MATLAB controls and writes PowerPoint

The MATLAB functions XLSREAD and XLSWRITE open Microsoft Excel as a COM Automation Server in the background, and read or write data. Using the same mechanism, it is possible to open, write to, and fully control Microsoft PowerPoint from MATLAB. The advantage is that from a single tool, both the data analysis and the presentation creation can be scripted.

This is the same functionality used in Mark Brown's submission referenced below. Mark Brown's "saveppt.m" is a cleanly packaged solution, whereas this submission is an open script intended to show what's going on, and empower users to create their own customized "pptwrite" functions.