Chart Automation

[jane]

I am currently creating Excel charts manually. I have been extracting
data from a data warehouse (flat file), using a pivot table I slice the
data and cut and paste it into the appropriate Excel chart. I have
almost 100 charts at this time. This process is extremely time
consuming, not to mention dangerous.

I am trying to decide how I should implement chart automation.
Ultimately I would like to feed a flat file into a database (I have
Access available) and have all the charts automatically update. All
charts are distributed to management, so I would also like to have the
ability to upload the charts into a presentable format. I want minimal
manual interaction.

Can anyone recommend software to accomplish this automation (i.e.,
Access -> Excel -> PowerPoint)?

Also, are there any recommended books that can help me with the
automation?

Thank you!

 

[Earl Kiosterud]

Jane,

You can, with macros (VBA), automate charts in Excel. You might consider
posting in microsoft.public.excel.charting. If you do that, it would be
nice if you added a reply post here to let folks you've posted elsewhere, so
they won't also work on your question here, possibly duplicating their
efforts. Jon Peltier is the resident chart guru there, and can give you
pointers for using VBA. And there are others.

You can, with Data - Get External Data, get external data into sheets, from
where to chart them. If the data in the files change, just do a Refresh.
PowerPoint makes pretty much the same charts as does Excel, and if you don't
need calculations, that might be a place to do the work, if it's
presentation capabilities are of value for your application.