Chapter 23

Working with Tables and Charts

IN THIS CHAPTER

Creating a new table

Moving around in a table

Selecting rows, columns, and cells

Editing a table’s structure

Applying table styles

Formatting table cells

Understanding charts

Starting a new chart

Working with chart data

Chart types and chart layout presets

Working with labels

Controlling the axes

Formatting a chart

You can type tabular data — in other words, data in a grid of rows and columns — directly into a table or import it from other applications. You can also apply formatting that makes tabular data easier to read and more attractive. When you need to create a quick chart without data from another source, PowerPoint’s charting tools work perfectly. The PowerPoint 2013 charting interface is based on the one in Excel, so you can also use PowerPoint to create equally effective and professional charts.

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to create and manage PowerPoint tables and how to create charts that present numeric data in a visual format.

Creating a New Table

A table is a great way to organize little bits of data into a meaningful picture. For example, you might use a table to show sales results for several salespeople or to contain a multicolumn list of team member names. There are several ways to insert a table, and each method has its purpose. The following sections explain each of the table creation methods.

A table can be part of a content placeholder, or it can be a separate, free-floating item. If the active slide has an available placeholder that can accommodate a table, and there is not already content in that placeholder, the table is placed in it. Otherwise the table is placed as an independent object on the slide and is not part of the layout.

Creating a table with the Insert Table dialog box

To create a basic table with a specified number of rows and columns, you can use the Insert Table dialog box. You can open it in either of two ways (see Figure 23.1):

• In a content placeholder, click the Insert Table button.
• On the Insert tab, click Tables ⇒ Table ⇒ Insert Table.

FIGURE 23.1 Open the Insert Table dialog box from either the Table menu or a content placeholder.

In the Insert Table dialog box, shown in Figure 23.2, specify a number for rows and columns and click OK. The table then appears on the slide.

FIGURE 23.2 Enter the number of rows and columns to specify the size of the table that you want to create.

Creating a Table from the Table button

When you opened the Table button’s menu (see Figure 23.1) in the preceding section, you probably couldn’t help but notice the grid of white squares. Another way to create a table is to drag across this grid until you select the desired number of rows and columns. The table appears immediately on the slide as you drag, so you can see how it will look, as shown in Figure 23.3.

FIGURE 23.3 Drag across the grid in the Table button’s menu to specify the size of the table that you want to create.

Other than the method of specifying rows and columns, this process is identical to creating a table via the Insert Table dialog box because the same issues apply regarding placeholders versus free-floating tables. If a placeholder is available, PowerPoint uses it.

Drawing a table

Drawing a table enables you to use your mouse pointer like a pencil to create every row and column in the table in exactly the positions you want. You can even create unequal numbers of rows and columns. This method is a good one to use whenever you want a table that is nonstandard in some way — different row heights, different column widths, different numbers of columns in some rows, and so on. To draw a table, follow these steps:

1. Start on a new slide, and click Home ⇒ Slides ⇒ Layout ⇒ Title Only to switch to a layout that contains no content placeholders. Add a title in the Title placeholder if you want one.

Opening a new slide with a Title Only layout isn’t a requirement for drawing a table, but it will make it easier your first time because it gives you a blank area in which to draw the table, without any placeholders in the way.

2. Click Insert ⇒ Tables ⇒ Table ⇒ Draw Table. The mouse pointer turns into a pencil.

3. Drag to draw a rectangle representing the outer frame of the table. Then release the mouse button to create the outer frame and to display the Table Tools Design tab.

4. On the Table Tools ⇒ Design tab, click Draw Table in the Draw Borders group to re-enable the Pencil tool if it is not already enabled.

5. Drag to draw the rows and columns you want. You can draw a row or column that runs all the way across or down the table’s frame, or you can stop at any point to make a partial row or column. See Figure 23.4. When you begin to drag vertically or horizontally, PowerPoint locks into that mode and keeps the line exactly vertical or horizontal and straight.

FIGURE 23.4 You can create a unique table with the Draw Table tool.

6. (Optional) To erase a line, click the Eraser button in the Draw Borders group of the Table Tools ⇒ Design tab, and then click the line to erase. Then click the Draw Table button on the Table Tools Design tab to return the mouse pointer to its drawing (pencil) mode.

7. When you finish drawing the table, press Esc or click Draw Table again to toggle the drawing mode off.

Moving around in a Table

Each cell is like a little text box. To type in a cell, click in it and type. It’s pretty simple! You can also move between cells with the keyboard. Table 23.1 lists the keyboard shortcuts for moving the insertion point in a table.

TABLE 23.1 Moving the Insertion Point in a Table

Selecting Rows, Columns, and Cells

If you want to apply formatting to one or more cells or issue a command that acts upon them, such as Copy or Delete, you must first select the cells to be affected, as shown in Figure 23.5:

• A single cell: Move the insertion point by clicking inside the desired cell. At this point, any command acts on that individual cell and its contents, not the whole table, row, or column. Drag across multiple cells to select them.
• An entire row or column: Click any cell in that row or column and then click Table Tools ⇒ Layout ⇒ Table ⇒ Select and choose Select Column (see Figure 23.5) or Select Row. Alternatively, position the mouse pointer above the column or to the left of the row, so that the mouse pointer turns into a black arrow, and then click to select the column or row. (You can drag to extend the selection to additional columns or rows when you see the black arrow.)

FIGURE 23.5 Select a row or column with the Select button’s menu, or click above or to the left of the column or row.

There are two ways to select the entire table — or rather, two senses in which the entire table can be “selected”:

• Select all table cells: When you select all of the cells, they all appear with shaded backgrounds, and any text formatting command that you apply at that point affects all of the text in the table. To select all cells, do any of the following:
  • Drag across all of the cells in the entire table.
  • Click inside the table, and then press Ctrl+A.
• Select the entire table: When you do this, the table’s frame is selected, but the insertion point is not anywhere within the table and cells do not appear with a shaded background. You do this kind of selection before moving or resizing the table, for example. To select the entire table, do any of the following:
  • Click Table Tools ⇒ Layout ⇒ Table ⇒ Select ⇒ Select Table. (Refer to Figure 23.5.)
  • Click the frame of the table.
  • Click inside the table, and then press Esc once.
  • Right-click the table and choose Select Table.

