Question

PowerPoint to database

  • 27 April 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 4 views

Badge +5

Hello,

I've got a really challenging question received from a customer !

The domain is Heritage buildings protection.

An architect/historian evaluates the value of buildings and gives them a mark.

He then presents his proposal in a PowerPoint :

  • Identification info
  • Description
  • Mark
  • Label
  • etc.
  • Pictures

The proposal is reviewed in several sessions, with different people. The mark may be upgraded or downgraded, the label changed, etc.

 

Once validated, the data is to be captured in an SDE geodatabase. Presently, this is done in two different ways :

  1. Manually
  2. Manually copying the data to Excel and it is imported in GDB with FME

But in both cases, there is a non profit-adding step, which is to manually copy the data.

Does anyone out there have an idea how to skip this step ?

Could the PowerPoint presentation be structured in such a way (with keywords for instance) that could make the content recognizable and importable directly ?

I have thought of different ways but I'd rather keep it open for your input !

Kind regards,

Tim

 


3 replies

Userlevel 4
Badge +25

The quick solution would seem to be to save the Powerpoint as a PDF file and have FME read that. FME has a PDF reader, but it doesn't have one for Powerpoint (only a writer).

Userlevel 4
Badge +25

The quick solution would seem to be to save the Powerpoint as a PDF file and have FME read that. FME has a PDF reader, but it doesn't have one for Powerpoint (only a writer).

The other solution would be for the historian to capture the data directly in Excel. FME can then turn that into a Powerpoint, AND convert it to Geodatabase.

Badge +5

Thanks @mark2atsafe !

Yeah, your second option seems interesting but the historians wouldn't be independent in their work... Not sure they'll like that.

Reply