P3I Change Log
v1.60, released 7/29/2017
+ Main form shows scroll bars if resizing hides controls (e.g., the
file selection control). Also useful on compact laptops where
the main form may not fit on the display.
+ Bug fix: Main form file "Selections" control is no longer clipped
on its bottom edge when P3I runs on a host with large desktop
display fonts enabled.
+ Fixed minor user interface issues in the Obscure Options dialog
box.
+ P3I supports the P3ICLI "encoding {ansi | utf8}" command
(available in P3ICLI v2.9 and later). The default encoding is
ANSI text. However, UTF-8 text (for caption and title strings)
may be enabled from the P3I configuration dialog box.
+ Option added to Configuration dialog box that enables/disables
the aforementioned "encoding" command.
+ P3I now uses .Net Framework v4.5 .
v1.50, released 1/20/2017
+ Support for Office 2003 dropped due to lack of testing resources.
Even though P3ICLI may still work with Office 2003, no support
is offered for any problems that may be noted.
+ Support for Windows XP dropped due to lack of testing resources.
+ Source code distribution now includes P3I build documentation.
+ P3I verified to work on Windows 10.
+ Added an Obscure Options dialog box that provides access to these
P3ICLI features:
- third party fix
- custom properties
This dialog box can be launched from P3I's "Edit" menu.
+ P3I (p3i.exe) and its installation package are now signed with
a code signing certificate. The signing certificate format
(SHA256 digest) is recognized on Windows 7 and later hosts.
Note: The p3i.exe signing certificate is flagged as invalid
on Windows XP, but P3I should still be functional.
v1.40, released 4/24/2015
+ P3I ported to VB.Net, using the Windows Forms UI technology
+ P3I supports the P3ICLI "slide size {default | 4:3}" command
(available in P3ICLI v2.2 and later).
+ Support for Windows XP is dropped. The last version known to support
XP is P3I v1.30 .
+ P3I no longer requires a companion DLL (p3ilib.dll).
+ Within P3I's primary user interface, the only resizable screen
element is the Selections Control. This change is by design.
+ When filenames are pasted from the clipboard into P3I's Selection
control, folders and nonexistent files are discarded. See next bullet
for a related change.
+ The P3I Paste menu commands (accessible from the Edit menu or Right
Mouse Button context menu) are now enabled only when clipboard data
contains at least one _existing_ file. I.E., it's no longer possible
to paste raw text into the Selections control.
+ Semi-bug fix: When P3I connects to Office 2010 PPT (or later) for
the purpose of reading a template's layout (i.e., P3I's "Read Layout"
button is pressed), a momentary full screen "flash" of a running
instance of PPT occurs. In this P3I release, the "flash" has been
mitigated as much as possible. Note that PPT is not a particularly
well-behaved Automation app and there is no apparent way to fully
suppress this annoyance.
+ Within the configuration dialog box, the font of the file types
text box is now mono-spaced, which facilitates easier reading of
punctuation characters.
+ Within P3I's configuration dialog box, only the three textboxes may
be resized (when stretching/shrinking the form). This change is by
design.
+ Configuration dialog box includes a new option that, when checked,
causes P3I to start with the same screen location and window size in
effect when the program last exited.
+ Configuration dialog box layout changed to support 2 new options.
v1.30, released 2/18/2015 (p3ilib v1.03)
+ P3I once again operates correctly with Office 2003.
+ Bug fix: As a side effect of viewing a p3icli script, do not increment
the numeric caption or title suffixes.
+ Bug fix: When the number of pic/cap shapes is > 9, assign
picture/graphic files in the correct order (e.g., pic1, pic2, ...pic9,
pic10, ...). This fix supports p3icli's recent change to allow up to
20 pics/caps.
+ P3I installation installs mscomctl.ocx when that file is missing
from the Windows system directory (required for at least one
Windows 8 host).
+ P3I verified to work on Windows 8.
v1.20, released 9/28/2009 (p3ilib v1.03)
+ This release repairs all of the broken template slide comments features
(which only worked with PPT 2000). Namely:
- The Remove Slide Comments feature now works, if used in conjunction
with P3ICLI v1.7 (or later).
- The First Comment text box now displays the first comment found on a
template slide.
- The Comments text box now displays the total number of comments
found on a template slide.
