MS PowerPoint
- Sujeet Pathak
- Annu
Background
When you want to present release notes within a PowerPoint presentation/attach such a presentation in the automated release notes email you can use this template. This documentation explains how to create the template and generate a release notes PwerPoint presentation.
Also, check Actions | Attachments to know how a release notes PowerPoint presentation can be attached within a release notes email.
Create MS PowerPoint template
Navigate to ARNR screen >> Templates >> Click on Create button.
You will be brought to the template selection pop-up, and select the MSPowerpoint template. This launches the template builder as shown in below image -
The default template body will be populated. Make any required changes & save them to create a new template.
The above screenshot is taken from the in-project screen so the Level field shows the Local option selected by default. You can also select the Global option here and use that template in any project.
Fields in MS PowerPoint template builder
Template name
This is for internal reference & doesn’t show up in the actual release PPTs.
Level
Below tables will help you understand whar are the levels and how they impact
File name
This will generate the file with a given name and save it on your system. Variables are supported within the file name field.
JQL Configurations
Configure Stats
Introduction
ARNR provides Stats macro to make release notes more insightful for you & your team. To put it simply, Stats feature comes up with a number that corresponds to the count of issues that are returned by the configured JQL & chart feature lets you include a simple bar chart showing the count of issues returned by configured JQL aggregated over values of specific Jira field.
Clicking on Stats macro would open a pop-up with below fields -
Title - Name of the macro
JQL - JQL to fetch relevant issues to generate stats (count)
Return - Currently, only Count function is supported. This will return the number of issues fetched from the given JQL.
Typical use cases may include, informing the audience about
Issue distribution based on priority, type, assignee, etc
Story point distribution across different issue types
Currently, the system can return the number of issues the stored JQL retrieves. So a typical use of this would look something like the image below.
Below are the sample stats generated with ARN MS PowerPoint template :
A slide from the file uploaded in ARNR template -
Output of the above file -
Date variables with operator
Select PowerPoint template
You can choose the default themes (if that suits your requirements) or upload your own PowerPoint presentation with the theme of your choice.
You can use the Download option to see what default themes would look like and the basic format of the template.
Please refer to the below steps to create your own PowerPoint presentation.
Preparing PowerPoints slides
ARNR has two sample light and dark-themed PPTs in MS PowerPoint editor. You can use them right away to download, edit, and upload the edited PPT again
When you are editing the sample files or creating your own PowerPoint presentation from scratch to be uploaded in ARNR, there is a standard syntax for JQL and ARNR variables you need to follow that will fetch issues (via JQL section) and variable values correctly.
In the below example, we shared screenshots of the main slides from a sample PPT that is available to download in MS PowerPoint template editor. Here is the full PPT file -
Let us see more details of some important and mandatory slides -
The first three slides can be designed as per your requirement with different styling or relevant content. You can put your titles, images, etc. However, make sure that when you are adding variables, you follow syntax properly. If there are any typo errors, it will not fetch any value against that variable and the text will appear as it is.
Input Slide - 1
Slide - 2
Slide - 3
Slide - 4 Mandatory
This is a very important and mandatory slide. Please read all the given points on the slide carefully. Most importantly this slide should not be removed from the presentation.
This slide will be removed from the output. Thus, it is not recommended to add any content to this slide.
Slide 5 - Mandatory
You can add different issue field variables here like, {key}, {summary}, {issueType}, {asignee}, {description}, etc. You just need to make sure that you are including all these variables in the JQL section in the MS PowerPoint template’s JQL section.
Slide 6 - Mandatory
This is again a mandatory slide that is used at the end of JQL section.
This slide will be removed from the output. Thus, it is not recommended to add any content to this slide.
Once the template is ready and the relevant PPT is uploaded, Save, Preview, and download the release notes PPT!
Preview an MS PowerPoint template
Once Saved, Click on Preview. If you have used variables like [fixVersion], [versionId], [releaseDate], or any custom variables, select the appropriate values for those variables and custom variables. After that click on Preview, and it will download the PopwerPoint file on your system.
Limitations
Below are some current limitations with MS PowerPoint template BETA. We are actively working on all enhancements.
Currently, images, videos, or PDFs from Jira issue fields are not supported. If there is any such content it will be displayed as broken in the output file.
If any wiki renderer type Jira issue fields contain any kind of inline formatting is not supported
Macros contained in any wiki renderer type Jira issue fields are not supported.
Any tables contained in issue fields are not supported.
Custom variables are not yet supported.
Parent field is not yet supported.
[VersionURL], [confluenceURL], and [releasepageURL] are not supported yet.