Section 6.2. CREATING AND FORMATTING CHARTS


6.1. TEXT ISSUES

6.1.1. Y-Axis Titles Truncated

THE ANNOYANCE: The last letter of my Y-axis title text is cut off. I tried making the font smaller, but it didn't help. How can I make PowerPoint show the whole title?

THE FIX: Unfortunately, you can't resize the Y-axis title box on the chart. You can, however, replace the Y-axis title with a regular text box.

You can also try adding two spaces followed by a period to the Y-axis title box to extend it. Format the period as the background color so it won't print.

This is a sporadic issue possibly related to video drivers and display settings. The truncated Y-axis title on the chart will usually print fine, even if it doesn't display properly.

6.1.2. Control Axis Label Line Breaks

THE ANNOYANCE: I have some really long category descriptions on my X-axis, but the lines break in strange places. How can I control the line breaks on chart axes?

THE FIX: You'll have to add regular text boxes if you need to control line breaks on chart axis labels in MSGraph.

If you create the chart in Excel, you can press Alt+Enter to add line breaks to text in a cell. You can also input the axis text in Excel, using Alt+Enter to create the line breaks, and then copy the cell and paste it into the PowerPoint graph datasheet.

Unfortunately, pressing Alt+Enter in MSGraph in PowerPoint 97, 2000, 2002, or 2003 does not create line breaks on chart axis labels. (If you remember doing this in PowerPoint graphs, you were using PowerPoint 95!) You can, however, use Alt+Enter or Shift+Enter to create line breaks on chart and axis titles and data labels in all versions of PowerPoint and MSGraph.

6.1.3. Axis Labels Missing

THE ANNOYANCE: My chart only shows every other X-axis label. What happened to the other labels?

THE FIX: Microsoft Graph tries to maintain the default font size settings on your chart and must hide some of the axis labels (see Figure 6-1). To resolve this issue, decrease the size of the font on the X-axis or increase the size of the plot area on the chart.

Figure 6-1. Is your chart missing some of its X-axis labels? Increase the plot area of the chart or decrease the font size.


To increase the size of the plot area, simply click to select the plot area on the slide and drag. If you have a hard time selecting the plot area of the chartwhich often seems to be especially difficult in pie chartsselect Plot Area from the Chart Objects drop-down menu on the Standard toolbar.

To decrease the size of the font, select the axis, choose Format Selected Axis, and click the Font tab. Select a smaller font size and uncheck the "Auto scale box (see Figure 6-2). Some fonts work better than others at small sizes, so experiment.

Figure 6-2. To open this dialog box and adjust the font, choose Format Selected Axis and click the Font tab, or double-click the axis.


6.1.4. Align Axis Labels

THE ANNOYANCE: Is it possible to right-align the axis labels on my horizontal bar chart?

THE FIX: You'll have to create regular text boxes and put the axis label text in them. Unfortunately, neither MSGraph nor Excel offers any way to set the right or left justification of axis label text. You can select a chart or axis title and justify it, but the justification will show up only in titles longer than one line (see Figure 6-3).

Figure 6-3. To align axis titles and chart titles in a chart, select the title box and click the appropriate justification icon on the toolbar. Selecting the text itself will make the justification tools unavailable.


6.1.5. Fonts Appear Distorted I

THE ANNOYANCE: When I create a PowerPoint chart, the fonts become distorted after I click on the slide to deactivate the chart. I checked the aspect ratio of the chart by right-clicking it and choosing Format Objectand it's set to 100% x 100%. So what's the problem?

THE FIX: You're using a wide-screen display (such as 1280x800), aren't you? You'll need to update the video drivers or set the screen display to a nonwide-screen format (e.g., 1024x768, 1280x1024, etc.).

6.1.6. Fonts Appear Distorted II

THE ANNOYANCE: I'm not using a wide-screen display, but the text in my chart is all out of whack. It looks like it's been stretched or something.

THE FIX: Always resize your chart by dragging the herringbone borders while the chart is activated (see Figure 6-4). If you click on the slide to deactivate the chart, and then click on the chart and drag one of the edges to resize, everything gets squished and stretched relative to the original proportion of the graph. If you adjust the size while the chart is activated, the fonts on the chart will maintain their proportion.

Figure 6-4. If you drag a corner or edge on the slide to resize your chart when it's deactivated, the text will look distorted (left). If you resize your chart using the herringboned borders when it's activated (right), the text will look normal.


If your chart proves especially difficult to fix, right-click the chart on the slide and choose Format Object. On the Size tab, uncheck the "Lock aspect ratio" box and set the height and width both to 100%, which fixes the font distortion (see Figure 6-5). If you need to make the chart smaller or larger after resizing it to 100% x 100%, double-click to activate the chart and drag the herringboned borders to adjust it. When you finish and click on the slide to deactivate the chart, the chart will be set to a new 100% x 100% size, and the fonts will not be distorted.

Figure 6-5. Reset your chart to 100% x 100% as the first step to deal with especially distorted text. Don't click the Reset buttonit doesn't always reset the chart the way you expect. Double-click to activate the chart and drag the herringboned handles to readjust the size without distorting the fonts.


6.1.7. Keep Chart Font Sizes the Same

THE ANNOYANCE: Our corporate template specifies Arial 14-pt Bold on all charts and graphs, but when I look at the slides, all the font sizes look different. What did I do wrong?

