What this section is about
A quick note to non-programmers
If you arrived at this page from a web search, you may be looking for a way to import data into PowerPoint. Before reading on, you should understand that this part of the PowerPoint FAQ site is devoted to VBA and VB programming.
If you're not a programmer, the information that follows is probably not what you're after. In fact, if you're not a programmer it won't make a lick of sense. Run away while you still have your sanity.
On with the show ...
Sometimes the data you want to use in your PowerPoint presentations is available but not easily accessible from PowerPoint.
The data you need might live an an Excel file or Access database or even a text file, but PowerPoint can't easily import data from these sources, at least not in any simple, direct and immediately useful way.
In this section, we'll explore ways of importing data from external sources. While we'll demonstrate a a few relatively simple ways of displaying the information in PowerPoint, mostly we'll be using good old Debug.Print
The emphasis will be on getting the data rather than what you do with it. After all, what you do with it is up to you.
Caveats
I'm not a database professional. In fact, I'll be writing some of these tutorials as I learn how to use the techniques demonstrated.
Luckily, I have the help (and generously donated sample code) of Microsoft Access MVP Naresh Nichani and PowerPoint MVP Brian Reilly. Their work will become the foundation for this series of tutorials.
If you have questions about how the code works, please post them on the PowerPoint Newsgroup