Using VBA to Paste Excel Chart with Data into PowerPoint

Question

Answer: TL;DR: pasting a chart with embedded data takes a long time so you have to install a delay to prevent vba from moving on before the paste operation completes.

Question:I'm trying to paste an excel chart with embedded data into a powerpoint presentation. The only thing I am getting hung up on is referring to and positioning the chart in ppt once it has been pasted.

    Dim newPowerPoint As PowerPoint.Application

    ActiveSheet.ChartObjects("Chart 1").Activate
    ActiveChart.ChartArea.Copy
    newPowerPoint.CommandBars.ExecuteMso ("PasteExcelChartDestinationTheme")

Since I need to paste multiple charts into single slides, repositioning them is necessary. I try to do that with this piece of code:

        newPowerPoint.ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange.Left = 0

but am always met with the error: "Method 'ShapeRange' of object 'Selection' failed".

What's particularly odd is that running the code from start to finish results in this error, but stepping through the code using the F8 key does not.

I have tried every way I can think of to move this chart around but I am totally stuck. Does anyone know how I can do this? Also, please keep in mind that is necessary that the chart have data in it (I can't paste the chart as a picture and I would strongly prefer that the data not be linked).

Thanks,

Steve

edit new modified code with multiple chart objects. I needed to add an if conditional:

If activeSlide.Shapes.Count = 1 Then
GoTo NextiLoop
End If

for additional chart objects because the delay pasting chart 2 makes the loop name chart 1 "pptcht2" since chart2 did not exist yet.

Sub CreatePPT()

 Dim newPowerPoint As PowerPoint.Application
  Dim activeSlide As PowerPoint.Slide
  Dim cht1 As Excel.ChartObject
  Dim Data As Excel.Worksheet
  Dim pptcht1 As PowerPoint.Shape
  Dim iLoopLimit As Long

  Application.ScreenUpdating = False

  'Look for existing instance
  On Error Resume Next
  Set newPowerPoint = GetObject(, "PowerPoint.Application")
  On Error GoTo 0

  'Let's create a new PowerPoint
  If newPowerPoint Is Nothing Then
    Set newPowerPoint = New PowerPoint.Application
  End If

  'Make a presentation in PowerPoint
  If newPowerPoint.Presentations.Count = 0 Then
  newPowerPoint.Presentations.Add
  End If

  'Show the PowerPoint
  newPowerPoint.Visible = True
  Application.ScreenUpdating = False

  'Add a new slide where we will paste the chart
  newPowerPoint.ActivePresentation.Slides.Add _
      newPowerPoint.ActivePresentation.Slides.Count + 1, ppLayoutText
  newPowerPoint.ActiveWindow.View.GotoSlide _
      newPowerPoint.ActivePresentation.Slides.Count
  Set activeSlide = newPowerPoint.ActivePresentation.Slides _
      (newPowerPoint.ActivePresentation.Slides.Count)
  activeSlide.Shapes(1).Delete
  activeSlide.Shapes(1).Delete

  'ActiveSheet.ChartObjects("Chart 1").Activate
  Set Data = ActiveSheet

  Set cht1 = Data.ChartObjects("Share0110")
  Set cht2 = Data.ChartObjects("SOW0110")
  Set cht3 = Data.ChartObjects("PROP0110")

  cht1.Copy

  newPowerPoint.CommandBars.ExecuteMso "PasteExcelChartDestinationTheme"

  DoEvents

  On Error Resume Next
  Do
    DoEvents
    Set pptcht1 = activeSlide.Shapes(activeSlide.Shapes.Count)
    If Not pptcht1 Is Nothing Then Exit Do
    iLoopLimit = iLoopLimit + 1
    If iLoopLimit > 100 Then Exit Do
  Loop
  On Error GoTo 0

  Debug.Print "iLoopLimit = " & iLoopLimit

  With pptcht1
    .Left = 25
    .Top = 150
  End With

  iLoopLimit = 0

   'ActiveSheet.ChartObjects("Chart 2").Activate
  'Set Data = ActiveSheet

  cht2.Copy

  newPowerPoint.CommandBars.ExecuteMso "PasteExcelChartDestinationTheme"

  DoEvents
  On Error Resume Next
  Do
    DoEvents

    If activeSlide.Shapes.Count = 1 Then
    GoTo NextiLoop
    End If
    Set pptcht2 = activeSlide.Shapes(activeSlide.Shapes.Count)
    If Not pptcht2 Is Nothing Then Exit Do
NextiLoop:
    iLoopLimit = iLoopLimit + 1
    If iLoopLimit > 100 Then Exit Do
  Loop
  On Error GoTo 0

  Debug.Print "iLoopLimit = " & iLoopLimit

  With pptcht2
    .Left = 275
    .Top = 150
  End With

  iLoopLimit = 0

    AppActivate ("Microsoft PowerPoint")
    Set activeSlide = Nothing
    Set newPowerPoint = Nothing

End Sub

edit: OLD not working code:

    Sub CreatePPT()

        Dim newPowerPoint As PowerPoint.Application
        Dim activeSlide As PowerPoint.Slide
        Dim cht As Excel.ChartObject

        Application.ScreenUpdating = False


     'Look for existing instance
        On Error Resume Next
        Set newPowerPoint = GetObject(, "PowerPoint.Application")
        On Error GoTo 0

    'Let's create a new PowerPoint
        If newPowerPoint Is Nothing Then
            Set newPowerPoint = New PowerPoint.Application
        End If

