vba powerpoint populating an array from excel range - arrays

Question

I´m trying to set a array with data from a MS Excel range.
My VBA Macro replaces the text from an array with text from another array.
It works fine with arrays, but now I´m trying to fill these arrays with data from a Excel file. I´m using range and I´ve tried thousands of ways of making itwork, unsuccessfuly. I´m not a VBA coder, so maybe I´m missing some basic concepts.... :|
Heres the code. Thanks in advance for any help!
Sub ReplacePT2ES()
Dim oSld As Slide
Dim oShp As Shape
Dim oTxtRng As TextRange
Dim oTmpRng As TextRange
Dim strWhatReplace As String, strReplaceText As String
Dim x As Long
Dim xlApp As Excel.Application
Dim xlBook As Excel.Workbook
Dim rng As range
Set xlApp = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
Set xlBook = xlApp.Workbooks.Open("D:\DOCS\DiccionarioPT2ES.xlsx")
xlBook.Application.Visible = False
xlBook.Application.WindowState = xlMinimized
Dim findList As Variant
Dim replaceList As Variant
Set findList = range("A1:A3").Value
Set replaceList = range("B1:B3").Value
'-- works fine with array
'findList = Array("falha", "lei", "projeto", "falhas", "leis", "projetos", "falham", "os", "as", "gestor")
'replaceList = Array("falla", "ley", "proyecto", "fallas", "leyes", "proyectos", "fallan", "los", "las", "gerente")
'MsgBox "Iniciando!"
For x = findList.Count To replaceList.Count
' go during each slides
For Each oSld In ActivePresentation.Slides
' go during each shapes and textRanges
For Each oShp In oSld.Shapes
' replace in TextFrame
'If oShp.HasTextFrame And UBound(findList) And UBound(replaceList) > 0 Then
If oShp.HasTextFrame Then
Set oTxtRng = oShp.TextFrame.TextRange
Set oTmpRng = oTxtRng.Replace(FindWhat:=findList(x), Replacewhat:=replaceList(x), WholeWords:=True)
Do While Not oTmpRng Is Nothing
Set oTxtRng = oTxtRng.Characters(oTmpRng.Start + oTmpRng.Length, oTxtRng.Length)
Set oTmpRng = oTxtRng.Replace(FindWhat:=findList(x), Replacewhat:=replaceList(x), WholeWords:=True)
Loop
End If
Next oShp
Next oSld
Next x
xlBook.Close SaveChanges:=False
Set xlApp = Nothing
Set xlBook = Nothing
'MsgBox "Listo!"
End Sub

Answer 1

Finaly I found a solution: stop using Array and swith to Dictionary.
Here the code wich worked:
Set findList = range("A1:A10")
Dim MyDictionary As Object
Set MyDictionary = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
With MyDictionary
For Each RefElem In findList
If Not .Exists(RefElem) And Not IsEmpty(RefElem) Then
.Add RefElem.Value, RefElem.Offset(0, 1).Value
End If
Next RefElem
End With
Moral of the history: use the right datatype for the job ;)

Answer 2

You can speed up your code significantly by:
Looping through a variant array rather than a range
Splitting your IF test into two parts (VBA doesn't shortcircuit so will evaluate both parts of an AND even if the first part is False).
code
Sub Recut()
Dim X
Dim MyDictionary As Object
Dim lngRow As Long
Set MyDictionary = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
X = Range("A1:B10").Value2
With MyDictionary
For lngRow = 1 To UBound(X)
If Len(X(lngRow, 1)) > 0 Then
If Not .Exists(X(lngRow, 1)) Then .Add X(lngRow, 1), X(lngRow, 2)
End If
Next
End With
End Sub