How do I tell where the insertion point is in the Slides pane?

Question

In PowerPoint, in "normal" view, the window is split into two panes, with a pane showing slide thumbnails on the left, and a pane showing the current slide on the right. You can select more than one slide in the left-hand panel, which is useful if you want to copy, move or delete slides.

To tell which slide(s) are currently selected in the left-hand panel, you can use ActiveWindow.Selection.SlideRange. However, if you click between slides in the left-hand (thumbnail) panel, you end up with an insertion point, and:

• ActiveWindow.Selection.Type is zero (ppSelectionNone).
• ActiveWindow.Selection.SlideRange gives an error.

I have a question in two halves:

1. How can I detect this situation? (Presumably there are other cases where the selection type is "none").
2. How can I tell where the insertion point is, so that I can insert new slides at that point?

Either VBA or VSTO code would be fine :-)

Answer 1

Answer to the first question:

' The mouse cursor can be placed between slide thumbnails in the following views:
' - Normal View / Thumbnail Pane
' - Slide Sorter View
' - Slide Master View / Thumbnail Pane
' Returns true if the cursor is in the slide gap in these cases.
Function IsSlideGap() As Boolean
    On Error Resume Next

    With ActiveWindow

        Select Case .View.Type
            Case ppViewNormal, ppViewSlideMaster
                ' If the thumbnail pane (ViewType 11 or 12 ) is active but                                       
                ' nothing is selected, we must be in the slide gap
                If .Panes(1).Active And .Selection.Type = ppSelectionNone Then IsSlideGap = True
            Case ppViewSlideSorter
                If .Selection.Type = ppSelectionNone Then IsSlideGap = True
        End Select

    End With
End Function

Answer to second question:

' Note: used by slide/gap context menus only so assumes
' either thumbnail pane or sorter view active
Function GetSlideCursorIndex() As Long
    Dim lSlides As Long ' Track the number of slides in order
                        ' to check if the temporary slide was deleted.
    Dim oSld As Slide

    lSlides = ActivePresentation.Slides.Count

    ' Insert a temporary new slide
    CommandBars.ExecuteMso "SlideNew"

    DoEvents

    Set oSld = ActiveWindow.View.Slide

    With oSld
        GetSlideCursorIndex = .SlideIndex
        .Delete
    End With

    If ActivePresentation.Slides.Count <> lSlides Then Debug.Print "Something went wrong!"
End Function