Introduction
A chart is a tool you can use to communicate your data graphically. Displaying charts in PowerPoint allows your audience to see the meaning behind the numbers, and it makes showing comparisons and trends much easier. In this lesson, you will learn how to insert charts and modify them so they communicate information effectively..
Charts
Video: Inserting Charts in PowerPoint 2010
In many ways, charts are an ideal way to present information in PowerPoint 2010. They give you an illustration of your data. A chart can help you show your audience what your data means and why it's important. Plus, they can add visual interest to slide shows that are otherwise filled with text. To use charts effectively, you'll need to know how to insert and modify them.
Optional: You can download this example for extra practice.
Types of charts
Click the arrows in the slideshow below to view examples of some of the types of charts available in PowerPoint.
- PowerPoint has a variety of chart types, each with its own advantages. Click the arrows to see some of the different types of charts available in PowerPoint.
Identifying the parts of a chart
Click the buttons in the interactive below to learn about the different parts of a chart.
Inserting charts
PowerPoint uses an Excel worksheet as a placeholder
for entering chart data. Therefore, when you insert or edit a chart in
PowerPoint, an Excel window will automatically open. The process is
user-friendly, but if you are totally unfamiliar with Excel, you might
want to review our Cell Basics lesson from our Excel 2010 tutorial.
To insert a chart:
- Select the Insert tab.
- Click the Insert Chart command in the Illustrations Group. The Insert Chart dialog box will appear.
- Select a category from the left pane of the dialog box, and review the charts
that appear in the center. If you are unsure about which chart best
fits your needs, review the interactive on the previous page.
- Select the desired chart.
- Click OK. An Excel window will open with a placeholder for your data.
If a slide layout has a content placeholder, you can also click the Insert Chart command to insert a new chart.
To enter chart data:
The data that appears in the Excel spreadsheet is placeholder source data that you will replace with your own information. The Excel source data is used to create the PowerPoint chart.
- Enter your data into the Excel spreadsheet. If you are not sure how to enter data into an Excel spreadsheet, review our Cell Basics lesson from our Excel 2010 tutorial.
- If necessary, click and drag the lower-right corner of the blue line to increase or decrease the data range for rows and columns. Only the data enclosed by the blue lines will appear in the chart.
- Close Excel. You do not need to save the spreadsheet. The PowerPoint chart will update to reflect the new source data.
You can edit the chart data at any time by selecting your chart and clicking the Edit Data command in the Data group on the Chart Tools Design tab.
Copying and pasting existing Excel data
If you already have an Excel worksheet with data you want to use for a PowerPoint chart, you can transfer the data by copying and pasting
it. When the Excel window opens, open your existing worksheet, select
and copy the data, and paste it into the worksheet in place of the
placeholder data. Be sure to drag the blue line to surround all the data you want to include in the chart
Importing a chart from Excel
If you have already created a chart in Excel, you can import and link
it to your PowerPoint presentation. When you insert an Excel chart in
PowerPoint, any updates you make to the original Excel chart will
automatically update in your PowerPoint presentation, as long as the
files remain in the same location. This can be a convenient and
time-saving feature for presentations that require frequent updating.
- Click the Insert tab, and locate the Text group.
- Click the Insert Object command. A dialog box will appear.
- In the dialog box, select Create from file.
- Click Browse.
- Find and select the desired Excel chart, then click OK.
- Click the Link check box if you want to link the data to the Excel chart. This will enable your PowerPoint chart to update itself when changes are made to the Excel chart.
- Click OK. The chart will now appear in your PowerPoint presentation.
To edit an imported chart, double-click it to open the Excel placeholder. After you have finished editing, be sure to save the chart in Excel.
Once you have imported a chart, be careful not to
delete or move the original Excel file. If the location of either the
PowerPoint presentation or the Excel file changes, you may have to
insert the chart again in order for it to display correctly
Modifying charts with chart tools
Video: Modifying Charts in PowerPoint 2010
There are many ways to customize and organize your charts. For example, PowerPoint allows you to change the chart type, rearrange a chart's data, and even change the layout and style.
Once you insert a chart, a set of chart tools
will appear on the Ribbon. These are only visible when the chart is
selected. You can use the three tabs grouped under Chart Tools to modify your chart.
To change the chart type:
- From the Design tab, click the Change Chart Type command. A dialog box will appear.
- Select the desired chart type.
- Click OK. The chart will update to reflect the new chart type.
To switch row and column data:
Sometimes when you create a chart, the data may not be grouped the way you want it to. In the clustered column chart below on the left, the Book Genre Sales statistics are grouped by genre, with a column for each year. However, you could also switch the row and column data so the chart will group the statistics by year, with columns for each genre, as in the chart on the right. In both cases, the chart contains the same data; it's just organized differently.
- Select the chart.
- From the Chart Tools Design tab, select the Edit command in the Data group. The Excel placeholder will open.
- Return to your PowerPoint slide. Select the Switch Row/Column command in the Data group.
- The chart will adjust the data.
To change the chart layout:
- Select the Chart Tools Design tab.
- Click the More drop-down arrow in the Chart Layouts group to see all of the available layouts.
- Select the desired layout.
- The chart will update to reflect the new layout.
Some layouts include things like chart titles and legend labels. To change them, place the insertion point in the text and begin typing.
To change the chart style:
- Select the Chart Tools Design tab.
- Click the More drop-down arrow in the Chart Styles group to see all of the available styles.
- Select the desired style.
- The chart will update to reflect the new style.
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