Editing a Table’s Structure

Now that you’ve created a table, let’s look at some ways to modify the table’s structure, including resizing the entire table, adding and deleting rows and columns, and merging and splitting cells.

Resizing the overall table

As with any other framed object in PowerPoint, dragging the table’s outer frame resizes it. Position the mouse pointer over one of the selection handles (the white squares on the sides and corners) so that the mouse pointer becomes a double-headed arrow, and drag to resize the table. See Figure 23.6.

FIGURE 23.6 To resize a table, drag a selection handle on its frame.

To maintain the aspect ratio (height to width ratio) for the table as you resize it, hold down the Shift key as you drag a corner of the frame. If maintaining the aspect ratio is not critical, you can drag either a corner or a side.

All of the rows and columns maintain their spacing proportionally to one another as you resize them. However, when a table contains text that would no longer fit if its row and column were shrunken proportionally with the rest of the table, the row height does not shrink fully; it shrinks as much as it can while still displaying the text. The column width does shrink proportionally, regardless of cell content.

You can also specify an exact size for the overall table frame by using the Table Size group on the Table Tools ⇒ Layout tab, as shown in Figure 23.7. From there you can enter Height and Width values. To maintain the aspect ratio, select the Lock Aspect Ratio check box before you change either the Height or Width setting.

FIGURE 23.7 Set a precise height and width for the table from the Table Size group.

Inserting or deleting rows and columns

Here’s an easy way to create a new row at the bottom of the table: Position the insertion point in the bottom-right cell and press Tab. Need something more complicated than that? The Table Tools ⇒ Layout tab contains buttons in the Rows & Columns group for inserting rows or columns above, below, to the left, or to the right of the selected cell(s), as shown in Figure 23.8. By default, each button inserts a single row or column at a time, but if you select multiple existing ones beforehand, these commands insert as many as you’ve selected. For example, to insert three new rows, select three existing rows and then click Insert Above or Insert Below.

FIGURE 23.8 Insert rows or columns by using these buttons on the Layout tab.

Alternatively, you can right-click any existing row or column, point to Insert, and choose one of the commands on the submenu. These commands are the same as the names of the buttons in Figure 23.8.

To delete a row or column (or more than one of each), select the row(s) or column(s) that you want to delete, and then open the Delete button’s menu on the Table Tools ⇒ Layout tab and choose Delete Rows or Delete Columns in the Delete group. At a lower screen resolution, you may need to click the Delete button first to see the choices for this group.

Merging and splitting cells

If you need more rows or columns in some spots than others, you can use the Merge Cells and Split Cells commands. Here are some ways to merge cells:

• Click Table Tools ⇒ Design ⇒ Draw Borders ⇒ Eraser, and then click the line you want to erase. The cells on either side of the deleted line are merged.
• Select the cells that you want to merge and click Table Tools ⇒ Layout ⇒ Merge ⇒ Merge Cells.
• Select the cells to merge, right-click them, and choose Merge Cells.

Here are some ways to split cells:

• Click Table Tools ⇒ Design ⇒ Draw Borders ⇒ Draw Table, and then drag to draw a line in the middle of a cell to split it.
• Select the cell that you want to split, right-click it, and choose Split Cells. In the Split Cells dialog box (see Figure 23.9), select the number of pieces in which to split in each direction, and click OK.

  FIGURE 23.9 Specify how the split should occur.

  
• Select the cell to split, and then click Table Tools ⇒ Layout ⇒ Merge ⇒ Split Cells. In the Split Cells dialog box (see Figure 23.9), select the number of pieces in which to split in each direction, and click OK.

Applying Table Styles

The quickest way to format a table attractively is to apply a table style to it. When you insert a table using any method except drawing it, a table style is applied to it by default; you can change to some other style if desired, or you can remove all styles from the table, leaving it plain black and white.

When you hover the mouse pointer over a table style, a Live Preview of it appears in the active table. The style is not actually applied to the table until you click the style to select it, however.

If the style you want appears in the Table Tools ⇒ Design tab’s Table Styles group, you can click it from there without opening the gallery. If not, you can scroll row by row through the gallery by clicking the up/down arrow buttons, or you can open the gallery’s full menu, as shown in Figure 23.10.

FIGURE 23.10 Apply a table style from the gallery.

To remove all styles from the table, choose Clear Table from the bottom of the gallery. This reverts the table to default settings: no fill, and plain black 1-point borders on all sides of all cells.

The table styles use theme-based colors, so if you change to a different presentation theme or color theme, the table formatting might change. (Colors, in particular, are prone to shift.)

By default, the first row of the table (a.k.a. the header row) is formatted differently from the others, and every other row is shaded differently. (This is called banding.) You can control how different rows are treated differently (or not) from the Table Style Options group on the Table Tools Design tab. There is a check box for each of six settings:

• Header Row: The first row
• Total Row: The last row
• First Column: The leftmost column
• Last Column: The rightmost column
• Banded Rows: Even and odd rows each have specific formatting
• Banded Columns: Even and odd columns each have specific formatting

Formatting Table Cells

Although table styles provide a rough cut on the formatting, you might want to fine-tune your table formatting as well. In the following sections you learn how to adjust various aspects of the table’s appearance.

Changing row height and column width

You might want a row to be a different height or a column a different width than others in the table. To resize a row or column, follow these steps:

You can also specify an exact height or width measurement using the Height and Width boxes in the Cell Size group on the Table Tools ⇒ Layout tab. Select the row(s) or column(s) to affect, and then enter sizes in inches or use the spin buttons, as shown in Figure 23.11.

