A little off topic but I've always wondered why Ms office doesn't allow embedding of excel cells within word/powerpoint and then allowing reference to certain cells within word with some syntax. That would unlock a lot of new ways to create reactive presentations and word documents.
I tried to do it with first powerpoint and then wotd, and finally pounded excel to accept update from word and power point using VB. It was ugly, until someone made a python library to build spreadsheets in excel, now it just throws everything in, and plays it in excel like a power point.