Powerpoint on UNIX

artist has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

We have a process in place to create Power Point slides using Visual Basic and Microsoft Access on Windows and then convert bunch of Power Point slides into PDF and put it on Unix box.

I like do this on Unix entirely. So I want to export the data from Access database ( this is easily possible), and create power point slides with Perl using the VB code segments, and convert them into PDF on the fly for Web.

I can alwayws create the graphs with GD::Chart, but I don't want to spend time in duplicating the effort, and changing the presentation of the charts.

Am I being realistic here? What are my options?

Thanks..

--Artist

Comment on Powerpoint on UNIX

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Re: Powerpoint on UNIX by marto (Cardinal) on Jul 11, 2005 at 17:47 UTC
Hi, Have you considered using OpenOffice.org. You should be able to get Impress to open MS Powerpoint files and export them as PDFs. Hope this helps Martin	[reply]
Re: Powerpoint on UNIX by SciDude (Friar) on Jul 11, 2005 at 20:42 UTC
Please think for a moment about the content of your work. Most of your message is about the design instead of the information you are trying to communicate. Discussion of Power Point, Basic, Access, Windows, PDF, etc. are meaningless without fully understanding what information you are attempting to clearly assemble in a meaningful way. I suspect that if you focus on the real need, which I presume to be some charts generated from Access data and located at a URL your job will become much more clear. My guess is that the Visual Basic is being used to make Powerpoint load some data, graph it, and then save it as a PDF. The graphing functions in Powerpoint may be easy to drive by Visual Basic but the result often mirrors the tool; poor design and poor presentation. You will not be able to automate the generation of Powerpoint charts on Unix. A Different Approach This node reminds me of the Feynmann-Tufte Principle. A visual display of data should be simple enough to fit on the side of a van. Generate the charts directly from data in perl (using whatever tool you like - I like GD::Chart as well) then save the charts in PDF format. Now you have the charts available for a web page and also for importing into a PowerPoint slide (perhaps using Impress to import and save that file.) With some effort you may be able to automate the generation of the charts (perhaps as jpg or gif) and make the web page display actual (real time) data. These image will may also be more easily imported into your presentation slides simplifying the process. SciDude The first dog barks... all other dogs bark at the first dog.	[reply]