Programmatically launch multiple slide shows using python-uno

Question

I have been using the python-uno interface to launch OpenOffice and run PowerPoint slideshows on a Linux-based noticeboard system. Now the customer wants to make a split-screen and show four different slide shows on the screen at the same time.

But whenever I start a slide show in a second instance of OpenOffice, the first slide show will freeze.

Has anyone out there encountered this problem before ? Anyone solved it ?

I am running OpenOffice 2.4 on Debian Linux. I run two completely separate instances of OpenOffice in separate processes but they seem to affect each other anyway.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, I have no answer for your question, but you might be able to help me. I am trying to set up a python script that launches multiple powerpoint slideshows contained in a specific folde, one after the other.

For now, I search for the slideshow files using the os.walk() function. I create strings that contain the command for launching the slideshows. And I launch the shows using os.system(command).

Two issues seem to arise: 1- I have problems when passing the command string to DOS. 2- When the first slideshow ends, powerpoint does not exit back to the Python script, unless a user presses the keyboard.

Question: 1- In what format the command should be passed to os.system? (for now it looks like: command_string = '\"C:\Program Files\Folder\POWERPNT.EXE\" /s \"C:\Slideshow Folder\slideshow.ppt\"') 2- Is there an argument that can be given to os.system for each slideshows to exit when finished?