VBA Chart automation using ActivateChartDataWindow - vba

Question

I'm building a chart automation script in powerpoint and i have any issue when calling upon "ActivateChartDataWindow".
I would use "Activate" instead of "ActivateChartDataWindow", but "Activate" loads the full Excel program and makes the whole routine run slow and ulgy.
The problem I have is that "ActivateChartDataWindow" does work to populate the charts, but when I manually go to edit the data - right click, edit data - to access the excel application, it does not seem to want to load!
It has been driving my crazy for the last 5 hours and would appreciate any ideas on how to over come this.
OLE.dlll are working correctly and the code I am using is given below.
Code below:
There are 5 slides with one chart on each page and the code below is what i am using as a point of concept
I have a felling i am using "ActivateChartDataWindow" wrong, but there is not much on the web to know what i am doing wrong! Arrrhhhh!
For i = 1 To 5
Set instance = Nothing
Set instance = ActivePresentation.Slides(i).Shapes(1).Chart.ChartData
With instance
.ActivateChartDataWindow
instance.Workbook.Sheets(1).Range("A1:H26").Value = 27
instance.Workbook.Close
End With
Next i
End Sub

Answer 1

As always recommended, you don't need to Activate an object to modify it. If you're trying to handle a Workbook embedded in a slide, you can do it this way
' This function will get you a Workbook object embedded in a Slide (late binding)
Function getEmbeddedWorkbook(sld As Slide) As Object
Dim shp As Shape
On Error Resume Next
For Each shp In sld.Shapes
If shp.Type = 3 Then ' embedded chart workbook created in PP
Set getEmbeddedWorkbook = shp.Chart.ChartData.Workbook
Exit Function
End If
If shp.Type = 7 Then ' embedded workbook pasted from excel
Set getEmbeddedWorkbook = shp.OLEFormat.Object
Exit Function
End If
Next
End Function
' For Testing, I have 6 slides, Some have a workbook pasted from Excel
' OLE, shape type = 7, others have a chart created in PP (type = 3)
Sub Test()
Dim wb As Object, i As Long
For i = 6 To 6 'ActivePresentation.Slides.Count
Set wb = getEmbeddedWorkbook(ActivePresentation.Slides(i))
If Not wb Is Nothing Then
wb.Sheets(1).Range("A1:D5").Value = i * i
End If
Next
End Sub