+ Remove Slide Comments startup value may be set via the Configuration
dialog box.
+ Bugfix: pressing Enter (aka CR) in the Ordinal Slide text box now
forces P3I to advance to the selected slide (used to just beep).
+ Warning: using Powerpoint 2000 with this release will almost
certainly cause P3I to abort.
+ P3I is a mature product, now entering maintenance stage. Send
enhancement requests and/or bug reports to Clark Morgan, here:
spammers.are.scum@gmail.com
v1.10, released 9/12/2009 (p3ilib v1.03)
+ About dialog box displays installed P3ICLI version.
+ A "Last Log" command was added to the View menu. This command
displays the P3ICLI log file generated by the most recent click of
the "Files -> PPT" button. The log file contents can be useful for
diagnosing problems such as attempts to load nonexistent/inaccessible
graphics/picture filenames, as well as documenting P3I/P3ICLI bugs
:-) . The log file format is simple:
Line 1: program exit code (i.e., number of errors detected)
Line 2: error/warning/informational message #1 (if any)
Line 3: error/warning/informational message #2 (if any)
etc.
+ A "Copy Source Formatting" checkbox was added to the P3I user
interface. Checking this option specifies that P3ICLI copies
background slide formatting information (e.g., design, color scheme,
gradients, etc.) from the "source" template slide during the
execution of a P3ICLI script. This option is desirable when the
source template slide includes background graphics that are required
to appear on the presentation that P3I generates. Examples of such
background information include (but are not limited to):
- a company logo
- a footer that includes slide numbering information
- a standard company color scheme
Note 1: user-defined textures cannot be copied from the source
template for any version of PPT released prior to Office 2007, since
no programmatic support exists for this formatting feature.
Note 2: this feature is only supported by P3ICLI version 1.6 or
greater
Note 3: this option's initial value can be set via the P3I config UI.
+ Browse Template button now supports selection of PPT 2007 file
extensions (*.pptx and *.potx).
v1.00, released 2/3/2008 (p3ilib v1.03)
+ Caption, Title, and Sort options added to configuration menu.
v0.40, released 1/23/2008 (p3ilib v1.03)
+ Now possible to add a title string to a template slide's title shape.
The GUI allows the user to optionally specify a filename as part of
the generated title string and when so selected, the first file added
to a slide is used in that generated string.
+ Now possible to add caption strings to a template slide's caption
shapes, provided that captions and rectangular picture shapes are paired.
This implies that a CAP1 caption string will be created if and only
if PIC1 exists, that a CAP2 caption will be created if and only if
PIC2 exists, etc.
+ Corrected display problems in the About form for various screen
resolutions.
v0.30, released 1/6/2008 (p3ilib v1.02)
+ Edit menu added, which includes the usual actions:
- Copy P3I file selections to clipboard
- Cut P3I file selections to clipboard
- Delete P3I file selections
- Paste text (presumably filenames) from clipboard to P3I
- Select all P3I file selections.
Additionally, this menu provides access to a Configuration dialog box.
+ New configuration dialog box allows specification of the default:
- Initial file types used by the Browse Pictures common open dialog
box.
- Browse Pictures folder.
- Browse Template folder.
+ Right mouse click enabled over file selection area and much of the
P3I GUI. Right mouse pops up edit menu.
+ P3I accepts filenames via drag and drop from Windows Explorer.
+ P3I is released under the GPLv3 license.
v0.20, released 1/20/2007 (p3ilib v1.01)
+ File and View menus added.
+ P3I now remembers the last 20 folders from which pictures were selected.
Any of these folders may be quickly revisited via the File menu's
"Recent Folders" submenu.
+ "Purge Recent Folders" submenu added to File menu
+ The View menu's "P3ICLI Script" submenu may be used to view the P3ICLI
script that P3I generates based on current input parameters. This
submenu is enabled if, and only if, P3I's "Files -> PPT" button is
enabled. Use this feature to learn P3ICLI syntax or to save
script(s) for later replay by P3ICLI.
+ Bug fix: P3I could hang for up to 60 seconds when sending pictures
to PowerPoint on a host with Office XP and Norton AntiVirus
installed (the latter installs an Office plugin that executes a
virus scan when a new document is opened).
v0.1, released 3/10/2006 (p3ilib v1.00)
- initial release