What I'm trying to accomplish
- Build a customized set of macros in PowerPoint designed to make it faster and easier to work with
- Include a customized set of tabs on the ribbon for activating these macros, each containing associated buttons, with some or all of these buttons containing a small graphic representing its function
- Deploy this functionality and associated UI on PCs and Macs in a way that is easily updatable when new functionality is added
What the problem is
I cannot identify a single best approach for accomplishing all of these objectives among the various ways developers can add functionality to PowerPoint.
Key detail: I'm working on a PC with PowerPoint Version 2108
What I know or have done already
- I know how to program VBA PowerPoint macros in that program's macro editor. (For what it's worth, I've also done a good deal of development of PowerPoint macros in Python using the pywin32 package.)
- I am aware of the ribbon customization functionality in Visual Studio and have experimented with it.
- I am aware of PowerPoint add-ins, though the breadth of what they can do is not clear to me, despite reviewing the documentation.
My main concern is deploying to Macs: some solutions seem to leverage Microsoft Office COM, which, if my understanding is correct, is not available on Macs, while others that may work with Macs don't seem to let the developer customize the ribbon. In any case, I've done lots of searching for solutions on the internet, but nothing I've found seems like an obvious fit for what I'm trying to do.
I would appreciate any help you could offer on finding the right direction for this work. Side note: I would prefer to not rely on any software outside of what Microsoft makes available (Office, Visual Studio, and so on).