XL to PowerPoint Bridge

Excel to PowerPoint Bridge

The aim of this program is to update a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation using the data stored in an associated Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. It is common to prepare the presented data in an Excel spreadsheet and then type that data into the PowerPoint presentation. Even if there are ways to link the two, it is often not desirable to do so. Common reasons are:

• Corporate themes used in the PowerPoint are difficult to replicate in Excel.
• Keep the PowerPoint presentation stands alone (i.e. no link) so that it can be used without a network or internet link.

However typing is cumbersome and also error prone. I have had experience of companies charging £'000 to transfer the data and still making lots of typing mistakes.

Our solution lets you update easily, quickly and accurately at a click of a button. The idea behind our Excel to PowerPoint bridge is simple:

1. Name the shapes in your PowerPoint presentation that you want to update. Names must start with XLPPT_. For instance XLPPT_CURRENT_MONTH. If using our optional PowerPoint Add-In, it is as simple as selecting a shape and clicking "Add Selected Shapes to Bridge" command on its dedicated ribbon. To display the shapes' names, select any shape and then click "Selection Pane" in the "Format" ribbon
2. Create named ranges in your spreadsheet using the same name as the shape of your presentation. For instance a cell named XLPPT_CURRENT_MONTH. This process is made easy by running "Update Excel Data Page" command from our Excel Add-In. This will scan your PowerPoint presentation for any shape which name starts with XLPPT_ and if not already in your spreadsheet it will add all the necessary named ranges for you including a title (defaulted to the shape's name), options and data placeholder. Very handy for complex shapes and more than a few shapes.
3. Click "Export Data to PowerPoint" command in our Excel Add-In ribbon to update the shapes' text. Additionally you can specify a few options for each shape to apply font style, font colour and fill colour. This can be handy to highlight a column such as the current month for instance. You can also specify the data range within the named range to use. This can be also be handy if you don't want to update table headers for instance and only want to update the data within the table. The Add-In has 4 macros helping you setup those options. For example =XLPPTO_APPLY_FILLCOLOR(D2:F8,D4:E6).

Our solution is made of a Microsoft Excel Add-In and an optional (but recommended) counterpart PowerPoint Add-In. The Add-Ins are accessible via their own ribbon tab as shown below:

Below is an example of application of our Add-Ins. The following presentation will be updated with the data shown on the right side

Once updated the presentation looks like the following:

Download

“Excel to PowerPoint Bridge” is available free of charge.

Click here to download the latest version of Excel to PowerPoint Bridge (Excel Add-In).

Click here to download the latest version of Excel to PowerPoint Bridge (PowerPoint Add-In).

Requirement: a working internet connection, Windows 7 or above, Excel 2013, PowerPoint 2013 or later and Macros must be enabled.

Installation

1. Download “Excel to PowerPoint Bridge” Add-In.
2. Go to Add-ins manager located in Options.
3. Browse and select “Excel to PowerPoint Bridge” Add-In.