FIGURE 23.11 Set a precise size for a row or column.

The Distribute Rows Evenly and Distribute Columns Evenly buttons in the Cell Size group (see Figure 23.11) adjust each row or column in the selected range so that the available space is occupied evenly among them. This is handy especially if you have drawn the table yourself rather than allowed PowerPoint to create it initially. If PowerPoint creates the table, the rows and columns are already of equal height and width by default.

You can also double-click the border between two columns to size the column to the left so that the text fits exactly within the width.

Table margins and alignment

Remember, PowerPoint slides do not have any margins per se; everything is in a frame. An individual cell does have internal margins, however.

You can specify the internal margins for cells using the Cell Margins button on the Table Tools ⇒ Layout tab, as follows:

1. Select the cells to which the setting should apply. To apply settings to the entire table, select the entire table.

2. Click Table Tools ⇒ Layout ⇒ Alignment ⇒ Cell Margins. A menu of margin presets opens.

3. Click one of the presets or choose Custom Margins, and then follow these steps:

a. In the Cell Text Layout dialog box, set the Left, Right, Top, and Bottom margin settings, as shown in Figure 23.12.

FIGURE 23.12 You can set the internal margins on an individual cell basis for each side of the cell.

b. Click OK.

Applying borders

The border lines around the cells are very important because they separate the data in each cell from the data in other cells. By default (without a table style), there’s a 1-point border around each side of each cell, but you can make some or all borders thicker, a different line style (dashed, for example), or a different color, or remove them altogether to create your own effects. Here are some ideas:

• To make items appear to “float” in multiple columns on the slide (that is, to make it look as if they are not really in a table at all — just lined up extremely well), remove all table borders.
• To create a header row at the top without using the settings in the Table Style Options group, make the border beneath the first row of cells darker or thicker than the others.
• To make certain rows or columns appear as if they are outside of the table, turn off their borders on all sides except the side that faces the other cells.
• To make certain items appear as if they have been crossed off a list, format the cells they are in with diagonal borders. This creates the effect of an X running through each cell. These diagonal lines are not really borders in the sense that they don’t go around the edge of the cell, but they’re treated as borders in PowerPoint.

When you apply a top, bottom, left, or right border, those positions refer to the entire selected block of cells if you have more than one cell selected. For example, suppose you select two adjacent cells in a row and apply a left border. The border applies only to the leftmost of the two cells. If you want the same border applied to the line between the cells too, you must apply an inside vertical border.

To apply a border, follow these steps:

1. Select the cell(s) that you want to affect.

2. In the Draw Borders group on the Table Tools ⇒ Design tab, select a line style, width, and color from the Pen Style, Pen Weight, and Pen Color drop-down lists, shown in Figure 23.13.

FIGURE 23.13 Use the Draw Borders group’s lists to set the border’s style, thickness, and color.

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Tip

Try to use theme colors rather than fixed colors whenever possible so that if you change to a different color theme later, the colors you originally chose won’t clash.

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3. Open the Borders button’s menu in the Table Styles group of the Design tab and choose the sides of the selected area to which the new settings should apply. See Figure 23.14. For example, to apply the border to the bottom of the selected area, click Bottom Border.

FIGURE 23.14 Select the side(s) to apply borders to for the chosen cells.

If you want to remove all borders from all sides, choose No Border from the menu.

4. If necessary, repeat step 3 to apply the border to other sides of the selection. Some of the choices on the Borders button’s menu apply to only one side; others apply to two or more at once.

Applying fills

By default, table cells have a transparent background so that the color of the slide beneath shows through. When you apply a table style, as you learned earlier in the chapter, the style specifies a background color — or in some cases, multiple background colors depending on the options you choose for special treatment of certain rows or columns.

You can also manually change the fill for a table to make it either a solid color or a special fill effect. You can apply this fill to individual cells, or you can apply a background fill for the entire table.

Filling individual cells

Each individual cell has its own fill setting; in this way a table is like a collection of individual object frames, rather than a single object. To set the fill color for one or more cells, follow these steps:

1. Select the cell(s) to affect, or to apply the same fill color to all cells, select the table’s outer frame.

2. On the Table Tools ⇒ Design tab, click the down arrow next to the Shading button in the Table Styles group to open its palette.

3. Select the desired color or fill effect. See Figure 23.15.

FIGURE 23.15 Apply a fill effect to the selected cell(s).

Applying an overall table fill

You can apply a solid color fill to the entire table that is different from the fill applied to the individual cells. The table’s fill color is visible only in cells in which the individual fill is set to No Fill (or a semitransparent fill, in which case it blends).

To apply a fill to the entire table, open the Shading button’s menu and point to Table Background, as shown in Figure 23.16, and then choose a color.

FIGURE 23.16 Apply a fill to the table’s background.

To test the new background, select some cells and choose No Fill for their fill color. The background color appears in those cells. If you want to experiment further, try applying a semitransparent fill to some cells, and see how the color of the background blends with the color of the cell’s fill.

Filling a table with a picture

When you fill one or more cells with a picture, each cell gets its own individual copy of it. For example, if you fill a table with a picture of a koala and the table has six cells, you get six koalas, as shown in Figure 23.17.

FIGURE 23.17 When you apply a picture fill to a table, each cell gets its own copy.

If you want a single copy of the picture to fill the entire area behind the table, do the following:

1. Select the table’s outer frame.

2. Click Table Tools ⇒ Design ⇒ Table Styles ⇒ Shading (down arrow) ⇒ Table Background ⇒ Picture.

3. In the Insert Pictures window (Figure 23.18), to use your own picture, click Browse and locate and select the picture. Or, to find a picture online, type a keyword for the picture in the Office.com Clip Art box and press Enter, and then click the desired picture.

FIGURE 23.18 Select a picture to use as the background of the table.

Applying a shadow to a table

You can apply a shadow effect to a table so that it appears “raised” off the slide background. You can make it any color you like, and adjust a variety of settings for it.

