Thanks huakex - the color thing worked great. It gives me the syntax and approach I need to get more things to work (like line thickness and so on). There is already in the Win32::PowerPoint::Utils a subroutine for RGB .. so I'll try to use that.
However, I'm struggling with the shape still. There is a module for Win32::PowerPoint::Const - but it does not include all the msoShape* items I want to use. In the constants module there are some definitions (I think Microsoft calls them Enumerations - MsoAutoShapeType enumeration (Office) - but whatever) but none for the shapes:
# msoPatternType
msoPattern10Percent => 2,
msoPattern20Percent => 3,
msoPattern25Percent => 4,
So I'm going to try to extend that module to include the definitions I found in MSDN for the shapes like this:
# msoAutoShapeType
msoShapeRectangle => 1,
msoShapeParallelogram => 2,
msoShapeTrapezoid => 3,
And use them ... as the Win32::OLE::Const->Load('Microsoft Office 12.0 Object Library'); I could not determine which Office to load as I've got 365 from work and the documentation is poor. Why Microsoft has to be so obtuse about everything is beyond me, but I digress.
Thanks for your help. It's appreciated. If anyone else has any ideas - please add them - always welcome!!!
One more thing ... after I add these other functions, I want to update the original Win32::PowerPoint module (and sub modules) back in CPAN as opposed to adding a new module cloned and forked from the original - so any pointers on how to start down that path would be very helpful.