Inserting and Formatting a Chart

For those occasions when you want to display numeric data visually, you can add a chart to a slide to make it easy to see trends that might not be obvious from looking at the numbers themselves. When you create a chart in PowerPoint, you use an Excel worksheet to enter the information you want to plot.

The Excel worksheet is composed of rows and columns of cells that contain values, or data points, that make up a data series. Each data point in a data series is represented graphically in the chart by a data marker. The data is plotted against an x-axisalso called the category axisand a y-axisalso called the value axis. (Three-dimensional charts also have a z-axisalso called the series axis.) Tick-mark labels along each axis identify the categories, values, or series in the chart. A legend provides a key for identifying the data series.

On a slide that includes a content placeholder, you can click the placeholder's Insert Chart button to start the process of creating a chart. You can also click the Chart button in the Illustrations Group on the Insert tab to add a chart to any slide. In either case, you then select the type of chart you want. If your PowerPoint window is maximized, when you click OK, the PowerPoint window shrinks so that it occupies half the screen, and Excel opens in the other half. The Excel window displays a linked worksheet containing sample data that demonstrates how to set up your own information. You can replace the sample data and see the results in the PowerPoint window.

You can enter data into the worksheet by typing it directly. However, if your data already exists in an Excel worksheet or a Microsoft Office Access or Word table, you don't have to retype it. You can copy the data from its source program, activate the Excel worksheet that is linked to the slide, click cell A1, and then paste in the data.

After you enter the data and close the Excel window, you can modify and format the associated chart to get the effect you want. If you decide that the type of chart you selected doesn't adequately depict the most important characteristics of your data, you can change the type at any time. There are 12 chart types, each with two-dimensional and three-dimensional variations, and you can customize each aspect of each variation. If you don't want to spend a lot of time on a chart, you can apply the predefined combinations of formatting from the Chart Layouts and Chart Styles groups on the Design contextual tab to create sophisticated charts with a minimum of effort.

In this exercise, you will create a chart by entering data in its linked worksheet. You'll format the chart in several ways, and then you'll update the chart by changing the values in the linked worksheet.

1.	Display Slide 7, and in the content placeholder, click the Insert Chart button. Insert Chart The Insert Chart dialog box opens, displaying the many types of charts you can create. [View full size image]
2.	Click OK to accept the default chart type (Clustered Column). Excel starts, and the PowerPoint and Excel windows resize and display side by side. In the window on the left, PowerPoint displays a chart plotted with the sample data contained in the Excel worksheet in the window on the right. You can replace the sample data with your own information by typing directly in the table. [View full size image]
3.	In the worksheet, click cell B1, type Typical, press , and then type Desirable.
4.	Enter the following data in columns A, B, and C:   Typical Desirable Act 40 35 Delegate 5 15 Store 30 5 Discard 25 45 As you type, PowerPoint updates the chart with the new data
5.	To exclude the data in column D from the chart, click cell A1, and then drag the arrow in the lower-right corner of cell D5 to the left, releasing it when cells A1:C5 are surrounded by a heavy border, and cells D1:D5 are shaded. In the PowerPoint window, the chart reflects the fact that only the Typical and Desirable columns are now being plotted. [View full size image] Troubleshooting If the chart isn't selected in the PowerPoint window when you make changes to the data in the Excel window, the chart won't automatically update. If this happens, select the chart before proceeding.
6.	In the upper-right corner of the Excel window, click the Close button. Close The PowerPoint window expands, showing your data plotted as a column chart. Tip By default, the chart is plotted based on the series in the columns of the worksheet, which are identified in the legend. If you want to base the chart on the series in the rows instead, click the Switch Row/Column button in the Data group on the Design contextual tab.
7.	On the Design contextual tab, in the Type group, click the Change Chart Type button. The Change Chart Type dialog box opens. It looks exactly like the Insert Chart dialog box shown earlier in the exercise.
8.	With Column selected in the left pane, in the right pane, click the fifth thumbnail in the top row (Stacked Column in 3-D), and then click OK. Tip One popular type of chart is the pie chart. However, you should be aware that a pie chart can plot only one series of data. If you select Pie for the current data set, only the Typical series will be plotted.
9.	In the Chart Styles group, click the More button, and then in the Chart Styles gallery, click the thumbnail in the fifth row of the last column (Style 40). More
10.	In the Chart Layouts group, click the More button, and then in the gallery, click the thumbnail in the third row of the first column (Layout 7).
11.	Click Axis Title below the chart, triple-click in the selection to select all of the title text, type Action, and then click away from the title (but not outside the chart).
12.	Repeat Step 11 to rename the axis title to the left of the chart as Percent, and then click away from the title to see the results.
13.	With the chart still active, and then on the Design contextual tab, in the Data group, click the Edit Data button.
14.	In the Excel worksheet, change cell C2 to 15 and cell C3 to 35. Then close the Excel window. The chart immediately reflects the new data.

Additional Chart Formatting Options The Chart Layouts and Chart Styles groups on the Design contextual tab provide an easy way to apply sophisticated formatting to a chart without having to format each individual element of the chart manually. However, if you want more control over the appearance of your chart, you can use the options on the Layout and Format contextual tabs. It is worth exploring these options so that you know how to do the following: Add shapes and pictures. Format individual elements such as titles, axes, data labels, and gridlines. Add trend lines, bars, and other lines. Customize the walls and floor or otherwise manipulate a three-dimensional chart. Customize the look of shapes. Add and format fancy text (WordArt). Arrange objects precisely. Precisely control the overall size of the chart. You can double-click almost any chart object to change its attributes. For example, you can double-click an axis to display the Format Axis dialog box, where you can change the scale, tick marks, label position, line style, and other aspects of the axis. If you have trouble double-clicking some of the smaller chart elements, you can select the element you want to format from the Chart Area list in the Current Selection group on the Format tab, and then click the Format Selection button in the same group to display the Format dialog box for the selection.