Busy Developers' Guide to HSLF drawing layer
Busy Developers' Guide to HSLF drawing layer
Index of Features
  • How to create a new presentation and add new slides to it
  • How to retrieve or change slide size
  • How to get shapes contained in a particular slide
  • Drawing a shape on a slide
  • How to work with pictures
  • How to set slide title
  • How to work with slide/shape background
Features
New Presentation //create a new empty slide show SlideShow ppt = new SlideShow(); //add first slide Slide s1 = ppt.createSlide(); //add second slide Slide s2 = ppt.createSlide(); //save changes in a file FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("slideshow.ppt"); wb.write(out); out.close();
How to retrieve or change slide size SlideShow ppt = new SlideShow(new HSLFSlideShow("slideshow.ppt")); //retrieve page size. Coordinates are expressed in points (72 dpi) java.awt.Dimension pgsize = ppt.getPageSize(); int pgx = pgsize.width; //slide width int pgy = pgsize.height; //slide height //set new page size ppt.setPageSize(new java.awt.Dimension(1024, 768)); //save changes FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("slideshow.ppt"); wb.write(out); out.close();
How to get shapes contained in a particular slide

The superclass of all shapes in HSLF is the Shape class - the elemental object that composes a drawing. The following pictute shows the class tree of HSLF shapes:

Class Tree of HSLF Shapes

The following fragment demonstrates how to iterate over shapes for each slide.

SlideShow ppt = new SlideShow(new HSLFSlideShow("slideshow.ppt")); //get slides Slide[] slide = ppt.getSlides(); for (int i = 0; i < slide.length; i++){ Shape[] sh = slide[i].getShapes(); for (int j = 0; j < sh.length; j++){ //name of the shape String name = sh[j].getShapeName(); //shapes's anchor which defines the position of this shape in the slide java.awt.Rectangle anchor = sh[j].getAnchor(); if (sh[j] instanceof Line){ Line line = (Line)sh[j]; //work with Line } else if (sh[j] instanceof AutoShape){ AutoShape shape = (AutoShape)sh[j]; //work with AutoShape } else if (sh[j] instanceof TextBox){ TextBox shape = (TextBox)sh[j]; //work with TextBox } else if (sh[j] instanceof Picture){ Picture shape = (Picture)sh[j]; //work with Picture } } }
Drawing a shape on a slide

When you add a shape, you usually specify the dimensions of the shape and the position of the upper left corner of the bounding box for the shape relative to the upper left corner of the slide. Distances in the drawing layer are measured in points (72 points = 1 inch).

SlideShow ppt = new SlideShow(); Slide slide = ppt.createSlide(); //Line shape Line line = new Line(); line.setAnchor(new java.awt.Rectangle(50, 50, 100, 20)); line.setLineColor(new Color(0, 128, 0)); line.setLineStyle(Line.LineDashDotSys); slide.addShape(line); //TextBox TextBox txt = new TextBox(); txt.setText("Hello, World!"); txt.setAnchor(new java.awt.Rectangle(300, 100, 300, 50)); //use RichTextRun to work with the text format RichTextRun rt = txt.getRichTextRuns()[0]; rt.setFontSize(32); rt.setFontName("Arial"); rt.setBold(true); rt.setItalic(true); rt.setUnderlined(true); rt.setFontColor(Color.red); rt.setAlignment(TextBox.AlignRight); slide.addShape(txt); //Autoshape //32-point star AutoShape sh1 = new AutoShape(ShapeTypes.Star32); sh1.setAnchor(new java.awt.Rectangle(50, 50, 100, 200)); sh1.setFillColor(Color.red); slide.addShape(sh1); //Trapezoid AutoShape sh2 = new AutoShape(ShapeTypes.Trapezoid); sh2.setAnchor(new java.awt.Rectangle(150, 150, 100, 200)); sh2.setFillColor(Color.blue); slide.addShape(sh2); FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("slideshow.ppt"); ppt.write(out); out.close();
How to work with pictures

Currently, HSLF API supports the following types of pictures:

  • Windows Metafiles (WMF)
  • Enhanced Metafiles (EMF)
  • JPEG Interchange Format
  • Portable Network Graphics (PNG)
  • Macintosh PICT

SlideShow ppt = new SlideShow(new HSLFSlideShow("slideshow.ppt")); //extract all pictures contained in the presentation PictureData[] pdata = ppt.getPictureData(); for (int i = 0; i < pdata.length; i++){ PictureData pict = pdata[i]; // picture data byte[] data = pict.getData(); int type = pict.getType(); String ext; switch (type){ case Picture.JPEG: ext=".jpg"; break; case Picture.PNG: ext=".png"; break; case Picture.WMF: ext=".wmf"; break; case Picture.EMF: ext=".emf"; break; case Picture.PICT: ext=".pict"; break; default: continue; } FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("pict_"+i + ext); out.write(data); out.close(); } // add a new picture to this slideshow and insert it in a new slide int idx = ppt.addPicture(new File("clock.jpg"), Picture.JPEG); Picture pict = new Picture(idx); //set image position in the slide pict.setAnchor(new java.awt.Rectangle(100, 100, 300, 200)); Slide slide = ppt.createSlide(); slide.addShape(pict); //now retrieve pictures containes in the first slide and save them on disk slide = ppt.getSlides()[0]; Shape[] sh = slide.getShapes(); for (int i = 0; i < sh.length; i++){ if (sh[i] instanceof Picture){ Picture pict = (Picture)sh[i]; PictureData data = pict.getPictureData(); byte[] data = pict.getData(); int type = pict.getType(); if (type == Picture.JPEG){ FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("slide0_"+i+".jpg"); out.write(data); out.close(); } else if (type == Picture.PNG){ FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("slide0_"+i+".png"); out.write(data); out.close(); } } } FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("slideshow.ppt"); wb.write(out); out.close();
How to set slide title SlideShow ppt = new SlideShow(); Slide slide = ppt.createSlide(); TextBox title = slide.addTitle(); title.setText("Hello, World!"); //save changes FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream("slideshow.ppt"); wb.write(out); out.close();

Below is the equivalent code in PowerPoint VBA:

Set myDocument = ActivePresentation.Slides(1) myDocument.Shapes.AddTitle.TextFrame.TextRange.Text = "Hello, World!"
How to modify background of a slide master SlideShow ppt = new SlideShow(); SlideMaster master = ppt.getSlidesMasters()[0]; Fill fill = master.getBackground().getFill(); int idx = ppt.addPicture(new File("background.png"), Picture.PNG); fill.setFillType(Fill.FILL_PICTURE); fill.setPictureData(idx);
How to modify background of a slide SlideShow ppt = new SlideShow(); Slide slide = ppt.createSlide(); //This slide has its own background. //Without this line it will use master's background. slide.setFollowMasterBackground(false); Fill fill = slide.getBackground().getFill(); int idx = ppt.addPicture(new File("background.png"), Picture.PNG); fill.setFillType(Fill.FILL_PATTERN); fill.setPictureData(idx);
How to modify background of a shape SlideShow ppt = new SlideShow(); Slide slide = ppt.createSlide(); Shape shape = new AutoShape(ShapeTypes.Rectangle); shape.setAnchor(new java.awt.Rectangle(100, 100, 200, 200)); Fill fill = shape.getFill(); fill.setFillType(Fill.FILL_SHADE); fill.setBackgroundColor(Color.red); fill.setForegroundColor(Color.green); slide.addShape(shape);