How to “Refresh Data” via VBA in Power Point?

Question

so far I have tried the Chart.Refresh and Chart.Update and also ChartData.UpdateLinks and neither work. My question is similar to this one only that this code did not work for my ppt How to update excel embedded charts in powerpoint?

If i could Record Macro like in Excel the steps would be:

1.Select Chart

2.Chart Tools > Refresh Data

This is code is what I have managed to write but it fails at "gChart.Application.RefreshData":

Sub refreshchart()
    Dim ppApp As PowerPoint.Application, sld As Slide
    Dim s As PowerPoint.Shape
    Dim gChart As Chart, i As Integer
    ppApp.Visible = True
    i = 3
     Set sld = ActivePresentation.Slides(i)
    sld.Select
   For Each s In ActivePresentation.Slides(i)
    If s.Type = msoEmbeddedOLEObject Then
   Set gChart = s.OLEFormat.Object
   With gChart.Application

   gChart.Application.Refresh
   Set gChart = Nothing
   End If
  Next s

 End Sub

The Integer i is included to go from i=1 To 73, but as a test i am using Slide 3. Not all Slides have Charts but most of them have 4 Charts (65 out of 73).

Thank you so very much for your help!! =)

Answer 1

I changed the code a little bit and with this little change, the refresh of the charts works again automatically.

Many times, if you share your excel ppt combo the links break and after restoring them the automated chart refresh doesn`t work.

With the downstanding macro the automated refresh will work again:

Sub REFRESH()

Dim pptChart As Chart
Dim pptChartData As ChartData
Dim pptWorkbook As Object
Dim sld As Slide
Dim shp As Shape

For Each sld In ActivePresentation.Slides
    For Each shp In sld.Shapes
        If shp.HasChart Then
            Set pptChart = shp.Chart
            Set pptChartData = pptChart.ChartData
            pptChartData.Activate
            shp.Chart.REFRESH

            On Error Resume Next
            On Error GoTo 0

        End If
    Next
Next

Set pptWorkbook = Nothing
Set pptChartData = Nothing
Set pptChart = Nothing

End Sub

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edit The code below is in a macro in the Excel workbook which also contains the source data. Not sure if the code would be the same running it from PowerPoint. I simply open my Excel Workbook and then have it update the PowerPoint for me.

---

I have been looking forever to find an answer to this and finally managed to get it to work with a ton of reading and trial-and-error. My problem was that I have a PowerPoint with a lot of graphs that were created with CTRL+C and CTRL+V, so none of them are linked. This is how I got it to work:

Dim myPresentation As PowerPoint.Presentation
Dim sld As PowerPoint.Slide
Dim shp As PowerPoint.Shape
Dim myChart As PowerPoint.Chart

For Each sld In myPresentation.Slides
    For Each shp In sld.Shapes
        If shp.HasChart Then
            Set myChart = shp.Chart
            myChart.ChartData.Activate
            myChart.Refresh
        End If
    Next
Next

I don't know if there is unnecessary code in there but I am just happy that I finally got it to work so I'm not touching it anymore. Hope this helps you.

Answer 2

This may help, It opens and closes the embedded Excel object

For Each s In ActivePresentation.Slides(i)
    If s.Type = msoEmbeddedOLEObject Then
      s.Select                               'select the object
        s.OLEFormat.Activate                 'Activate it (like 2x click))
        ActiveWindow.Selection.Unselect      'To let it close
        ActiveWindow.View.GotoSlide s.Slideindex  'make current slide active
     End If
Next s

Answer 3

This code worked. But it works only if both files are open (the excel if its only one): The Power Point and the Excel with the data. It actually Refreshes all charts one by one.

    Sub updatelinks()
Dim sld As Slide, shp As Shape

For Each sld In ActivePresentation.Slides

   For Each shp In sld.Shapes
     On Error Resume Next
     shp.LinkFormat.Update
    Next

Next

MsgBox ("Graficos actualizados con éxito")

End Sub

So, If the Excel is on a shared location, the code wont work because it takes too much time to retrieve the data. Im still looking for a way to do this. Thanks!