Here’s a very simple way to apply a shadow to a table:

Here’s an alternative method that gives you a bit more control:

1. Select the table’s outer frame, and then right-click the frame and choose Format Shape. The Format Shape task pane appears.

2. Click Shape Options, and then click the Effects icon.

3. Click Shadow to expand that category, as shown in Figure 23.19.

FIGURE 23.19 Apply a shadow to a table.

4. Click the Presets button, and click the desired preset.

5. Click the Color button, and click the desired color.

6. (Optional) If desired, drag any of the sliders to fine-tune the shadow. These are covered in greater detail in Chapter 9.

7. Click Close to close the Format Shape pane when you are finished.

Applying a 3-D effect to a table

PowerPoint does not enable you to apply 3-D effects to tables, so you have to fudge that by creating the 3-D effect with rectangles and then overlaying a transparent table on top of the shapes. As you can see in Figure 23.20, it’s a pretty convincing facsimile.

FIGURE 23.20 This 3-D table is actually a plain table with a 3-D rectangle behind it.

You might need to read Chapter 9 first to do some of these steps, but here’s the basic procedure:

Changing text alignment

If you followed the preceding steps to create the effect shown in Figure 23.20, you probably ran into a problem: Your text probably didn’t center itself in the cells. That’s because, by default, each cell’s vertical alignment is set to Top, and its horizontal alignment is set to Left.

Although the vertical and horizontal alignments are both controlled from the Alignment group on the Table Tools Layout tab, they actually have two different scopes. Vertical alignment applies to the entire cell as a whole, whereas horizontal alignment can apply differently to individual paragraphs within the cell. To set vertical alignment for a cell, follow these steps:

1. Select one or more cells to affect. To affect only one cell, you do not have to select it; just click inside it.

2. On the Table Tools ⇒ Layout tab, in the Alignment group, click one of the vertical alignment buttons: Align Top, Center Vertically, or Align Bottom. See Figure 23.21.

FIGURE 23.21 Set the vertical and horizontal alignment of text from the Alignment group.

To set the horizontal alignment for a paragraph, follow these steps:

Changing text direction

The default text direction for table cells is Horizontal, which reads from left to right (at least in countries where that’s how text is read). Figure 23.22 shows the alternatives.

FIGURE 23.22 You can set types of text direction.

To change the text direction for a cell, follow these steps:

Understanding Charts

PowerPoint’s charting feature is based upon the same Escher 2.0 graphics engine that is used for drawn objects. Consequently, most of what you have learned about formatting objects in earlier chapters (for example Chapter 9 in the part about Word) also applies to charts. For example, you can apply shape styles to the individual elements of a chart and apply WordArt styles to chart text. However, there are also many chart-specific formatting and layout options, as you will see throughout this chapter.

The sample chart shown in Figure 23.23 contains these elements:

• Data series: Each different bar color represents a different series: Morning, Afternoon, and Evening.
• Legend: Colored squares in the Legend box describe the correlation of each color to a data series.
• Categories: The North, South, East, and West labels along the bottom of the chart are the categories.
• Category axis: The horizontal line running across the bottom of the chart is the category axis, also called the horizontal axis.
• Value axis: The vertical line running up the left side of the chart, with the numbers on it, is the value axis, also called the vertical axis.
• Data points: Each individual bar is a data point. The numeric value for that data point corresponds to the height of the bar, measured against the value axis.
• Walls: The walls are the areas behind the data points. On a 3-D chart, as shown in Figure 23.23, there are both back and side walls. On a 2-D chart, there is only the plot area behind the chart.
• Floor: The floor is the area on which the data points sit. A floor appears only in a 3-D chart.

FIGURE 23.23 Parts of a chart

Starting a New Chart

The main difficulty with creating a chart in a non-spreadsheet application such as PowerPoint is that there is no data table from which to pull the numbers. Therefore, PowerPoint creates charts using data that you have entered in an Excel window. By default, it contains sample data, which you can replace with your own data.

You can place a new chart on a slide in two ways: You can either use a chart placeholder from a layout or place one manually. Follow these steps to place a chart:

1. On the Insert tab, click Chart. Or, click the Insert Chart button on the content placeholder. The Insert Chart dialog box opens (Figure 23.24).

FIGURE 23.24 Select the desired chart type.

2. In the list at the left, select the desired chart type. Column is selected by default (and in Figure 23.24), but you can pick any type you like.

3. From the icons along the top of the dialog box, click the icon that best represents the subtype of chart you want. In Figure 23.24, the Clustered Column type is selected. A sample of the selected chart subtype appears below the icons.

See Table 23.2 for an explanation of the chart types. Figure 23.25 and Figure 23.26 show examples of some of the chart types.

TABLE 23.2 Chart Types in PowerPoint’s Charting Tool

Type	Description
Column	Vertical bars, optionally with multiple data series. Bars can be clustered, stacked, or based on a percentage and either 2-D or 3-D.
Line	Shows values as points, and connects the points with a line. Different series use different colors and/or line styles.
Pie	A circle broken into wedges to show how parts contribute to a whole. This de-emphasizes the actual numeric values. In most cases, this type is a single-series only. The donut variant is similar to a pie but with multiple concentric rings so that multiple series can be illustrated.
Bar	Just like a column chart, but horizontal.
Area	Just like a column chart, but with the spaces filled in between the bars.
XY (Scatter)	Shows values as points on both axes, but does not connect them with a line. However, you can add trend lines. The bubble variant uses bubbles of varying sizes to represent a third data variable rather than each data point being a fixed size.
Stock	A special type of chart that is used to show stock prices.
Surface	A 3-D sheet that is used to illustrate the highest and lowest points of the data set.
Radar	Shows changes of data frequency in relation to a center point.

