Turn off screenupdating for Powerpoint

Question

I am writing a script that loops through a folder and creates graphs from some criteria, and then exports these to powerpoint. At the moment, creating 130 graphs takes 290 s

Answer 1

One workaround I found was to minimize the PPT window, and then use EnableWindow to prevent user input getting to it. Tested with Office 365, from VB.NET

Private Shared Function EnableWindow(ByVal hWnd As IntPtr, ByVal bEnable As Boolean) As Boolean
End Function

Private _pptApp As PowerPoint.Application

Public Property ScreenUpdating As Boolean

    Get
        Return _pptApp.WindowState=PpWindowState.ppWindowNormal
    End Get

    Set(value As Boolean)

        If value Then
            EnableWindow(_pptApp.HWND, True)
            _pptApp.WindowState = PpWindowState.ppWindowNormal
        Else
            'need to make sure it is enabled otherwise changing the state throws an exception
            EnableWindow(_pptApp.HWND, True)
            _pptApp.WindowState = PpWindowState.ppWindowMinimized
            EnableWindow(_pptApp.HWND, False)
        End If

    End Set

End Property