I'm having an issue with linked tables. I don't have them linked in the traditional way. I need the data from several other sources, but the issue is the excel files that house the data are not being edited, they are being overwritten every time. Therefore, I can't edit those files to help myself out.

Another issue is that I don't want the exact numbers in a table. I want to be able to pull data from an excel spreadsheet and do further calculations directly in powerpoint.

Here is what I've done:

1) Created an excel spreadsheet in powerpoint.
2) Copied a cell from the excel file and pasted it as a link in the PPT table
3) The link manifests itself as a formula, ='filepath[source.xls]info'!B2
4) I manipulate the data so I can get it in the right format ex:
=TEXT('filepath[source.xls]info'!B2,"0.00")
5) I close the excel spread sheet and the PPT
6) I open the excel spread sheet and edit the data, save, close
7) I open the PPT and the data does NOT UPDATE

Not only does the data not update, but I can't even manage it as a link. Apparently the link was broken when I tried to manipulate it.

The only way I can get the data to update in ppt is to open the table, open the cell, and hit "enter" to re-execute the formula. I can't even open the table and do a "Calculate the entire spreadsheet". I have to manually execute every cell.

I'm guessing I break the links when I add forumlas to the tables. Now I don't have links I only have references that won't update automatically and can't be managed.

How can I make these references automatically update? Is it possible to manipulate linked data in the destination table and mantain the link?

As a work around, is there a simple macro I can make it ppt that will search for every excel spreadsheet on the slide and recalculate every cell?

Any ideas or suggestions?



NOTE: If I have the excel spreadsheet OPEN all I have to do is double click the table and every cell in the PPT updates. If the excel spreadsheet is CLOSED I have to manually execute the formula for every cell in the PPT.