FIGURE 23.25 Examples of chart types, from top left, clockwise: column, line, bar, and pie

FIGURE 23.26 Examples of chart types, from top left, clockwise: area, scatter, donut, and surface

4. Click OK. The chart appears on the slide, and an Excel datasheet opens with sample data.

5. Modify the sample data as needed. To change the range of cells that appear in the chart, see the section “Redefining the Data Range” later in this chapter. If you want, you can then close the Excel window to move it out of the way.

Working with Chart Data

After you create a chart, you might want to change the data range on which it is based or how this data is plotted. The following sections explain how you can do this.

Plotting by rows versus by columns

By default, the columns of the datasheet form the data series. However, if you want, you can switch the data around so that the rows form the series. Figure 23.27 and Figure 23.28 show the same chart plotted both ways so that you can see the difference. (The data for this chart appears in the next section of the chapter, in Figure 23.29, in case you want to reference it.)

FIGURE 23.27 A chart with quarters as the series

FIGURE 23.28 A chart with regions as the series

FIGURE 23.29 You can redefine the range for the chart by dragging the blue outline on the datasheet.

What does the term data series mean? Take a look at Figure 23.27 and Figure 23.28. Notice that there is a legend beneath to each chart that shows what each color (or shade of gray) represents. Each of these colors, and the label associated with it, is a series. The other variable (the one that is not the series) is plotted on the chart’s horizontal axis.

To switch back and forth between plotting by rows and by columns in the data sheet, click the Switch Row/Column button on the Chart Tools ⇒ Design tab. If the button is not available, open the data sheet by choosing Chart Tools ⇒ Design ⇒ Data ⇒ Edit Data, and then the button will become available.

A chart can carry a very different message when you arrange it by rows versus by columns. For example, in Figure 23.27, the chart compares the quarters. The message here is about improvement — or lack thereof — over time. Contrast this to Figure 23.28, where the series data is the regions. Here, you can compare one region to another. The overriding message here is about competition — which division performed the best in each quarter? It’s easy to see how the same data can convey very different messages; make sure that you pick the arrangement that tells the story that you want to tell in your presentation.

Redefining the data range

After you have created your chart, you may decide that you need to use more or less data. Perhaps you want to exclude a month or quarter of data or to add another region or salesperson. To add or remove a data series, you can simply edit the datasheet. To do so, follow these steps:

The preceding steps work well if the range that you want to include is contiguous, but what if you wanted to exclude a row or column that is in the middle of the range? To define the range more precisely, follow these steps:

1. On the Chart Tools ⇒ Design tab in the Data group, click Select Data. The Select Data Source dialog box opens, shown in Figure 23.30, along with the Excel datasheet if it was not already displayed.

FIGURE 23.30 To fine-tune the data ranges, you can use the Select Data Source dialog box.

2. Do any of the following:

• To remove a series, select it from the Legend Entries (Series) list and click Remove.
• To add a series, click Add, and then drag across the range on the datasheet to enter it into the Edit Series dialog box; then click OK to accept it.
• To edit a series, select it in the Legend Entries (Series) list and click Edit. Then drag across the range or make a change in the Edit Series dialog box, and click OK.

3. (Optional) To redefine the range from which to pull the horizontal axis labels, click the Edit button in the Horizontal (Category) Axis Labels section. A dotted outline appears around the current range; drag to redefine that range and click OK.

4. (Optional) To redefine how empty or hidden cells should be treated, click the Hidden and Empty Cells button. In the Hidden and Empty Cell Settings dialog box that appears, choose whether to show data in hidden rows and columns and whether to define empty cells as gaps in the chart or as zero values. Then click OK. The Hidden and Empty Cell Settings dialog box is shown in Figure 23.31.

FIGURE 23.31 Specify what should happen when the data range contains blank or hidden cells.

5. When you are finished editing the settings for the data ranges, click OK to close the Select Data Source dialog box.

6. (Optional) Close the Excel datasheet window, or leave it open for later reference.

Filtering the chart data

New in PowerPoint 2013, you can use the Chart Filters feature to quickly exclude certain rows or columns from the chart. When the chart is selected on the slide, a set of three icons appears to its right: Chart Elements, Chart Styles, and Chart Filters. If you click Chart Filters, a flyout appears with check boxes for each of the series and categories, as shown in Figure 23.32. Clear the check box for anything you don’t want to see on the chart, and then click Apply. The Select Data hyperlink at the bottom of the panel opens the Select Data Source dialog box, the same as in the previous section.

FIGURE 23.32 Turn off certain series or categories from this panel if desired.

Chart Types and Chart Layout Presets

The default chart is a 2-D clustered column chart. However, there are a lot of alternative chart types to choose from. Not all of them will be appropriate for your data, of course, but you may be surprised at the different spin on the message that a different chart type presents.

You can revisit your choice of chart type at any time by following these steps:

This is the basic procedure for the overall chart type selection, but there are also many options for fine-tuning the layout. The following sections explain these options.

PowerPoint provides a limited number of preset Quick Layouts for each chart type. A layout is a combination of optional chart elements (such as legend, data table, data labels, and so on) in a particular arrangement. Quick Layouts are good starting points for creating your own layouts, which you will learn about in this chapter. To choose a Quick Layout, click Chart Tools ⇒ Design ⇒ Chart Layouts ⇒ Quick Layouts and select a layout from the gallery, as shown in Figure 23.33.

FIGURE 23.33 You can choose one of the preset Quick Layouts that fits your needs.

Working with Chart Elements

Charts are effective only if the audience understands what the data points represent. Labels and other descriptive elements on a chart can make all the difference in its usability. Figure 23.34 points out some of the various chart elements that you can use.

FIGURE 23.34 Chart elements such as labels help to make it clear to the audience what the chart represents.

To change the setting for a particular element, choose Chart Tools ⇒ Design ⇒ Chart Layouts ⇒ Add Chart Element to open a menu of elements. Then point at a particular element to see a submenu with additional options on it. If none of the choices on the submenu meet your needs, click More Options to open a task pane with a more extensive set of options. The exact name of the More Options command varies depending on the chart element; for example, for Chart Title, it is More Title Options. Figure 23.35 shows the submenu for Chart Title.

