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Paste As Link Excel -> PPT Not Available (Office 365 on Mac)

Anonymous
2019-11-08T17:24:09+00:00

My ultimate goal is to create a simple ROI calculator in Excel that creates all charts/graphs needed to update a PowerPoint Presentation and then automatically updates the PowerPoint Presentation when the Excel data changes (ie when the ROI data is updated)

In the past, I have been able to use the "Paste As Link" function to paste an Excel Chart/Graph into a PPT slide that will automatically update the PPT charts/graphs when the Excel data changes.... it worked BEAUTIFULLY (but was years ago)

I am now using Office 365 Desktop on a MacBook Air and the option is nowhere to be found. I've tried using the Paste Special > Paste as 'Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object' and it pastes the data, but does not update the chart when the data changes and displays an empty box when a graph is pasted.

Paste Options used/results:

  • Chart Data from Excel
    • 'Use Destination Styles' = chart pastes fine, but doesn't update
    • 'Keep Source Formatting' = chart pastes fine, but doesn't update
    • 'Embed' = chart pastes fine, but doesn't update
    • 'Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object' = chart pastes fine, but doesn't update
  • Graph Data from Excel
    • 'Use Destination Theme' = graph pastes fine, but doesn't update (even when 'Refresh Data' is clicked)
    • 'Keep Source Formatting' = graph pastes fine, but doesn't update (even when 'Refresh Data' is clicked)
    • 'Microsoft Excel Chart Object' = blank box
    • 'Microsoft Excel Graphic Object' = graph pastes fine, but doesn't update (even when 'Refresh Data' is clicked)

Does anyone know the best way to link the Excel Chart/Graph data into the PowerPoint Presentation so it automatically updates?

Also, could this be a limitation for the Mac version of Office 365?

Thank you for the help!

Screenshots: 

Dropdown Paste Options (chart data from Excel in clipboard):

Paste Special options when chart data is in the clipboard from Excel:

Dropdown Paste Options (graph data from Excel in clipboard):

Paste Special options when graph data is in the clipboard from Excel:

Microsoft 365 and Office | PowerPoint | For home | Windows

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  1. Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 430.1K Reputation points
    2019-11-08T17:54:22+00:00

    Sorry, but it isn't likely to happen on a Mac any time soon. Object Linking & Embedding [OLE] is a Windows technology which is not supported on the Mac platform. Microsoft does have a legacy allowance between Word & Excel but other than that I'm afraid you're out of luck. PowerPoint provides no support whatsoever for linking to anything other than image files.

    There may be some workarounds offered by other contributors here but even they will admit that the results are awkward & unreliable.

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  1. Anonymous
    2019-11-08T18:54:45+00:00

    @Bob J. thanks for the reply and info. I was worried that might be the case.

    Have a great weekend!

    Matt

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