PowerPoint linked to Excel

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
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Guest

I belong to a photo club and we use PP to display photos on one computer and
use another computer to record the score for each image. Can this be done on
one computer by linking PP & Excel?
 
The answer is Yes. Directions on how to do this and to get it
refreshed depend on a variety of issues, e.g. what version of Office,
will Excel be open at same time, is this to automatically update, etc.

Brian Reilly, MVP
 
I am using MS Office 2007. Yes Excel and PP will both be open. The images
will be in PP and each with it's own name, in Excel there will be 5 columns
(firstname, lastname, imagename, class and score. Once a image is projected
from PP and the judges give it a score, the score keeper records that score
and then advances to the next image. After all the images are judged and
scored, they are sorted in excel. 50% then will get awards. Those 50% then
will be projected from the lowest score to the highest. It would be nice to
include the image name, the maker's name and the score with the image.

That is what I would like to do, but don't have the slightest idea how to do
it.
 
Other than convenience, is there another big advantage to controlling the PPT from
within Excel?

Couldn't the scorekeeper work two laptops at once, hitting the space bar to advance
a slide on the one computer and pushing the down arrow on the other to move to the
next image?

Or does the advantage appear in the second round, after the eliminations?

It *would* be possible, I think, for an existing add-in to create the PPT file,
complete with pictures, name, etc, once the data's been sorted. That could happen
in a matter of minutes during a break, for example.

You can try the add-in for free to see if it does the job for you:

http://www.pptools.com/merge/

I wrote it and will be happy to help you get things all set up and ready to go.
It's an interesting problem. Email me at support at-sign PPTools dot com if you
like.
 
Mike,

I was waiting for Steve to show up. I wasn't quite sure what you were
doing logistically and it sounds like you don't have much experience
in VBA coding where this could be done easily in a variety of ways.

Comment back with more logistics and probably take a look at the Merge
tool in PPTools as Steve suggests.

Brian Reilly, MVP
 
Steve,

The advantage is less mistakes and less time! Presently we do use 2 laptops
just as you suggest. But the problem is after the judging. 50% of the
entry's are accepted, from that group we pick the top 3 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd
place. Here is the problem, now we have to find those images in PP and
arrange them by there score. The Excel file would be sorted, but we can't do
the same with the images in PP. This process has to be done 4 times because
we have images in 4 different catalogers, and it's a big pain.

Do you think your pptools, Merge program would work for us?
 
I will look in to pptools, merge, but I also wonder what can be done with VBA
coding. I have no experience in VBA coding but could learn given some time.
How do I get VBA software, and just how easy can the coding be done.

In the message to Steve I tried to give more detail in what process we are
doing now manually.

One thing I would like to mention; In Feb 2008 I will be hosting a
International photo competition which will involve hundreds of images from
around the world, http://greatlakesdigitalsalon.org and need a solution
before the judging.

Mike
 
Steve,

The advantage is less mistakes and less time! Presently we do use 2 laptops
just as you suggest. But the problem is after the judging. 50% of the
entry's are accepted, from that group we pick the top 3 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd
place. Here is the problem, now we have to find those images in PP and
arrange them by there score. The Excel file would be sorted, but we can't do
the same with the images in PP. This process has to be done 4 times because
we have images in 4 different catalogers, and it's a big pain.

Do you think your pptools, Merge program would work for us?
Click to expand...

I think it'd help, and remember, you can test it completely using the free demo.
Please DON'T spend a penny on it until you're convinced it's the best solution for you.

If I'm imagining it right, you could sort the Excel file after round 1, copy the sorted
columns off to a new file then use Merge to create a new PPT file from that.

It'll merge both text info and pictures, so you won't need to do anything to the
original PPT file. Just make a new one.
 
I will look in to pptools, merge, but I also wonder what can be done with VBA
coding.
Click to expand...

Given a network and a shared drive, you can probably do whatever you need with VBA.
How do I get VBA software
Click to expand...

Start PowerPoint, press Alt+F11. Bingo. It's built in. ;-)
and just how easy can the coding be done.
Click to expand...

What you're after is not a beginner's project, but some of the VBA programming info at
http://www.pptfaq.com will certainly help.
 
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