Accessing other MicroSoft programs to generate pictorial "reports"

[Worker Bee]

I'm doing a presentation for which I'd like to use a US map, color coded to
show various gradations of X within each state. (Think of the finished
product as a weather map of sorts, with different colors or gradations of the
same color signifying different levels of X.) My question is this: Is there
a way for PowerPoint to access information from a database in Excel, and with
a color assigned to each X range, automatically generate a finsihed map? If
accessing another Microsoft program in this way is not possible, how would
you reccommend going about this project?

 

[TAJ Simmons]

Workee Bee

See Graphicae (it looks like it can generate maps from data)
http://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/addin/graphicae.html

and microsoft mappoint
http://www.microsoft.com/mappoint/products/2004/default.mspx

Cheers
TAJ Simmons
microsoft powerpoint mvp

awesome - powerpoint backgrounds,
http://www.powerpointbackgrounds.com
free powerpoint templates, tutorials, hints and tips etc