Toolbar: v. 3.1 (August 19, 2021)
PowerPoint add-in: v. 1.1 (April 21, 2021)
The PowerPoint Inking Toolbar is a program that makes the annotation of slides easier during a PowerPoint slide show. It creates a hovering toolbar that provides quick access to pens of different colors, to the eraser, and to many other functions.
PowerPoint has some good annotation capabilities that can be used during a slide show but most annotation functions are several clicks away, which can break the flow of a presentation. The PowerPoint Inking Toolbar can prove to be especially useful during online lectures where a good flow when annotating slides is crucial. Almost every feature of the program can be easily customized by manually editing the .ini file in which the settings are saved. This includes changing the size of and adding/removing/reordering buttons, changing icons, adding a second toolbar, customizing menus, etc.
Starting with version 3.0, there is now a second toolbar that you can customize completely independently of the main toolbar. By default, this second toolbar is set to a "navigation" toolbar to make it easier to navigate between slides during a slide show.
You can use the program on its own, launching it manually by double-clicking on the .ahk file whenever you need it. Alternatively, it can optionally be used with the PowerPoint add-in: if you decide to use the add-in, the program will start automatically whenever a PowerPoint slide show starts (and the program will automatically get closed when you quit the slide show). See below for instructions to install the add-in and for videos briefly showcasing the add-in and most recent features of the program. Version 1.1 of the add-in should be compatible with all recent versions of PowerPoint, including 2019, 365, and 64bit.
If you had changed the buttons in the .ini file of a previous version of the toolbar, you can download version 3.1 and let it create its own .ini file. Then you can copy the list of buttons from your previous .ini file and paste it under the same key in the new 3.1 .ini file.
The basic features of this program are highlighted in this short demo video for version 2.4:
The following video highlights the new features included in version 3.0:
The following video highlights the new features included in the more recent version 3.1:
To use the program, you can just download the .ahk file from the following Google Drive link:
DOWNLOAD THE CURRENT VERSION OF THE POWERPOINT INKING TOOLBAR: Version 3.1, uploaded August 19, 2021: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UphY5YwWdqnAl4Q3CFGr9nSWyh04_oCz/view
DOWNLOAD A .ZIP FILE CONTAINING THE INSTRUCTIONS TO INSTALL THE CURRENT VERSION OF THE POWERPOINT ADD-IN: Version 1.1, uploaded April 21, 2021: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_rDTWWD3oh1u4JKdzqDxMBr1c_CW7pVk/view
Then download the .ahk script below, which you can run by double-clicking on it. The first time you run the script, it will ask you to create a .ini settings file that will contain all the settings for the program. Make sure to keep this .ini file in the same folder as the .ahk script. Starting with version 3.0, when you first run the program you will have the option to open the program's instructions. These instructions are also available at all times through the toolbar's menu.
If the toolbar buttons are too small or too large for your needs, just open the .ini file in a text editor such as Notepad, change the dimensions of the buttons on lines 90-91 of the .ini file, save the .ini file, then relaunch the program.
Let me know if you have any comments, bug reports, or suggestions for improvements!
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Notes:
- The code for the main functions is actually pretty short. The great majority of the script's code is for the the icons and images that were included in the script as very long hBITMAP codes using Image2Include.ahk. I'd love to make the source code directly available here, but the source code has too many characters to be accepted here. But let me know if you're not comfortable downloading the script from the Google Drive link above!
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Changelog:
- Version 3.1, uploaded August 19, 2021: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UphY5YwWdqnAl4Q3CFGr9nSWyh04_oCz/view
- New buttons available in 3.1:
- Color_Picker: Hit this button during a slide show in order to select a color for the pen from a color picker panel. Recently used colors form the color picker will be automatically saved on the right side of the panel, so that you can easily re-select them later.
- Copy_Color: Once you click this button, the next time you click anywhere (inside or outside of the slide show), the color where you click will be copied and transformed into a pen of that color. When you first click on the button, the button will take the color of the last copied color, on which you can click in order to re-use this color.
- Timer_1: This button allows you to show/hide a timer during a slide show. The time on the timer is variable and can be adjusted with buttons on the timer.
- Timer_2: This button allows you to show/hide a timer during a slide show. The time on the timer is set to a specific value defined by the user in the .ini settings file.
- AddSlide_Color: Add a completely new slide during a slide show with a background color of your choice that can be customized in the .ini settings file.
- AddSlide_Picture: Add a completely new slide during a slide show with a background picture of your choice that can be customized in the .ini settings file.
- Other changes:
- Copy_Color: Once you click this button, the next time you click anywhere (inside or outside of the slide show), the color where you click will be copied and transformed into a pen of that color. When you first click on the button, the button will take the color of the last copied color, on which you can click in order to re-use this color.
- Timer_1: This button allows you to show/hide a timer during a slide show. The time on the timer is variable and can be adjusted with buttons on the timer.
- Timer_2: This button allows you to show/hide a timer during a slide show. The time on the timer is set to a specific value defined by the user in the .ini settings file.
- AddSlide_Color: Add a completely new slide during a slide show with a background color of your choice that can be customized in the .ini settings file.
- AddSlide_Picture: Add a completely new slide during a slide show with a background picture of your choice that can be customized in the .ini settings file.
- The volume up/down buttons are now repeat buttons: as long as you click on them, the volume will keep increasing/decreasing.
- Fixed a bug where the toolbar instructions wouldn't show up correctly when using the compiled .exe version of the toolbar during a slide show.
- Cleaned up some of the code.
- Added the AHK forum address at the top of the instructions.
- Fixed a bug where the toolbar instructions wouldn't show up correctly when using the compiled .exe version of the toolbar during a slide show.
- Cleaned up some of the code.
- Added the AHK forum address at the top of the instructions.
Previous versions