updating text fields in PowerPoint

[Guest]

Hello. I am creating a scoreboard in powerpoint for some local athletics.
Focusing on two slides, one has a current score in the top left corner (think
a football game on tv) while the next has a halftime update box in the
lower-third of the screen (with those same two scores). Is there any way I
can update the score on the first slide (the bug) and have it automatically
update the halftime update slide? Right now, I am running the presentation
in dual-screen mode. I exit out of powerpoint to update the score on the
first slide everytime someone scores, but I feel as if it is redundant to
have to exit out of the presentation again to update the next slide (and
sometimes i forget to follow that step) and update the scores from what they
were set at when I load the file up.

I've played with using linked fields from Word to try and update scores w/o
exiting out of the presentation (i.e. update in word, return to PP and have
it automatically update) but it refuses to update the link while in mid
presentation, and at that point, if I have to manually update, I may as well
just do it all by hand.

Thanks

Andrew

 

[Shyam Pillai]

Try the following and see if it is suitable to your needs.

1. Create an Excel sheet with the data to be displayed.
2. Ensure that the worksheet is in shared mode and save it. [Important step]
3. 'Paste link' this sheet into PowerPoint.
4. Save the PPT file.

Download the 'Update Links' from my site and install it. Set it to update
links during slideshow.
Run your slideshow.
Since the Excel file is shared you can type in information in it while the
show is running. Also the updated information in the sheet will get
reflected when the information is updated on every loop.

Let me know if this works for you.

 

[Kurt]

For more functionality you can also have a look at www.take-off.as/datapoint
Kurt

 

[David M. Marcovitz]

If Shyam's suggestion doesn't work for you, you could do this with VBA.
I picture a series of buttons for how you want to update the score (in
football, you might want to have buttons for adding 1, 2, 3, and 6
points; in baseball, you might want to have buttons for adding and
subtracting 1 at time). The button could easily be programmed to change
the text on both slides.

I don't have anything exactly like that on my site, but I have VBA
examples that change the text on the current slide or on another slide.

--David

--
David M. Marcovitz
Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology
Loyola College in Maryland
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.loyola.edu/education/PowerfulPowerPoint/