Understanding the PowerPoint Application Object

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When you write Microsoft® Visual Basic® for Applications (VBA) code to work with Microsoft® PowerPoint®, you begin with the Application object. If you are writing VBA code within PowerPoint, the Application object is created for you. If you are automating PowerPoint from some other application, you first create a PowerPoint Application object variable and then create an instance of PowerPoint. Unlike the other Microsoft® Office applications (except Microsoft® Outlook®), there can be only one instance of PowerPoint running at a time. If an instance of PowerPoint is running and you use the New keyword or the CreateObject or GetObject function to instantiate a PowerPoint object variable, that object variable will point to the currently running instance of PowerPoint. This single instance of the Application object can contain any number of open Presentation objects.

Microsoft PowerPoint's Application object has properties you can use to access shared Office components such as command bars and the Office Assistant. In addition, the Application object has properties that return the currently active presentation or window, or information about the printer.

Information Returned by the Application object properties

See Also

Working with Microsoft PowerPoint Objects | Working with the Presentation Object | Working with PowerPoint Slides | Working with Shapes on Slides | Office Objects and Object Models