FIGURE 23.35 Control individual chart elements from the Add Chart Element button’s menu.

You can also quickly control chart elements by clicking the Chart Elements button that appears to the right of the chart when the chart is selected. Mark or clear the check boxes in the Chart Elements flyout to toggle a particular element on or off. For some elements, if you hover the mouse pointer over the option in the panel, a right-pointing triangle appears to its right. You can click that triangle for a submenu, as shown in Figure 23.36.

FIGURE 23.36 Click the Chart Elements icon to the right of a chart for quick access to chart elements.

You can format the text in any of the chart elements just as you format any other text. To do this, select the text and then use the controls in the Font group on the Home tab. This allows you to choose a font, size, color, alignment, and so on. To format more than one chart element at a time, select one, and then hold down Ctrl as you click on other chart elements to select them also.

You can also format a chart element by right-clicking it and choosing Format Name, where Name is the type of element. For example, you could right-click the vertical axis title on the chart and then choose Format Axis Title. This opens a task pane with controls appropriate for the selected chart element. As with other panes, there are section names in all caps at the top, and under the chosen selection name are icons that represent pages of options. Within a page of options are smaller uppercase headings indicating collapsible/expandable sections. Figure 23.37 shows an example.

FIGURE 23.37 Pane options are organized as shown here.

In some cases, the task pane contains only standard formatting controls that you would find for any object, such as Border, Fill, Shadow, Glow, Alignment, and so on. In other cases, in addition to the standard formatting types, there is also a unique section that contains extra options that are specific to the content type. For example, there is a Legend Options section in which you can set the position of a legend.

The following sections look at each of the chart elements more closely. These sections will not dwell on the basic formatting that you can apply to them (fonts, sizes, borders, fills, and so on) because this formatting is the same for all of them, as it is with any other object. Instead, they concentrate on the options that make each chart element different.

Working with chart titles

A chart title is text that typically appears above the chart — and sometimes overlapping it — and indicates what the chart represents. Although you would usually want either a chart title or a slide title, but not both, this could vary if you have multiple charts or different content on the same slide.

You can select a basic chart title, either above the chart or overlapping it, from the Chart Title submenu from the Add Chart Element button’s menu, as shown in Figure 23.35. You can also drag the chart title around after placing it. For more options, you can choose More Title Options from the bottom of the submenu to open the Format Chart Title pane. However, in this dialog box there is nothing that specifically relates to chart titles; the available options are for formatting (Fill, Border, and so on), as for any text box.

Working with axis titles

An axis title is text that defines the category or the unit of measurement on an axis. For example, in Figure 23.34, the vertical axis title is Thousands of Units.

Axis titles are defined separately for the vertical and the horizontal axes. Click Chart Tools ⇒ Design ⇒ Chart Layouts ⇒ Add Chart Element ⇒ Axis Titles and then select either Primary Horizontal or Primary Vertical to toggle one or the other on or off. Alternatively, you can click the Chart Elements button to the right of the chart frame and mark the Axis Titles check box to turn both of them on at once or point to the right-pointing arrow and then mark or clear the Primary Horizontal and Primary Vertical check boxes individually, as shown in Figure 23.38. When you turn on an axis title, a text box appears containing default placeholder text, “Axis Title.” Click in this text box and type your own label to replace it.

FIGURE 23.38 Turn axis titles on or off from the Axis Titles submenu.

If you’ve plotted any data on a secondary axis, you’ll see Secondary Horizontal and Secondary Vertical Axis Title options as well on the submenu.

For more control, choose More Options from the submenu, or right-click the axis title and choose Format Axis Title, to open the Format Axis Title task pane.

Look back at Figure 23.34 and notice that the vertical axis title runs sideways from top to bottom. You can change the text’s orientation for an axis by doing the following:

1. Right-click the vertical axis title and choose Format Axis Title. The Format Axis Title pane opens.

2. Click Title Options, and then click the Size & Properties icon. The Alignment controls appear. See Figure 23.39.

FIGURE 23.39 Select a text direction from the Format Axis Title pane.

3. Open the Text Direction drop-down list and choose the desired text direction, such as Horizontal. The title appears horizontally, like regular text, to the left of the vertical axis.

• Rotate All Text 90°: The title appears vertically along the vertical axis, with the letters rotated 90 degrees (so that their bases run along the axis from top to bottom).
• Rotate All Text 270°: The title appears vertically along the vertical axis, with the letters rotated 270 degrees (so that their bases run along the axis from bottom to top).
• Stacked: The title appears vertically along the vertical axis, but each letter remains unrotated, so that the letters are stacked one on top of the other.

Figure 23.40 shows some examples.

FIGURE 23.40 Text direction examples. From left to right: Rotate All Text 270°, Stacked, and Horizontal.

Each type of vertical axis shrinks the chart somewhat when you activate it, but the Horizontal option shrinks the chart more than the others because it requires more space to the left of the chart.

Working with legends

The legend is the little box that appears next to the chart (or sometimes above or below it). It provides the key that describes what the different colors or patterns mean. For some chart types and labels, you may not find the legend to be useful. If it is not useful for the chart that you are working on, you can turn it off. To turn off the legend, you can do any of the following:

• Click the legend box to select it and press the Delete key on the keyboard.
• Click Chart Tools ⇒ Design ⇒ Chart Layouts ⇒ Add Chart Element ⇒ Legend ⇒ None.
• Click the Chart Elements button to the right of the chart, and in the Chart Elements flyout, clear the Legend check box.

To turn the legend back on, click the Chart Elements button again and mark the Legend check box; this places the legend in the default position for that chart type. If you want to choose a different legend location, click Chart Tools ⇒ Design ⇒ Chart Layouts ⇒ Add Chart Element ⇒ Legend and select the position that you want for it, as shown in Figure 23.41.

FIGURE 23.41 You can select a legend position, or turn the legend off altogether, from the Legend submenu.

