Can this be done?
I'd like to be able to create PowerPoint presentations in a batch style process, populating many of the slides in the presentation based on information pulled from either a database, spreadsheet, or text file. I would like for the process to be as automated as possible.
I would create the base PowerPoint presentation template. As I said, many of the slides would contain graphs/charts and other information fields that I would like to populate and/or create based on data contained in another file (db, spreadsheet, text file, etc). I would have variables or place holders inside the template presentation to hold all of the imported data (similar to a mail merge). I would want to be able to create several reports at once (batch style). So, for instance, if I had 10 different schools I wanted to report on I would need to produce 10 different PowerPoint presentations. All the information for each school would be contained in an Excel worksheet for example. In addition, I don't want to link the presentations to the data file, I want each presentation to be "free standing" and not require any additional files in order to work correctly.
Has anyone every done anything like this before? Is there an application available to help do something like this? If not, would it be possible to interface with PowerPoint using a software develop kit or other programming language to create a custom application that would do this?
All comments, opinions and suggestions are welcomed.
Thanks and have a great day,
--scott
I'd like to be able to create PowerPoint presentations in a batch style process, populating many of the slides in the presentation based on information pulled from either a database, spreadsheet, or text file. I would like for the process to be as automated as possible.
I would create the base PowerPoint presentation template. As I said, many of the slides would contain graphs/charts and other information fields that I would like to populate and/or create based on data contained in another file (db, spreadsheet, text file, etc). I would have variables or place holders inside the template presentation to hold all of the imported data (similar to a mail merge). I would want to be able to create several reports at once (batch style). So, for instance, if I had 10 different schools I wanted to report on I would need to produce 10 different PowerPoint presentations. All the information for each school would be contained in an Excel worksheet for example. In addition, I don't want to link the presentations to the data file, I want each presentation to be "free standing" and not require any additional files in order to work correctly.
Has anyone every done anything like this before? Is there an application available to help do something like this? If not, would it be possible to interface with PowerPoint using a software develop kit or other programming language to create a custom application that would do this?
All comments, opinions and suggestions are welcomed.
Thanks and have a great day,
--scott