Microsoft PowerPoint 2003

Charting Information

When presenting numerical information, charts are often more effective and efficient than text or lists of numbers. PowerPoint makes it easy to add and customize charts for use in your presentation.

Creating Charts
Updating Chart Information
Changing Colors
Changing Chart Types

Creating Charts

PowerPoint allows you to create and display charts of numeric information. You can enter information into an internal datasheet, and PowerPoint will generate a chart to appear on your slide.

Creating a New Chart

From the Formatting toolbar, click NEW SLIDE
The Slide Layout task pane appears.
Under Other Layouts, click TITLE AND CHART
The Title and Chart layout is applied to your new slide.
In the center of the slide, double click the CHART icon
The Presentation Chart and Datasheet window appears.
To delete the existing data:
1. Select all the cells
  HINT: Clicking in the upper left corner will select all cells at once, including column and row labels.
2. From the Edit menu, select Clear » All
Type your data into the presentation datasheet
To return to the slide, click anywhere within the Slides tab

Updating Chart Information

Once you have created a chart, you may want to update it by adding or deleting data. You can do this by switching to the datasheet you used to create the chart, changing values, and entering new data or deleting existing data. The chart is automatically updated, including the legend if you change data labels.

Changing Chart Values

With the chart selected, from the Edit menu, select Chart Object » Edit
OR
Double click the chart
The datasheet appears.
On the datasheet, select the cell you want to change and type the new value
Press [Enter]
The chart is updated on the slide.
To return to Normal view, click anywhere within the Slides tab

Adding Data

Double click your chart
The datasheet appears.
Type the new data in the appropriate location
Press [Enter]
The chart is updated on the slide.
To return to Normal view, click anywhere within the Slides tab

Deleting Data

Double click your chart
The datasheet appears.
On the datasheet, select the values you wish to delete
HINT: If you want to delete an entire column or row, click on the appropriate column or row identifier.
Press [Delete]
The chart is updated on the slide.
To return to Normal view, click anywhere within the Slides tab

Changing Colors

While PowerPoint’s built-in templates automatically assign specific colors to certain chart elements, you are not locked in to those predefined choices. Any color that is available in the Color palette can be used for any chart object.

Chart objects can be assigned fill effects or colors to help them stand out from the slide background and to distinguish them from other chart data points. Fill effects add shading, texture, or a pattern to the area of an object within its borders. Colors fill objects the same way as fill effects and can be used on objects such as bars, columns, and data markers to set them apart from other data sets.

NOTE: You can change an entire data series or a selected data point within the series.

To Change the Color of a Data Series

Double click the chart
The datasheet appears and the chart is now available for editing.
Within the chart, select the data series you want to recolor (e.g., the bars)
From the Format menu, select Selected Data Series...
The Format Data Series dialog box appears.

To change the border on the chart data series you have selected, under the Patterns tab, in the Border section, select the appropriate options:

Automatic	Applies default border color
*None*	Removes the border from display
*Custom*	Defines custom border settings of style, color, and weight
Style	Assigns a new line style to the border
Color	Assigns a new line color to the border
*Weight*	Assigns a new line weight to the border

To assign a color to fill the chart data series you have selected, in the Area section, select the appropriate fill options:

*Automatic*	Automatically applies the default color
*None*	Ensures a transparent chart background or object background
*Color*	Applies the color you select from the current color palette
*Fill Effects...*	Applies the shading, texture, pattern, or picture you select from this dialog box

To apply your color choices, click OK
The new format is applied to the object border and/or object areas.

To Change the Color of a Selected Data Point

Double click the chart
The data sheet appears and the chart is now available for editing.
Click once on the data point you want to recolor
The entire data series is selected.
Click again on the data point you want to recolor (e.g., a single bar on a bar chart)
Just that data point should now be selected.
From the Format menu, select Selected Data Point...
The Format Data Point dialog box appears.
To change the border on the data point you have selected, from the Border area of the dialog box, select the appropriate option
To assign a color to fill the data point you have selected, in the Area section of the dialog box, select the appropriate fill option
To apply your color choices, click OK
To return to Normal view, click anywhere within the Slides tab

Changing Chart Types

You can change the chart type of your chart even once you have already applied formatting.

Double click the chart that you want to change
The datasheet appears and the chart is now available for editing.
From the Chart menu, select Chart Type...
The Chart Type dialog box appears.
Under the Standard Types tab, choose a chart from a number of conventional chart styles and sub-types
OR
Under the Custom Types tab, choose from an extended list of chart types
Click OK
To return to Normal view, click anywhere within the Slides tab