Create your own PowerPoint add-in!

It is possible and fairly easy to create your own PowerPoint add-in to get an easy access to your custom macros.

As an example, I created an additional tab in the PowerPoint ribbon that let me change the spellcheck language of all text boxes in a presentation. It looks like this:

Although this post is focused on PowerPoint, I suppose that the process is very similar for the other Office applications.

Step 1 - Create your VBA macros.

1. Create a new PowerPoint document.
2. To access the VBA editor in PowerPoint you need to enable the developer tools. To do so, go to File > Options > Customize Ribbon, and check the “Developer” box in the right column.
3. In the Developer tab, open Visual Basic, create a new module and add your macros there. Save and exit the editor.
4. You can now see your macros if you click on the “Macro” button in the “Developer” tab.
5. Save the presentation. As you added macros to the document, you will need to save it as a PowerPoint Macro-Enabled Presentation (.pptm)

Sub SpellCheckChanger(langID As MsoLanguageID)
ActivePresentation.DefaultLanguageID = langID
Dim Sld As Slide, Shp As Shape
For Each Sld In ActivePresentation.Slides
    For Each Shp In Sld.Shapes
        If Shp.HasTextFrame Then
            Shp.TextFrame.TextRange.LanguageID = langID
        End If
    Next
Next
End Sub

Sub SpellCheckChanger_UK()
    SpellCheckChanger (msoLanguageIDEnglishUK)
    MsgBox ("Language has been changed to English UK")
End Sub

Sub SpellCheckChanger_US()
    SpellCheckChanger (msoLanguageIDEnglishUS)
    MsgBox ("Language has been changed to English US")
End Sub

Sub SpellCheckChanger_CHFR()
    SpellCheckChanger (msoLanguageIDSwissFrench)
    MsgBox ("Language has been changed to Swiss French")
End Sub

Sub SpellCheckChanger_CHDE()
    SpellCheckChanger (msoLanguageIDSwissGerman)
    MsgBox ("Language has been changed to Swiss German")
End Sub

Sub SpellCheckChanger_CHIT()
    SpellCheckChanger (msoLanguageIDSwissItalian)
    MsgBox ("Language has been changed to Swiss Italian")
End Sub

Sub About()
    MsgBox ("This add-in comes with absolutely no guarantee.")
End Sub

Step 2 - Customize the Office ribbon

The Office ribbon can be customized by adding some XML to your document.

The easy way is to use the Office RibbonX Editor. I would recommend using the NETFramework-Binaries.zip, as no installation or admin rights are needed.

Once you have the ribbon editor:

1. Drag & drop the file you created in step 1 into the editor.
2. Right click on the presentation in the editor > “Insert Office 2010+ Custom UI Part”
3. In the customUI14.xml, add the XML for the ribbon (see below).
4. Use the “Insert Icons” button to insert image files for the icons (in my case, all the flags).
5. Save and exit the ribbon editor.

<customUI xmlns=http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2006/01/customui>
    <ribbon>
        <tabs>
            <tab id="CustomTab" label="SpellCheck Changer">
                <group id="CustomGroup1" label="English">
                    <button id="Button1" label="English UK" image="uk_flag" size="large" onAction="SpellCheckChanger_UK" />
                    <button id="Button2" label="English US" image="us_flag" size="large" onAction="SpellCheckChanger_US" />
                </group >
                <group id="CustomGroup2" label="Swiss Languages">
                    <button id="Button3" label="Swiss French" image="fr_flag" size="large" onAction="SpellCheckChanger_CHFR" />
                    <button id="Button4" label="Swiss German" image="de_flag" size="large" onAction="SpellCheckChanger_CHDE" />
                    <button id="Button5" label="Swiss Italian" image="it_flag" size="large" onAction="SpellCheckChanger_CHIT" />
                </group >
                <group id="CustomGroup3" label=" ">
                    <button id="Button6" label="About" image="about" size="large" onAction="About" />
                </group >
            </tab>
        </tabs>
    </ribbon>
</customUI>

Step 3 - Make it a PowerPoint add-in

If you open your presentation with PowerPoint you should now see your new tab in the ribbon. Now we need to add it as a PowerPoint add-in so that it will appear in all presentation you’re working on.

1. Save the presentation as a PowerPoint Add-in (.ppam). This should automaticaly save it to default location for add-ins.
2. In the Developer tab > PowerPoint Add-ins > Add New, and select the file you just created.
3. Ensure the box next to your new add-in is checked and close the Add-ins window.

And voilà.