PPT 2007 links to Excel 2007 - how to stop update links at startup?

[Steve Harper]

XP or Vista. Office 2007 with SP1.

I have a PPTx with 30+ slides some of which have links to an Excel
workbook.

When I open the PPTx, even if I reply 'Cancel' to the update links
message, it still establishes the links (which takes a long time!).
It does not seem to matter if I have the links set to Manual or
Automatic.

If I open the workbook first, then open the PPTx it opens instantly
but I don't really want the workbook open.

If I save the PPTx as 97-2003 PPT; when I open it (in Compatibility
Mode), and reply 'Cancel' (to update links), it does NOT go get the
links.

All I really want to do is open the PPTx, not update links - anyone
got a different workaround or fix?

Steve.

 

[Heimo Ernst WEISS]

Steve,

I have the same (or a similar) problem. Even after seetting "update" to
"manual" my links are updated as soon as I change something in Excel.

More in detail: I have an Excel spreadshett with some pivot tables. I copy a
pivot table into a powerpoint slide and then I want to chage a selection in
Excel and copy the new output from the pivot table to another slide. As long
as I do not break the link, a change in Excel updates the powerpoint slide. I
have the break the links!

 

[gawaine.draper]

Steve, have you tried setting link updates to manual instead of the default of
automatic?

Click the office button, click Prepare, click Edit Links.
You'll get the familiar link editing dialog from earlier versions of PPT where
you can set the links to manual updating.

The theory is that that should stop the updates from happening until you force
them to update.

As I say, that's the theory. I'm sticking to it until you try it out and tell
me that this is broken in 2007 too. <g>









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

Steve,
We have the exact same problem. We can create a new Excel .xlsx chart
and then paste it (Paste Special - Paste Link) into a blank
Powerpoint .pptx presentation, then go into Edit Links and set it to
manual, then save the pptx file. When we re-open the powerpoint file,
Excel.exe will pop up in task manager and a progress bar pops up on
the screen.
This is causing major problems on some of our large presentations as
they can be linked to several excel files, some of which might be
locked by other employees (which is why we turn the links off).
I wonder whether you can replicate this issue (it happens on local and
networked drives) and whether there is a way around it?
Gawaine
(We have, of course, installed SP1 for Office2007)

 

[gawaine.draper]

Steve, have you tried setting link updates to manual instead of the default of
automatic?

Click the office button, click Prepare, click Edit Links.
You'll get the familiar link editing dialog from earlier versions of PPT where
you can set the links to manual updating.

 

[gawaine.draper]

Steve, have you tried setting link updates to manual instead of the default of
automatic?

Click the office button, click Prepare, click Edit Links.
You'll get the familiar link editing dialog from earlier versions of PPT where
you can set the links to manual updating.

The theory is that that should stop the updates from happening until you force
them to update.

As I say, that's the theory. I'm sticking to it until you try it out and tell
me that this is broken in 2007 too. <g>


Steve,
We have the exact same problem. We can create a new Excel .xlsx chart
and then paste it (Paste Special - Paste Link) into a blank
Powerpoint .pptx presentation, then go into Edit Links and set it to
manual, then save the pptx file. When we re-open the powerpoint file,
Excel.exe will pop up in task manager and a progress bar pops up on
the screen.
This is causing major problems on some of our large presentations as
they can be linked to several excel files, some of which might be
locked by other employees (which is why we turn the links off).
I wonder whether you can replicate this issue (it happens on local and
networked drives) and whether there is a way around it?
Gawaine
(We have, of course, installed SP1 for Office2007)

An update on this isse:

We logged this call with Microsoft support (case no: SRQ080522600435)
Unfortunately, it is a known issue with no set timelines for the
release of a fix. Obviously not enough people have logged complaints
about it and as there is no resolution or workaround available they
want to close it as "Not Resolved".

Does anyone else experience the same issue? Have you told Microsoft?

 

[NabilShuh]

I am having the same problem as well. Is there still no fix for this. This is
impacting our upgrade to office 2007 as we have a large number of users with
linked charts. This seems to happen with word and powerpoint. In fact word
opens every file at once rather than powerpoint which opens linked files one
by one.

 

[David]

I am having the same problem in Word when linking to Excel files.
Even with (1)the links set to Manual or (2)the Locked checkbox checked
and (3)Word general option set to not auto update links when opening
files, Word will try to update links every time the Word file is
opened. Moreover, it opens and closes the Excel file that is linked
many more times than the number of links in the Word document, so I
cannot figure out why exactly it opens each time. For example, I have
four tables that all link to the same Excel file, and when I open the
Word document, the Excel file opens and closes eight times! This is
getting very frustrating.

 

[johanfo]

I can verify this problem as well. I have tested it on several
different machines, with various setups. We're running Vista with
Office 2007 SP1.
I'm amazed that microsoft hasn't fixed this obvious bug yet!