Here's a question that I received from someone who once sent me an animated Christmas game! He's probably got a lot of other animated stuff that might get you either mad or mesmerized (or both!) -- but for now, here's his question: I'll spare you the details but can you now no longer ungroup charts in PowerPoint 2007?

The answer is yes, you can -- but the route to ungroup nirvana might be new -- but fear not, let me get you there:

1. First of all, create your chart -- and just to be on the safe side, duplicate the slide that contains the chart. That's because once you ungroup your chart, you can no longer edit the values within the chart.
2. Make sure you do not double-click the chart -- just select it, right-click the edge of the chart, and choose the Save as Picture option.
3. This brings up a dialog box of the same name -- now choose EMF within the Save as type dropdown box, provide a name and location, and save the chart as an EMF graphic.
4. Insert a new slide within the presentation, and then insert a graphic by first selecting the Insert tab of the Ribbon, and then clicking the Picture button.
5. In the resulting Insert Picture dialog box, navigate and choose the EMF graphic you saved previously, and click Insert to get back to your slide with the graphic inserted.
6. Next, select the graphic on the slide, right-click and choose Group | Ungroup. PowerPoint might warn you that this is an inserted picture, not a group. Disregard this warning and click Yes. Right-click the graphic again, and choose Group | Ungroup.
7. This should ungroup all the elements of the chart so that you can recolor them, add effects, or animate them individually of each other.

Labels: charts, graphics, powerpoint_2007

Monday, February 19, 2007