Manipulating an Excel Table from within a PPT Presentation

[epak]

I am trying to manipulate an excel table from within a powerpoint presentation using macros. What I want to be able to do is to change cell colors, copy and paste rows and columns (basically shift rows up and down, and shift columns left and right) and a few other things. But I'm a novice with macros and I keep running into problems.

What I've done is first make a macro manipulating the table from inside excel to test it and then I tried using that macro in the ppt with the "addresses" changed.

Well, to have a look at the excel file with the macro working the way I want it, download this file: sample.xls.

And sample.ppt is trying to do the same thing as the macro in the above table file but from inside a powerpoint presentation (with a table embeded as an object)

Because the whole macro didn't work inside powerpoint, I split parts of the code to see if it worked by itself. I managed to be able to "target" a particular cell inside the embeded table and change the contents. However, changing the cell color does not seem to work. Nor copying and pasting.

For instance, this works:

ActivePresentation.Slides(1).Shapes("Table").OLEFormat.Object.Application.Workbooks(1).Worksheets(1).Cells(2, 4) = "HA"

But this doesn't:

With ActivePresentation.Slides(1).Shapes("Table").OLEFormat.Object.Application.Workbooks(1).Worksheets(1).Cells(2, 5).Interior
        .ColorIndex = 4
        .Pattern = xlSolid
        .PatternColorIndex = xlAutomatic
        End With

Well, I'm quite stumped and I would really appreciate some help.

Thanks!


---- Update ----

Someone suggested that I use this revised code:

Sub Sort() 
    Dim i, j, jtmp, itmp 
     
    With ActivePresentation.Slides(1).Shapes("Table").OLEFormat.Object.Application.Workbooks(1).Worksheets(1) 
        For i = 2 To 28 
            For j = 3 To 29 
                If .Cells(i, j) = "x" Then 
                    If j > i Then 
                         
                        With .Cells(i, j).Interior 
                            .ColorIndex = 4 
                            .Pattern = xlSolid 
                            .PatternColorIndex = xlAutomatic 
                        End With 
                         
                        Sleep (500) 
                         
                        With .Cells(i, j).Interior 
                            .ColorIndex = xlNone 
                            .Pattern = xlNone 
                            .PatternColorIndex = xlNone 
                             
                            .Cells(j, 1).EntireRow.Select 
                            .Selection.Insert Shift:=xlDown 
                            .Cells(i, 1).EntireRow.Select 
                            .Selection.Cut 
                            .Cells(j, 1).EntireRow.Select 
                            .Paste 
                            .Cells(i, 1).EntireRow.Select 
                            .Selection.Delete Shift:=xlUp 
                            jtmp = j + 1 
                            .Cells(1, jtmp).EntireColumn.Select 
                            .Selection.Insert Shift:=xlToRight 
                            itmp = i + 1 
                            .Cells(1, itmp).EntireColumn.Select 
                            .Selection.Cut 
                            .Cells(1, jtmp).EntireColumn.Select 
                            .Paste 
                            .Cells(1, itmp).EntireColumn.Select 
                            .Selection.Delete Shift:=xlToLeft 
                        End With 
                    End If 
                End If 
            Next j 
        Next i 
         
    End With 
     
End Sub

But I get a "Run-time error 438: object doesn't support this property or method" error for the following line:

.Cells(j, 1).EntireRow.Select

Does it by any chance have anything to do with references? Not exactly sure what references are but I have enabled "Microsoft Excel 11.0 Object Library".

And I would also like to ask why there is such a susceptible delay when a macro is triggered by clicking on the button? Why isn't it as instantaneous as in from within excel? And more importantly, is it possible to reduce this delay?