Now that is a possibility. Client insists it be a ppt file, and that it be served from the server (it must not be necessary that the user already have the file), but, whether the data is inserted on the server, or atumoatically from the server once downloaded and opened is immaterial.

I'm not an MS Office buff. I'm somewhat familiar with linking objects in other Office apps, but from the server? On top of that, it has to be linked to a Perl script because teg data is being generated on the fly.