To resize a legend box, you can drag one of its selection handles. The text and keys inside the box do not change in size, although they may shift in position.

When you right-click the legend and choose Format Legend, or when you choose More Legend Options from the Legend submenu (see Figure 23.41), the Format Legend pane opens with the Legend Options controls displayed, as shown in Figure 23.42. From here, you can choose the legend’s position in relation to the chart and whether or not it should overlap the chart. If it does not overlap the chart, the plot area will be automatically reduced to accommodate the legend.

FIGURE 23.42 You can set legend options in the Format Legend pane.

Adding data labels

Data labels show the numeric values (or other information) that are represented by each bar or other shape on the chart. These labels are useful when the exact numbers are important or where the chart is so small that it is not clear from the axes what the data points represent.

To turn on data labels for the chart, do one of the following:

• Click the Chart Elements icon to the right of the chart, and in the flyout that appears, mark the Data Labels check box. This method places plain black numeric labels on each data point, with a transparent background on the data label box and no border.
• Click Chart Tools ⇒ Design ⇒ Chart Layouts ⇒ Add Chart Element ⇒ Data Labels ⇒ Data Callout. This method places white callout boxes for each data point, showing both the numeric value and the category name.

If you want additional options besides those two data label types, follow these steps:

1. Select the data series or data point you want to affect. To select a data series, click one of the bars (or other shapes) in the desired data series. To select a single data point, click again on the same bar (or shape).

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Note

In a multiseries chart, only one series’ data labels change at once when you make data label changes with the Format Data Label task pane. Make the changes you want to make to the first series, and then select the next data series in the chart (for example, the next color of bars on a column chart) and repeat the process.

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2. Choose Chart Tools ⇒ Design ⇒ Chart Layouts ⇒ Add Chart Element ⇒ Data Labels ⇒ More Data Label Options to open the Format Data Labels pane.

Make sure the Label Options heading is selected, and make sure the Label Options icon is selected. If needed, expand the Label Options controls under the icon, as shown in Figure 23.43. The options available depend on whether it’s a 2-D or 3-D chart and on what type of chart it is. Figure 23.43 shows the options for a 3-D column chart.

FIGURE 23.43 Control data label options from the Format Data Labels pane.

3. Mark or clear the check boxes for the types of label content under the Label Contains heading. For example, you can show the series and/or category name, the value, and the legend key (the colored square that represents the series name).

4. If you are working with a 2-D chart, choose a label position from the Label Options controls in the task pane. A label can be on the center of the bar (or other shape), inside it, or outside it. This option does not appear when you’re working with a 3-D chart.

5. To change the shape of the data label text box, right-click any of the data labels in the series and choose Change Data Label Shapes, and then click the desired shape. See Figure 23.44.

FIGURE 23.44 Change the shape of the data label box if desired.

6. To change the fill of the data label text box, in the Format Data Labels pane, click Label Options, and then click the Fill & Line icon and expand the Fill category to display the fill options. To make the data label text boxes transparent, choose No Fill, or to apply some other fill color, select it as you would for any text box or drawn shape. See Figure 23.45.

FIGURE 23.45 Change the background fill for the data label box if desired.

Adding a data table

Sometimes the chart tells the full story that you want to tell, but other times the audience may benefit from seeing the actual numbers on which you have built the chart. In these cases, it is a good idea to include the data table with the chart. A data table contains the same information that appears on the datasheet.

To display the data table with a chart, click Chart Tools ⇒ Design ⇒ Chart Layouts ⇒ Add Chart Element ⇒ Data Table and choose to include a data table either with or without a legend key. See Figure 23.46.

FIGURE 23.46 Use a data table to show the audience the numbers on which the chart is based.

To format the data table, choose More Data Table Options from the Data Table submenu in Figure 23.46. In the Format Data Table pane that appears, you can set data table border options, as shown in Figure 23.47. For example, you can display or hide the horizontal, vertical, and outline borders for the table from here.

FIGURE 23.47 Use the Data Table Options controls to specify which borders should appear in the data table.

Controlling the Axes

No, axes are not the tools that chop down trees. Axes is the plural of axis, and an axis is the side of the chart containing the measurements against which your data is plotted.

You can change the various axes in a chart in several ways. For example, you can make an axis run in a different direction (such as from top to bottom instead of bottom to top for a vertical axis), and you can turn the text on or off for the axis and change the axis scale.

Displaying or hiding an axis

Most of the time you will want to display all axes for a chart. However, in some special cases it may be appropriate to turn off an axis. To do so, click Chart Tools ⇒ Design ⇒ Chart Layouts ⇒ Add Chart Element ⇒ Axes and then click Primary Horizontal or Primary Vertical to toggle either of those off (or back on again). See Figure 23.48.

FIGURE 23.48 Turn axes off or on here.

To control how an axis appears (other than just whether or not it appears at all), choose More Axis Options from the submenu. The options for axes are covered in the following sections.

Setting axis scale options

The scale determines which numbers will form the start point and endpoint of the axis line. PowerPoint 2013 calls the scale the bounds of the axis because the minimum and maximum values on the scale define lower and upper boundaries for the axis.

Changing the axis scale can make a big difference in how an audience perceives the same data. For example, take a look at the chart in Figure 23.49. The bars are so close to one another in value that it is difficult to see the difference between them. Compare this chart to one showing the same data in Figure 23.50, but with an adjusted scale. Because the scale is smaller, the differences now appear more dramatic.

FIGURE 23.49 This chart does not show the differences between the values very well.

FIGURE 23.50 A change to the values of the axis scale makes it easier to see the differences between values.

To set the scale (bounds) for an axis, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the axis on the chart that contains the values you are plotting, and click Format Axis. (This is typically the vertical axis on a column chart.) The Format Axis pane appears, displaying the Axis Options, as shown in Figure 23.51.

FIGURE 23.51 You can set axis options in the Format Axis pane, including the axis scale (bounds).

