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 Slide Show menu disappears.

• Two new menus, Data and Chart, 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 Chart 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.)