J
Joel
I maintain several hundred slides containing lots of data of varying
types, which I update frequently. Much of this data is in chart form,
more of it is tabular, and in many instances it's just text (such as
"a XX% reduction in emissions" where the XX is some number, and that
number is probably present in a dozen separate slides). These
presentations are then used by other people in my organization, who
require the ability to modify the charts if necessary (though not
necessary update all of the data). Most of my organization runs
Office 2003, while a few of us have Office 2007.
What I would really, really like to do is find ways to link the data
in these charts so that I can make my updates in one place, and have
those changes reflected throughout the presentations. Which is to say
something like, I update my Excel master file, open the PowerPoint
file, it updates the links, I prepare a broken-link copy and publish
it for my organization's use (I'm not worrying about the "do I have
the latest version of the slide" problem that the Slide Library seeks
to address).
Does anyone have any suggestions on how best this might be achieve?
Pasting linked data from Excel has some problems. First, it's really,
really slow in updating. Second, it requires me to do all re-
formatting in the Excel file (essentially replacing a text box with a
cell in an Excel table, and to change the text size I have to go to
the Master Excel file to do the update). And third, when the links
are broken, the linked objects revert to basic shapes, not graphs or
tables or text boxes, so editing them is a nightmare at best, and
impossible at worst (in the case of charts and graphs).
I've also tried embedding worksheets into the presentation, and then
linking to another spreadsheet through a simple formula. This doesn't
seem to update when I open the PowerPoint file, though.
If I create a 2007-style PowerPoint chart, the formatting changes
whenever a 2003 user edits the chart, and this creates a problem. If
I create a 2007 Excel chart, and then paste/embed that into the
PowerPoint file, it's converted to a Picture for 2003 users, making it
impossible for them to edit it.
I've considered trying to write Macros to do this, but it seems like
it'd take a lot of work for something that I'm assuming other people
also work with.
I'm also trying to learn more about how to set up Data Connections,
and investigating Smart Tags, but I'm not sure how well either would
work.
Am I missing something?
types, which I update frequently. Much of this data is in chart form,
more of it is tabular, and in many instances it's just text (such as
"a XX% reduction in emissions" where the XX is some number, and that
number is probably present in a dozen separate slides). These
presentations are then used by other people in my organization, who
require the ability to modify the charts if necessary (though not
necessary update all of the data). Most of my organization runs
Office 2003, while a few of us have Office 2007.
What I would really, really like to do is find ways to link the data
in these charts so that I can make my updates in one place, and have
those changes reflected throughout the presentations. Which is to say
something like, I update my Excel master file, open the PowerPoint
file, it updates the links, I prepare a broken-link copy and publish
it for my organization's use (I'm not worrying about the "do I have
the latest version of the slide" problem that the Slide Library seeks
to address).
Does anyone have any suggestions on how best this might be achieve?
Pasting linked data from Excel has some problems. First, it's really,
really slow in updating. Second, it requires me to do all re-
formatting in the Excel file (essentially replacing a text box with a
cell in an Excel table, and to change the text size I have to go to
the Master Excel file to do the update). And third, when the links
are broken, the linked objects revert to basic shapes, not graphs or
tables or text boxes, so editing them is a nightmare at best, and
impossible at worst (in the case of charts and graphs).
I've also tried embedding worksheets into the presentation, and then
linking to another spreadsheet through a simple formula. This doesn't
seem to update when I open the PowerPoint file, though.
If I create a 2007-style PowerPoint chart, the formatting changes
whenever a 2003 user edits the chart, and this creates a problem. If
I create a 2007 Excel chart, and then paste/embed that into the
PowerPoint file, it's converted to a Picture for 2003 users, making it
impossible for them to edit it.
I've considered trying to write Macros to do this, but it seems like
it'd take a lot of work for something that I'm assuming other people
also work with.
I'm also trying to learn more about how to set up Data Connections,
and investigating Smart Tags, but I'm not sure how well either would
work.
Am I missing something?