Section 9.6. Adding Documents from Other Programs


9.6. Adding Documents from Other Programs

Just as in earlier versions of the program, in PowerPoint 2007 you can add non-PowerPoint documents to your slides such as a memo created in Microsoft Word, a bitmap image created in Microsoft Paint, or a magazine layout created in Adobe Acrobat. When you add a document (Microsoft calls them objects ) to a slide, clicking on that object automatically launches the program you used to create the object, right there inside PowerPoint.

For example, if you insert an Excel chart, then clicking the chart while you're inside PowerPoint ditches PowerPoint's ribbon and displays Excel's ribbon instead. You make your changes, close the chart, and bingo: back to PowerPoint, with the newly updated chart displayed on your slide.


Note: The program PowerPoint launches when you click an inserted document depends both on the type of document and on whether you've got the correct program installed on your computer.

You can add documents to your slides by using the Paste Special option (page 56), or by using Insert Text Object, as shown in the steps in the next section.

You can add a live object that you already have on hand, or one that you create on the spot. The following sections show you how.


Note: For more on working with Excel inside PowerPoint, see page 191.
UP TO SPEED
Why Not Take a Picture?

The benefits of adding a document object to your slide (as opposed to adding an image file showing a picture of the document) are these:

  • You don't have to reinvent the wheel. If you've already created in Word the information you want to add to your slide, you don't have recreate it from scratch in PowerPoint. That's good news if you want to represent the information in a tedious -to-recreate layout, such as a fancy table or very precise columns .

  • Adding document objects simplifies the lives of co-workers who need to edit your presentation. Say you need to pass your slideshow around your department (or academic study group ) for review and modifications. If you embed (page 320) a document object, your cohorts can simply click the object while they are in PowerPoint to edit it. They don't have to figure out which other program to use, make their changes, figure out which format to save their changes in, and then reinsert a new screenshot into the slideshow.

  • If you choose to link to (rather than embed) a document object, your slideshow stays up-to-date automatically. As you see on page 320, PowerPoint gives you two options for adding a document objectlinking to it, or embedding it. When you choose to link, PowerPoint always displays the latest version of the document, even if someone just updated it three minutes ago. When you choose to embed, on the other hand, you're actually making a separate copy of the object, which you can update only by updating the PowerPoint slideshow.


9.6.1. Adding an Existing Live Object

If you've already got information stored in another type of filea PowerPoint 97 slideshow, a Microsoft Excel or Graph chart or spreadsheet, or a WordPad document, for exampleyou can add that file to your PowerPoint slide.

To do so:

  1. In the Slides tab in Normal view, click to select the slide you want to add your object to. Click Insert Text Object.

    The Insert Object dialog box you see in Figure 9-38 appears.

    Figure 9-38. PowerPoint lets you add documents, or live objects, created in other programs to your PowerPoint slides. Unlike pasting an image onto your slide, clicking a live object automatically launches whatever program you used to create the object so you can edit it from inside PowerPoint.


  2. Turn on the radio button next to "Create from File."

    The options you see on the Insert Object dialog box change (see Figure 9-39).

    Figure 9-39. If the live object you want to add to your slide already exists, you can head to the File box and type in the fully qualified file name . Or (and this is a lot easier) you can click Browse and then point-and-click to tell PowerPoint which file to add.


  3. Click Browse.

    The Browse Image dialog box appears.

  4. Browse your computer for the file you want to add to your slide. When you find it, click it to select it, and then click OK.

    In the Insert Object dialog box, PowerPoint activates the Link checkbox.

  5. If you want to link to the object (instead of embedding it), turn on the Link checkbox.

    See the box on page 319 for help in deciding.

  6. If you like, turn on the checkbox next to "Display as icon," which tells PowerPoint to display a tiny program icon on your slide.

    If you don't turn on this checkbox, PowerPoint displays a picture of the live object, or the name of the live object file (depending on which kind of live object you're adding).

  7. Click OK.

    PowerPoint adds the selected object to your slide (Figure 9-40).

    Figure 9-40. This intricately laid-out newsletter was created in Adobe Acrobat and embedded in PowerPoint. Recreating something this fussy in PowerPoint would be a real pain.


9.6.2. Creating and Adding a New Document Object

Imagine you're cranking away on your presentation when you suddenly realize that what you really need to do is present your figures in spreadsheet format.

