Working with Charts - 1 of 4

Exploring Chart Possibilities
Understanding Charts in PowerPoint
Adding a Chart

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Exploring Chart Possibilities

PowerPoint charts can be as simple or as complex as you like. You can create a basic chart right inside PowerPoint using Microsoft Graph, or you can create a full-featured chart using Microsoft Excel and insert it into your presentation. You can choose from common chart types such as column, bar, line, and pie charts; try something out of the ordinary such as a doughnut or radar chart; or create a chart type of your own. PowerPoint charts are preformatted based on the attached design template, but you can also change nearly every aspect of a chart—its color, text, labels, and more.

A chart, also referred to as a graph, can be a useful tool for communicating numeric information in a concise format. You could create a chart illustrating sales revenue per region or the percentage of sales allocated to each of your products, for example. As you begin to work with charts, you'll discover a multitude of uses for them.

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Understanding Charts in PowerPoint

You can use Microsoft Graph to create charts in your presentation, or you can insert charts created in another application, such as Excel. Using Microsoft Graph inside PowerPoint is the easiest way to create a graph, but doesn't offer any calculation or formula capabilities for your chart data. If you've already created a chart in Excel or you need to analyze complex data, it's best to insert an Excel chart.

Before you start creating a chart using Microsoft Graph from within PowerPoint, you should become familiar with chart terminology. Table 11.1 lists these terms and their definitions.

Table 11.1 Chart Object Terminology

Figure 11.1 shows some of these chart objects.

Figure 11.1: Learn the basic objects of a chart before you create one.

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Adding a Chart

The fastest way to add a chart to your presentation is to add a slide and apply a layout that contains a chart. To do so, click the New Slide button on the Formatting toolbar and then choose a layout from the Slide Layout task pane. The next step varies depending on the slide layout you choose.

If you choose any of the layouts in the Content Layouts or Text and Content Layouts sections, you need to click the Insert Chart button on the content palette that displays (see Figure 11.2) to activate the chart and Microsoft Graph.

Figure 11.2: Click the Insert Chart button to start creating a chart.

If you choose one of the layouts containing a chart in the Other Layouts section, you need to double-click the chart placeholder to activate the chart and Microsoft Graph. Figure 11.3 shows a sample chart slide with a chart placeholder.

Figure 11.3: You can start adding a chart by double-clicking the placeholder.

You can also insert a chart into an existing slide by clicking the Insert Chart button on the Standard toolbar or by selecting Insert, Chart.

Figure 11.4 shows what you see after you click the Insert Chart button on a content palette or double-click a chart placeholder. A sample 3D clustered column chart appears, and the related datasheet opens. The menu bar and toolbars are also customized for Microsoft Graph. The menu bar now includes Data and Chart menu items, and the Standard toolbar includes several new options, explained in Table 11.2.

Figure 11.4: PowerPoint displays a chart with sample data.

Table 11.2 Standard Toolbar Chart Options

Button	Name	Description
	Chart Objects	Lets you select a chart object such as a plot area, a chart area, a legend, an axis, or a series.
	Format	Opens a Format dialog box tailored to the selected chart object.
	Import File	Opens the Import File dialog box from which you can import chart data from another file, such as an Excel worksheet, into your chart.
	View Datasheet	Displays the chart's datasheet.
	By Row	Displays datasheet row data as the data series (the default).
	By Column	Displays datasheet column data as the data series.
	Data Table	Displays a table with all the datasheet data in your chart.
	Chart Type	Lets you apply a new chart type from a palette that appears.
	Category Axis Gridlines	Displays category axis gridlines.
	Value Axis Gridlines	Displays value axis gridlines.
	Legend	Displays a legend on your chart.
	Drawing	Displays the Drawing toolbar.
	Fill Color	Lets you apply fill color and fill effects to selected objects.

If you don't see these menu and toolbar options, Microsoft Graph isn't active. To activate it, double-click the chart in PowerPoint and you'll then be able to view the Data and Chart menus and chart toolbar options.

To determine what each object is in a chart you've created, place the mouse on that object or part of the chart and a chart tip displays its name. Figure 11.5 shows an example of a chart tip with the name and numeric value for a data series.

Figure 11.5: This chart tip lets you know the name of the chart object as well as its value.

If the chart tip doesn't display, activate Microsoft Graph by double-clicking the chart, choose Tools, Options, and then verify that the Show Names and Show Values check boxes are selected on the Chart tab of the Graph Options dialog box (see Figure 11.6).

Figure 11.6: PowerPoint displays names and values in chart tips by default.

Modifying Your Chart

You can quickly create a basic chart, and you can make numerous enhancements and formatting changes. After you activate Microsoft Graph to create a chart, it's easiest to proceed in this order:

1. If you don't want a 3D column chart, change the chart type.
2. Type the text and numbers for your chart in the datasheet.
3. Type a title for the chart slide.
4. Modify and format chart objects as needed.

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