    'Make a presentation in PowerPoint
        If newPowerPoint.Presentations.Count = 0 Then
            newPowerPoint.Presentations.Add
        End If

    'Show the PowerPoint
        newPowerPoint.Visible = True
        Application.ScreenUpdating = False

        'Add a new slide where we will paste the chart
            newPowerPoint.ActivePresentation.Slides.Add newPowerPoint.ActivePresentation.Slides.Count + 1, ppLayoutText
            newPowerPoint.ActiveWindow.View.GotoSlide newPowerPoint.ActivePresentation.Slides.Count
            Set activeSlide = newPowerPoint.ActivePresentation.Slides(newPowerPoint.ActivePresentation.Slides.Count)
                    activeSlide.Shapes(1).Delete
                    activeSlide.Shapes(1).Delete



            'ActiveSheet.ChartObjects("Chart 1").Activate
            Set Data = ActiveSheet
            Set cht1 = Data.ChartObjects("Chart 1")
            cht1.Copy

            newPowerPoint.CommandBars.ExecuteMso ("PasteExcelChartDestinationTheme")

            Set pptcht1 = newPowerPoint.ActiveWindow.Selection
                With pptcht1
                    .Left = 0
                    End With




    AppActivate ("Microsoft PowerPoint")
    Set activeSlide = Nothing
    Set newPowerPoint = Nothing

End Sub

Answer 1

1. Do yourself a favor and enter this as the first line of the code module:

Option Explicit

This will force you to declare all variables. You have a lot of undeclared variables, including a couple that are almost the same as the few you did declare. Then go to VBA's Tools menu > Options, and check the Require Variable Declaration on the first tab of the dialog, which will put Option Explicit at the top of every new module.

2. Declare the shape as a PowerPoint.Shape, then find it using this, since any newly added shape is the last one on the slide:

Set pptcht1 = activeSlide.Shapes(activeSlide.Shapes.Count)

3. The following line first of all does not need the parentheses, despite the poorly written Microsoft Help article. Second, it takes a long time to run. Excel is already trying to move the shape long before the shape has been created. DoEvents is supposed to help with this by making Excel wait until everything else happening on the computer is finished, but the line is still too slow.

newPowerPoint.CommandBars.ExecuteMso ("PasteExcelChartDestinationTheme")

So I cobbled together a little loop that tries to set the variable to the shape, and keeps looping until the shape is finished being created.

On Error Resume Next
Do
  DoEvents
  Set pptcht1 = activeSlide.Shapes(activeSlide.Shapes.Count)
  If Not pptcht1 Is Nothing Then Exit Do
  iLoopLimit = iLoopLimit + 1
  If iLoopLimit > 100 Then Exit Do
Loop
On Error GoTo 0

In a small number of tests, I found that the loop would have to run 20 to 60 times. I also crashed PowerPoint a few times. Weird.

I'm sure there are better ways to paste the copied chart and keep the slide's color theme, but off the top of my head I don't know one.

4. This is unreliable, since the application caption changes with different versions of Office (and again the parentheses are not needed):

AppActivate ("Microsoft PowerPoint")

Use this instead:

AppActivate newPowerPoint.Caption

5. So your whole code becomes:

` Sub CreatePPT()

  Dim newPowerPoint As PowerPoint.Application
  Dim activeSlide As PowerPoint.Slide
  Dim cht1 As Excel.ChartObject
  Dim Data As Excel.Worksheet
  Dim pptcht1 As PowerPoint.Shape
  Dim iLoopLimit As Long

  Application.ScreenUpdating = False

  'Look for existing instance
  On Error Resume Next
  Set newPowerPoint = GetObject(, "PowerPoint.Application")
  On Error GoTo 0

  'Let's create a new PowerPoint
  If newPowerPoint Is Nothing Then
    Set newPowerPoint = New PowerPoint.Application
  End If

  'Make a presentation in PowerPoint
  If newPowerPoint.Presentations.Count = 0 Then
  newPowerPoint.Presentations.Add
  End If

  'Show the PowerPoint
  newPowerPoint.Visible = True
  Application.ScreenUpdating = False

  'Add a new slide where we will paste the chart
  newPowerPoint.ActivePresentation.Slides.Add _
      newPowerPoint.ActivePresentation.Slides.Count + 1, ppLayoutText
  newPowerPoint.ActiveWindow.View.GotoSlide _
      newPowerPoint.ActivePresentation.Slides.Count
  Set activeSlide = newPowerPoint.ActivePresentation.Slides _
      (newPowerPoint.ActivePresentation.Slides.Count)
  activeSlide.Shapes(1).Delete
  activeSlide.Shapes(1).Delete

  'ActiveSheet.ChartObjects("Chart 1").Activate
  Set Data = ActiveSheet
  Set cht1 = Data.ChartObjects("Chart 1")
  cht1.Copy

  newPowerPoint.CommandBars.ExecuteMso "PasteExcelChartDestinationTheme"

  DoEvents

  On Error Resume Next
  Do
    DoEvents
    Set pptcht1 = activeSlide.Shapes(activeSlide.Shapes.Count)
    If Not pptcht1 Is Nothing Then Exit Do
    iLoopLimit = iLoopLimit + 1
    If iLoopLimit > 100 Then Exit Do
  Loop
  On Error GoTo 0

  Debug.Print "iLoopLimit = " & iLoopLimit

  With pptcht1
    .Left = 0
  End With

  AppActivate newPowerPoint.Caption
  Set activeSlide = Nothing
  Set newPowerPoint = Nothing

End Sub`