[R] R integration with Microsoft Powerpoint

[khobson@fd9ns01.okladot.state.ok.us]

Of course there are many ways to do it.

The user input could come from R dialogs via the tcltk package or the
Input() dialogs from VBA in Powerpoint.

I chose the output as PDF.  The R source code called cars.r, might go
something like:

pdf(file=paste(getwd(), "/", "cars.pdf", sep=""),
  width = 8.5, height = 11, onefile = TRUE, family = "Helvetica",
    title = "R Graphics Output", fonts = NULL, version = "1.1")
plot(cars)
lines(lowess(cars))
graphics.off()
shell(paste(getwd(), "/", "cars.pdf", sep=""),wait=FALSE) #veiw PDF
stop("all done")

The cars.bat file, might go something like:

"C:\Program Files\R\rw2010\bin\R.exe" CMD BATCH c:\myfiles\r\cars.r
#Change the drives and paths to R.exe and the cars.r files.

The cars.bat file was played from PowerPoint by creating the object and
doubleclicking in the slideshow.  The are other ways to do it of course.
In PowerPoint, click the menu item Insert | Object | Create and browse to
and select the cars.r file.  I set the object as an icon and used the R.exe
icon.

VBA scripting to play the cars.bat file is not all that involved either.
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Kenneth Ray Hobson, P.E.
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