaceholder Then Select Case oShp.PlaceholderFormat.Type Case Is = ppPlaceholderTitle, ppPlaceholderCenterTitle Print #iFile, "Title:" & vbTab & oShp.TextFrame.TextRange Case Is = ppPlaceholderBody Print #iFile, "Body:" & vbTab & oShp.TextFrame.TextRange Case Is = ppPlaceholderSubtitle Print #iFile, "SubTitle:" & vbTab & oShp.TextFrame.TextRange Case Else Print #iFile, "Other Placeholder:" & vbTab & oShp.TextFrame.TextRange End Select Else Print #iFile, vbTab & oShp.TextFrame.TextRange End If ' msoPlaceholder End If ' Has text frame/Has text Next oShp Next oSld 'Close output file Close #iFile
End SubAnd here we get a bit trickier and go after the text that's in groups. And in groups within groups. Look at this too closely and your head may start to hurt.
Sub ExportText() Dim oPres As Presentation Dim oSlides As Slides Dim oSld As Slide 'Slide Object Dim oShp As Shape 'Shape Object Dim iFile As Integer 'File handle for output iFile = FreeFile 'Get a free file number Dim PathSep As String Dim FileNum As Integer Dim sTempString As String #If Mac Then PathSep = ":" #Else PathSep = "\" #End If Set oPres = ActivePresentation Set oSlides = oPres.Slides FileNum = FreeFile 'Open output file ' NOTE: errors here if file hasn't been saved Open oPres.Path & PathSep & "AllText.TXT" For Output As FileNum For Each oSld In oSlides 'Loop thru each slide ' Include the slide number (the number that will appear in slide's ' page number placeholder; you could also use SlideIndex ' for the ordinal number of the slide in the file Print #iFile, "Slide:" & vbTab & cstr(oSld.SlideNumber) For Each oShp In oSld.Shapes 'Loop thru each shape on slide 'Check to see if shape has a text frame and text If oShp.HasTextFrame And oShp.TextFrame.HasText Then If oShp.Type = msoPlaceholder Then Select Case oShp.PlaceholderFormat.Type Case Is = ppPlaceholderTitle, ppPlaceholderCenterTitle Print #iFile, "Title:" & vbTab & oShp.TextFrame.TextRange Case Is = ppPlaceholderBody Print #iFile, "Body:" & vbTab & oShp.TextFrame.TextRange Case Is = ppPlaceholderSubtitle Print #iFile, "SubTitle:" & vbTab & oShp.TextFrame.TextRange Case Else Print #iFile, "Other Placeholder:" & vbTab & oShp.TextFrame.TextRange End Select Else Print #iFile, vbTab & oShp.TextFrame.TextRange End If ' msoPlaceholder Else ' it doesn't have a textframe - it might be a group that contains text so: If oShp.Type = msoGroup Then sTempString = TextFromGroupShape(oShp) If Len(sTempString) > 0 Then Print #iFile, sTempString End If End If End If ' Has text frame/Has text Next oShp Next oSld 'Close output file Close #iFile
End Sub
Function TextFromGroupShape(oSh As Shape) As String
' Returns the text from the shapes in a group
' and recursively, text within shapes within groups within groups etc. Dim oGpSh As Shape Dim sTempText As String If oSh.Type = msoGroup Then For Each oGpSh In oSh.GroupItems With oGpSh If .Type = msoGroup Then sTempText = sTempText & TextFromGroupShape(oGpSh) Else If .HasTextFrame Then If .TextFrame.HasText Then sTempText = sTempText & "(Gp:) " & .TextFrame.TextRange.Text & vbCrLf End If End If End If End With Next End If TextFromGroupShape = sTempText
NormalExit: Exit Function
Errorhandler: Resume Next
End FunctionExport as PDF, Copy & Paste (CTRL+A, CTRL+C) from your PDF reader.
If you want a bit formatting, export the PDF via pdftotext with parameter -layout
This solution depends on your slidedeck being compatible with Google Slides, but you could use the "Download as Plain Text" option in Google Slides:
Granted you will lose any fancy formatting or layout stuff you've done, but you will get the text of the document.
2An update to Steve's answer, because my presentation had tables, and tables dont get exported with that code, the below has added code for just that;
Sub ExportText() Dim oPres As Presentation Dim oSlides As Slides Dim oSld As Slide 'Slide Object Dim oShp As Shape 'Shape Object Dim iFile As Integer 'File handle for output iFile = FreeFile 'Get a free file number Dim PathSep As String Dim FileNum As Integer Dim Cell As Variant Dim rowCounter As Integer Dim colCounter As Integer Dim out As String #If Mac Then PathSep = ":" #Else PathSep = "\" #End If Set oPres = ActivePresentation Set oSlides = oPres.Slides FileNum = FreeFile 'Open output file ' NOTE: errors here if file hasn't been saved Open oPres.Path & PathSep & "AllText.TXT" For Output As FileNum For Each oSld In oSlides 'Loop thru each slide For Each oShp In oSld.Shapes 'Loop thru each shape on slide 'Check to see if shape has a text frame and text If oShp.HasTextFrame And oShp.TextFrame.HasText Then If oShp.Type = msoPlaceholder Then Select Case oShp.PlaceholderFormat.Type Case Is = ppPlaceholderTitle, ppPlaceholderCenterTitle Print #iFile, "Title:" & vbTab & oShp.TextFrame.TextRange Case Is = ppPlaceholderBody Print #iFile, "Body:" & vbTab & oShp.TextFrame.TextRange Case Is = ppPlaceholderSubtitle Print #iFile, "SubTitle:" & vbTab & oShp.TextFrame.TextRange Case Else Print #iFile, "Other Placeholder:" & vbTab & oShp.TextFrame.TextRange End Select Else Print #iFile, vbTab & oShp.TextFrame.TextRange End If ' msoPlaceholder Else Print #iFile, "No text:" & vbTab & oShp.Type If oShp.HasTable = msoTrue Then If oShp.Table.Rows.Count > 0 Then out = "" For rowCounter = 1 To oShp.Table.Rows.Count For colCounter = 1 To oShp.Table.Columns.Count Set Cell = oShp.Table.Cell(rowCounter, colCounter).Shape If Cell.HasTextFrame Then If Cell.TextFrame.HasText Then out = out + vbTab + Cell.TextFrame.TextRange.Text End If End If Next out = out + vbNewLine Next Print #iFile, out 'for counter End If End If End If ' Has text frame/Has text Next oShp Next oSld 'Close output file Close #iFile
End SubTested, and tested, and I do this all the time - no coding required. Exporting the slide text made easy. It's a double save (or print) process, because PPT always exports/prints/saves a page-at-a-time view no matter how you do it. So...here we go:
- Open your ppt file you want to get the text out of.
- Save As -> PDF (or print a PDF) - either way you get the same thing.
- Open the PDF in Adobe Acrobat Reader. At this point, when you Ctrl-A to select all, it only selects text on one slide at a time (Just like PPT) So...
- Click Print from inside Adobe Acrobat Reader and choose a PDF writer (MS Print to PDF or CutePDF Writer both work)
- Save a second PDF file
- Open the second PDF file, select all, and copy and paste to notepad, MS Word, or wherever you want it.
- There's your slide text. Whoomp.
I think the easiest method would be to upload the PPT document to Google Drive, open it in Google Slides, then File>Download>Plain Text.
You could then open it in Word or Google Docs.
