Chapter 9. Presenting Numbers by Using Data Charts

In this chapter

Find out how charts can make numbers understandable
Learn how to use the Microsoft Graph program
Explore the wide variety of chart types available in PowerPoint
Learn how to enter chart data and import it from other sources
Find out how to modify individual chart elements to make them more effective

For those of us who come from relatively nontechnical, nonnumeric backgrounds, the very thought of creating data charts causes fear and trepidation. You might ask "What is an x-axis anyway?" or "Why do I want an area chart instead of a pie chart?" Or perhaps you're even asking whether you want to create a data chart at all.

In my experience, data charts —graphic representations of numeric information—can be quite useful in sometimes rather unexpected ways. But most of all, they help an audience understand how numbers relate to each other. They show trends and patterns, and in other ways they put a visual face on otherwise nondescript lists of numbers. In Chapter 8, "Organizing Information by Using Tables," you learned how to present numbers in tables. Although that helps an audience sort out numbers, data charts can really bring those numbers to life.

If you're already a numbers and charts type of person—for example, if you already create charts by using Excel or some other program—you'll find it easy to understand what's presented in this chapter. But even if you're new to numbers and charts, you'll find that PowerPoint makes it easy to create powerful, effective, and memorable data charts.

Inserting a Data Chart

The first step in creating a chart is to decide how you want to insert the chart object. Several PowerPoint layouts use the content placeholder, which includes an icon for creating a chart. For example, to create a slide that contains a title and a chart, follow these steps:

Choose F o rmat, Slide L ayout to display the Slide Layout task pane.
Scroll through the list of layout types until you find one that provides for content, such as the Title and Content layout.
Click the layout to add placeholders to the slide (see Figure 9.1).

Figure 9.1. Content placeholders enable you to quickly insert a data chart.
Click the Insert Chart icon (refer to Figure 9.1) to start the Microsoft Graph program, which automatically creates a bar chart. A separate datasheet that contains sample numbers also appears (see Figure 9.2). At this point, you can edit the data, change the chart type, and more, all of which we'll explore in this chapter.

Figure 9.2. The Microsoft Graph program provides several tools specifically designed for working with charts .
To return to the PowerPoint slide, click outside the chart box. PowerPoint closes the Microsoft Graph program and displays the completed chart as a PowerPoint object (see Figure 9.3).

Figure 9.3. Charts are objects on a PowerPoint slide.

graphics/09fig03.gif

If you want to insert a chart as an object in a PowerPoint slide, without using a predefined layout, simply click the Insert Chart button on the toolbar. PowerPoint opens a chart editing screen and also displays its datasheet.

An Overview of the Microsoft Graph Program

When you open a PowerPoint chart, your eyes are so dazzled by the fancy chart that you might miss the fact the PowerPoint has actually taken you into an entirely different program: Microsoft Graph. After you use the Graph program to create a chart, you click outside the chart box to return to PowerPoint. To get back to the Microsoft Graph program, you double-click the chart.

You need to become familiar with the Microsoft Graph program so you'll know where to find things and what to do with them. To begin our exploration of Graph, we'll discard the cumbersome moniker Microsoft Graph program and refer to this program simply as the chart program or the chart editor . After all, that's what the Graph program is for—creating and editing charts .

When you have the chart editor open, besides seeing the datasheet and chart editor, you'll likely notice that the menus and toolbars have changed (refer to Figure 9.2). Here are some examples:

The Sli d e Show menu disappears.
Two new menus, D ata and C hart, appear.
Other menus retain the same names but contain different and fewer menu choices.
Two new toolbars appear, with some familiar, but also some new, buttons .

Take a few moments to click the C hart menu items to see what's there and to hover the mouse over the toolbar buttons to see what they are for. We'll explore several of the features and tools you see here throughout this chapter. (If you're working on a chart slide and you don't see the menu items you expect to see, look at the menu and toolbars to see whether you're in the chart editor or in the PowerPoint slide editor.)