One quick way to do that without leaving PowerPoint is to add a new document object on the fly. Here's how:

  1. In the Slides tab in Normal view, click to select the slide you want to add a new document object to.

  2. Click Insert Text Object.

    The Insert Object dialog box you see in Figure 9-38 appears.

    UP TO SPEED
    To Link or Not to Link

    Linking to a live object (rather than embedding the live object directly into your slideshow) has good points and bad. The option you choose depends on how you plan to deliver your presentation, and which annoyances you prefer.

    • Benefits of Linking to a Live Object: Linking helps keep the size of your presentation file down, because PowerPoint doesn't actually embed the live object (and enough of the program to let you edit the live object) directly into your PowerPoint file. Instead, it links to the object every time you open your PowerPoint slideshow.

      A side bonus: If a co-worker uses Word, Excel, or another program to update the linked-to live object an hour before you give your presentation, your slide automatically reflects the changes.

    • Benefits of Embedding a Live Object: If you plan to deliver your presentation on another computer or post it on the Web, embedding live objects means you don't have to worry about remembering which linked files to copy and where to put them. Neither do you have to worry about whether or not Word, Flash, or some other non-PowerPoint program is installed on the presentation computer. The only thing your audience needs to view your presentation is your PowerPoint presentation file.


  3. Make sure the radio button next to "Create new" is turned on. Then click to select the type of object you want to create (maybe an Excel spreadsheet) and add to your slide.

    Your options include Adobe Acrobat 7.0 documents; bitmap images (Microsoft Paint); Flash documents (Adobe Flash); documents created in Microsoft Equation 3.0; Microsoft Excel charts; Microsoft Graph charts ; old Microsoft Office Excel worksheets (created with Excel 972003); old (PowerPoint 972003) presentations and slides; packages (live objects created in other programs not on this list); .wav sound clips; and WordPad documents.

  4. Make sure the checkbox next to "Display as icon," which tells PowerPoint to display a tiny program icon on your slide, is turned off.

    Turning on this checkbox tells PowerPoint to display a program icon instead of the content you're trying to add to your slide.

  5. Click OK.

    PowerPoint launches the appropriate program inside the PowerPoint interface. If you chose Microsoft Excel in step 2, then PowerPoint launches Excel; if you chose Microsoft Word document, then PowerPoint launches Microsoft Word. The regular PowerPoint ribbon disappears, replaced by the appropriate program's ribbon (or toolbar).

    POWER USERS' CORNER
    Adding Flash Animation to a Slide

    When it comes to adding content from another program to your slides, it's easy to get confused . You may think that you can use Insert Text Object to add, say, a Flash animation file (.swf) to your slide. After all, Flash is one of the document types listed in the Insert Object dialog box.

    Unfortunately, you'd be wrong. Adding a Flash animation to a slide is a bit more complicated, as the following steps attest:

    1. First, make sure you've got a copy of the Flash player installed on your computer. (If you've ever run a Flash animation, you already have the player; if not, head to www.adobe.com, where you can download a free version.)

    2. In PowerPoint's Normal view, select the slide to which you want to add the animation.

    3. Choose Office button PowerPoint Options Popular, head to "Top options for working with PowerPoint and turn on the checkbox next to "Show Developer tab in the Ribbon". Then click OK.

    4. On the newly visible Developer tab, choose Controls More Controls (the icon that looks like a tiny hammer and wrench accompanied by an ellipsis). You can think of a control as a chunk of software that controls how a program, such as a Flash animation, plays in PowerPoint.

    5. From the list of controls that appears, click Shockwave Flash Object, click OK, and then drag on the slide to draw a rectangle large enough to play your animation. (You can resize it later if you like.)

    6. Right-click the newly created control and choose Properties.

    7. On the left side of the window that appears, find Movie.

    8. In the value column (the blank space next to Movie), type the full path to the Flash animation file on your computer: for example, C:\myAnimation.swf .

    That's it. When you run your slideshow, your Flash animation file begins playing automatically.


  6. Create the bitmap, word processing document, spreadsheet, or other document object you want to add to your slide. Then close the open program (for example, choose Office button Close).

    The program closes , and you return to PowerPoint.




PowerPoint 2007
PowerPoint 2007
ISBN: 1555583148
EAN: N/A
Year: 2006
Pages: 129

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