I need to generate certificates of compliance or completion and would like to
use PPT. How do I merge a PPT slide with a database as in "mail merge"?
You can copy/paste your slide to Word to use as the background for the
certificates, then add merge fields in Word and print from there.
CorelDraw also does merge printing; you could use the graphic from PPT in a
Draw file and merge into that much the same as you would in Word.
Or there are commercial add-ins that let you do the merge directly from within
PowerPoint. We have one (with a free fully functioning demo) here:
http://merge.pptools.com