PowerPoint 2007 Chart Automation

[ash]

Hi,

I have recently switched to Office 2007 and was looking forward to
PowerPoint charts (i.e. MSGraph) being enhanced (foolishly having not read
any discussions before then).

On first use I thought that the new charting engine for PowerPoint looks
great...but what's this...no ability to automate the new charts from VBA /
..net???

I have since read various articles on working with the Open XML files. I
guess that this could be used to change a file when PowerPoint presentation
is closed, but this does not allow a user to automate tasks on PowerPoint
charts directly...unless I am missing something? E.g. basic chart formatting
whilst you are working with a chart.

I could use the old MSGraph charts, but what is the point of developing a
new charting engine and then not using it? And do the people who suggest
that option understand what it is like having users of your application not
understanding the difference between the charts. IMHO this is a massive
underestimation of how users use VBA / .net with PowerPoint.

So my question is - does anyone know if chart automation will be added to
PowerPoint for the new charting engine? Why was it left out? What realistic
solutions are there? Can this request get on the todo list of the office
developers?

 

[ash]

thanks for your thoughts, Steve.

I guess Bill G does, but he doesn't hang out here much. ;-)

Seriously, though, we're not MS employees and even if we were, we probably
wouldn't have an answer for you, and if we did, we couldn't tell you.

Realistically, I wouldn't start holding my breath just yet. It'd be unusual for
MS to introduce new functionality in a SP release. Bug fixes, yes, but perhaps
not this.


My guess? When the shipping date rolled around, it shipped, even though it
wasn't quite the "Well Done" that the customers ordered.


I wish I knew of any.


You can bet that they've heard about it already.



-----------------------------------------
Steve Rindsberg, PPT MVP
PPT FAQ: www.pptfaq.com
PPTools: www.pptools.com
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