Re: Excel spread*** embedded in Powerpoint presentation

In article <ljlynn.267vab@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Ljlynn wrote:
working an an incredibly large PowerPoint presentation required by a
department here at my work. The current size of the file is 62 slides
and it weighs in at better than 122MB's. They are running into extreme
problems in trying to manage the file as they make constant adjustments
to satisfy the executive manager that's responsible for giving the
detailed presentation.

It easily takes several minutes to open the file and perhaps a little
longer to store it back to the server. There's a lot of choke points
in the process...Symantec A/V scan, networking and file compression on
the server...but I don't think that's the real problem.

I'd start by leaving the thing on the local PC. Copy it to/copy it back from
the server as need be, but do all the opening in and saving from PPT to the
local HDD.

You could also temporarily break it up into several files, to be combined later
when the edits are (and I use the term lightly because I know what a joke it
is) "done".

Each page that contains a graph has an Excel spread*** embedded in
the slide. You can look beyond the graph to see the actual spread***
and any changes that are made are immediately reflected in the graph.
There is no linkage to the original spread*** so that's not a part of
the equation. It appears that the graphical image is rendered each
time the file is retrieved and this might be the root of the problem.

How big is the spread***? Are you aware that the entire spread*** is
embedded each time you paste a graph into PPT?

The file could probably be much lighter weight (and possibly easier to
maintain) if you link to the Excel content instead. Select in Excel, Edit
Copy, switch to PPT, Edit, Paste Special, checkmark next to Link.

The results usually look and scale better, the files are smaller, and with all
the links pointing back to one spread***, you edit the source *** once (or
somebody else can edit it for you) and all the updates happen next time you
open PPT. You don't have to activate each and every graph.

This'd fix the problem below as well. You can use edit, links to set any/all
of the links to update automatically or manually.

a user said the Excel data is required because of all the "tweaks" that
are performed against the raw data. My question would be is there a way
to "freeze" or "lock" a slide until a change is requested? If Excel is
generating the graph each time the entire PowerPoint is retrieved, a
lot of time is being wasted. I tried just moving the file and it
really is a time waster.


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