THE FIX: You need to select the chart, choose Format Font, and uncheck the "Auto scale box (see Figure 6-2). If you leave Auto scale on, the fonts in charts will resize when you resize the chart by clicking and dragging on an edge (see Figure 6-6). This is why your chart font sizes are not the same throughout your presentationthey're resizing when you resize your charts.

Figure 6-6. If you leave Auto scale on, the font will resize when you resize the chart. You can see this effect herethe smaller chart in the upper left has a much smaller font than the larger chart on the right. Interestingly, because the smaller chart was resized by dragging the edge of the deactivated chart on the slide, its font size is 14 point, the same as the font size listed in the larger chart. Obviously, that's not really the case.


Resizing a chart with Auto scale turned on often causes strange font sizes (e.g., 15.75, 28.25 pt, etc.), and these can cause problems for some printers. Turn off Auto scale, and your font size will remain the size you specified in the Font tab, even when you resize the chart.

6.1.8. Pie Charts Appear Jagged

THE ANNOYANCE: My pie charts look horrid! They're all jagged. I can't present these! What do I do?

THE FIX: Nothing totally resolves this issue, as it's difficult to render smooth arcs on a computer display consisting of square pixels. Nevertheless, you can do a few things to make the pies look a bit better.

  1. Remove the border on the pie pieces.

    Double-click the chart to activate it, right-click a pie piece, and select Format Data Series. On the Patterns tab, choose None for the Border (see Figure 6-7). Repeat for additional pie pieces as necessary.

    Figure 6-7. Click a data point in a chart to select the data series. Choose Format Selected Data Series, and make fill and line color and style adjustments on the Patterns tab.

  2. Increase the angle of the pie.

    Double-click the chart to activate it, and select Chart 3D View. Click the arrows or type a new value in the Elevation box (see Figure 6-8), and click the Apply button to preview the change. Click OK to close the dialog box.

    Figure 6-8. Notice the "Height XX % of base" setting, where you can make the pie more or less thick. The Rotation setting specifies where the first pie slice starts.

  3. Draw an oval over the outside edges of the pie.

    In PowerPoint 2002 and 2003, select Draw Grid and Guides and uncheck Snap to Grid (Draw Snap to Grid in PowerPoint 97 and 2000). Select an oval from the Drawing toolbar and drag to draw it on top of the chart on the slide. Drag the white handles to adjust the oval, and set the line color and thickness using the line color and style buttons on the Drawing toolbar.

    Order Send to Back to create the bottom oval. Use your mouse and the arrows on your keyboard to nudge it into place (see Figure 6-9).

    Figure 6-9. If they're entirely too jagged, mask existing pie chart borders with an oval AutoShape. It's easier to add these on the slide, because you can use the arrows on your keyboard to nudge the oval into place. The ovals in this picture are thick so you can see them more easily.

  4. Remove Gradient Fills.

    2D pie charts will sometimes become jagged when a gradient fill is applied. Changing back to a solid color fill will often resolve it.

  5. Change Print Options.

    If the pie chart prints jagged edges, select Tools Options, click the Print tab, and check the "Print objects at printer resolution box.

6.1.9. Fonts Appear Jagged

THE ANNOYANCE: The fonts in this presentation are the scruffiest, jaggediest, most raggedy things I've ever seen. I thought PowerPoint was a presentation package. These fonts sure present badly.

THE FIX: There's no good resolution for this problem. It seems worst on animated text, so if your text is animated, remove the animation.

If that isn't an option, right-click the text box, choose Save as Picture, and save the text as a .png file. Select Insert Picture From File, insert the The ragged edges are usually also worse in presentations with dark text on light backgrounds. If you have the luxury of changing your presentation to light text on a dark background, the text may not look as jagged.

Some fonts are also worse about the jaggies than others. Changing to a basic font like Arial may help.

6.1.10. Change the Datasheet Font

THE ANNOYANCE: I'd really like to change the font in the chart datasheet so I can see more text while I'm typing.

THE FIX: You can change all the type in the datasheet. Select View Datasheet to open the datasheet, click a cell in the datasheet, and select Format Font. Change any of the attributes in the Font dialog box.

This is an all-or-nothing setting; you can't change the text on just one cell (or row or column) in the datasheet, so don't waste your time trying.

6.1.11. Font Changes on a Pasted Excel Chart

THE ANNOYANCE: I pasted a chart onto my slide, and the font changed to Times New Roman! I hate TNRhelp me get rid of it!

THE FIX: This sometimes happens in PowerPoint 2000 when you paste an Excel chart or cells using a font smaller than 8 points onto your slide. Increasing the size of the font in Excel resolves the issue, as does applying Service Release 1/1a (SR-1/SR-1a) for Office 2000 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/245025/EN-US/).

This also happens occasionally when you print. To fix it, choose Tools Options, click the Print tab, and check the "Print inserted objects at Printer Resolution box.

6.1.12. Default Chart Font Is Wrong

THE ANNOYANCE: I created a new default chart style, but when I insert new charts onto my slide, the font still looks wrong. Any ideas?

THE FIX: Select Tools Options, click the Edit tab, and uncheck the "New charts take on PowerPoint font box. This should force the font to show up in the chart's default font face rather than the font you're using in the PowerPoint file itself.




Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances
Fixing PowerPoint Annoyances: How to Fix the Most Annoying Things about Your Favorite Presentation Program
ISBN: 0596100043
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 83
Authors: Echo Swinford

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