Need Advice on How To Manage a Project Status Dashboard in PPT

[Guest]

I've setup a table in PPT that I would like to use as a summary project
status for multiple projects. I have columns related to schedule, cost, and
quality. The rows of the table list each of the projects that I'm reporting
on. I have created multiple icon images that can be used as a visual
indicator on the projects for each of the column headers listed above. The
icons are different shapes (green square, yellow diamond, red octagon) with
arrows used to indicate if status is getting better, worse, or staying the
same. Currently, I'm placing the icons over the table, but they have no
association with the table. Unfortunately, as I add and delete comments in
the table, which causes it to expand and contract, I have to manually move
the status icons to keep them aligned with the correct project.

How can I put these visual indicators within the cell of the table?

I tried this by doing a fill within the table cell (but that makes the icon
too large) and by making the icon a bullet (but then it becomes cumbersome to
change the icon as the status of the project changes). I'm sure there is a
much easier way.

Any advice from the PPT gurus out there??

Thanks in advance.
Rob

 

[Kurt]

Hi Rob,
Maybe you can use datapoint (www.presentationpoint.com) to link your
self-updating dashboard to excel or any database. Have a look at it.
It's even possible to get your data directly from ms project files if you
are using it.

Kurt