Animated GIF in powerpoint?

[ckx]

I've found some very useful instructions by Rick Wicklin on how to create a spaghetti plot as an animated GIF at https://blogs.sas.com/content/iml/2016/08/22/animation-by-statement-proc-sgplot.html. But I need to create quite a number of such animated spaghetti plots so I'd like to include the animated GIF in a powerpoint file.Has anybody got that to work?

I've tried replacing "ODS HTML" in Rick's example by "ODS POWERPOINT" but that produces an empty powerpoint file. If I don't use "ods powerpoint select none", I get a powerpoint slide per by-group (but still no animated gif).Any suggestions?

[Duggins]

To my knowledge, you cannot replace the destination with POWERPOINT because using the destinations Rick includes are what creates the gif. I teach students how to make gifs and embed them in powerpoints all the time, but I've never found a way to directly place the gif into a slide. Of course, I'm not saying it is impossible - someone who knows ODS much better than me might have a suggestion, but I'd be surprised if there were a SAS-native way to do it because of how the PRINTER destination is creating the gif separate from any other ODS destination. 

To me, this is similar to the fact that if I create a graphic with ODS LISTING and ODS POWERPOINT turned on, I'm not inserting the png into the powerpoint file - I'm creating the two separate files. I'm just not aware of the POWERPOINT destination having any support for creating gifs the way it does for other graphics formats. 

[Reeza]

You need to separate these steps. Create the GIF and then insert it into the powerPoint as a second step. I've for sure done the first step many times. I haven't done the second but can't imagine it's any different than adding a standard image.

Note that you do need a 'newer' version of PowerPoint to have it support GIFs.

[ckx]

Thanks both for the helpful answers. For now, I'm wondering whether a powerpoint file would have added value or whether a set of animated GIFs might be just as useful. But Reeza's answer does clarify why it won't work in a single step and how to proceed if I do want a powerpoint file.

[Reeza]

Not sure what you're doing, but an HTML file does a better job with animated GIFS and you can add controls to stop/restart GIF as well as click for different animations more easily. Though I do all of that via HTML, not SAS.

[ckx]

Using the "large icons" option in Windows 10 File Explorer, you get a thumbnail of the GIF (without animation). Double clicking opens the GIF in "Microsoft Photos" (at least on my machine). Pressing right arrow moves to the next chart, left arrow to the previous -- I think that will suffice. But I'm still working on the GIFs, haven't shared them yet so I may need to try other options at some point