2. If you do not want the automatic value for one of the measurements, enter a different number in its text box under Bounds. To change your mind and go back to automatic settings for these, click Auto next to the text box.

• Minimum: is the starting number. The usual setting is 0, as shown in Figure 23.49, although in Figure 23.50, it is set to 2.8.
• Maximum: is the top number. This number is 4 in both Figure 23.49 and Figure 23.50.

3. If you want the units on the axis to display differently, change the values in their boxes under Units. To change your mind and go back to automatic settings for these, click Auto next to the box.

• Major determines the axis text. It is also the unit by which gridlines stretch out across the back wall of the chart. In Figure 23.49, gridlines appear at increments of 0.5 million units; in Figure 23.50, they appear by 0.2 million units.
• Minor is the interval of smaller gridlines between the major ones. Most charts look better without minor units because they can make a chart look cluttered. In most cases, you should leave this setting at Auto. You can also use this feature to place tick marks on the axes between the labels of the major units.

4. (Optional) If you want to change where the axes cross, select Axis value in the Horizontal axis crosses section, and then enter a numeric value in its box. Changing this value recalculates the numbers in the Bounds and Units sections that are set to Auto.

5. (Optional) If you want to activate any of these special features, select their check boxes.

• Logarithmic scale. Rarely used by ordinary folks, this check box recalculates the Minimum, Maximum, Major, and Minor values according to a power of 10 for the value axis, based on the range of data. (If this explanation doesn’t make any sense to you, then you’re not the target audience for this feature.)
• Values in reverse order. This check box turns the scale backward so that the greater values appear at the bottom or left.

6. (Optional) Choose a display unit from the Display units drop-down list. This option can help simplify large numbers. For example, if you set display units to Thousands, then the number 1000 appears as 1 on the chart. If you then select the Show Display Units Label on Chart check box, an axis label will appear as Thousands.

7. (Optional) Expand the Tick Marks section below the axis options, and set tick-mark types for major and minor marks (see Figure 23.52). These marks appear as little lines on the axis to indicate the units. You can use tick marks either with or without gridlines.

FIGURE 23.52 You can choose what tick marks to use, if any.

8. Close the task pane when finished.

Setting a number format

You can apply a number format to axes and data labels that show numeric data. This is similar to the number format that is used for Excel cells; you can choose a category, such as Currency or Percentage, and then fine-tune this format by choosing a number of decimal places, a method of handling negative numbers, and so on.

To set a number format, follow these steps:

Formatting a Chart

In the following sections, you learn about chart formatting. There is so much that you can do to a chart that this subject could easily take up its own chapter! For example, just as with any other object, you can resize a chart. You can also change the fonts; change the colors and shading of bars, lines, or pie slices; use different background colors; change the 3-D angle; and much more.

There are several ways of formatting a chart’s elements. For text elements, you can use the Font group’s tools on the Home tab. The text elements on a chart use the exact same text formatting controls as any other text on a slide. You can change the font, the size, the text attributes (like bold and italic), and so on. PowerPoint treats the individual text boxes within the chart as it would treat any other text boxes.

For simple formatting of a graphical element, like changing its outline or fill color, your best bet is the Chart Tools ⇒ Format tab’s controls. You can select any chart element and then choose its border and fill color from here. For example, in Figure 23.54, Vertical (Value) Axis Major Gridlines is selected, which you can see in the selection box at the far left end of the Ribbon. You could use the Shape Outline drop-down list at this point to choose a different color or thickness for the gridlines.

FIGURE 23.54 Format a chart element’s outline and fill quickly and easily from the Chart Tools ⇒ Format tab.

For more extensive or uncommon formatting, use the task pane instead. You can open the task pane for the selected chart element by right-clicking it and choosing Format Element Name from the submenu, or by choosing Chart Tools ⇒ Format ⇒ Current Selection ⇒ Format Selection.

The sections in the pane vary, depending on the type of chart element you are formatting. There are generally two main sections, indicated by words at the top of the pane. For example, in the Format Chart Title pane, the two main sections are Title Options and Text Options. Beneath these main section headings are a series of icons. The icons are different depending on the main section that’s active. For example, in Figure 23.55, with Title Options selected, the three icons that appear are Fill & Line, Effects, and Size & Properties. In Figure 23.56, with Text Options selected, the icons that appear are Text Fill & Outline, Text Effects, and Textbox. This is an example of just one pane; each chart element type has its own unique combination of options in its pane.

FIGURE 23.55 When Title Options is selected for a chart title, these are the icons available.

FIGURE 23.56 When Text Options is selected for a chart title, these are the icons available.

For most chart elements, the following sections are available from the Fill & Line icon:

• Fill: You can choose No Fill, Solid Fill, Gradient Fill, Picture or Texture Fill, Pattern Fill, or Automatic. When you select Automatic, the color changes to contrast with the background color specified by the theme.
• Border: You can choose No Line, Solid Line, Gradient Line, or Automatic. When you select Automatic, the color changes to contrast with the background color specified by the theme. You can also set a width, a compound type (that is, a line made up of multiple lines), and a dash type.

Most chart elements include these choices with the Effects icon:

• Shadow: You can apply a preset shadow in any color you want, or you can fine-tune the shadow in terms of transparency, size, angle, and so on. You might need to apply a fill to the box in order for the shadow to appear. This shadow is for the text box, not for the text within it; use the Font group on the Home tab to apply the text shadow, or use the shadows available for WordArt.
• Glow: These options add a colored halo effect around the element. You can choose a preset or select a color, size, and amount of transparency yourself.
• Soft Edges: These options blur the edges of the element. You can choose a preset or specify a precise size of the soft edge.
• 3-D Format: You can define 3-D settings for the text box, such as Bevel, Depth, Contour, and Surface.

Depending on the chart element selected, the third icon may be Size & Properties, as in Figure 23.55, or something else. For example, for legends, it is Legend Options. Some elements may even have a fourth icon. For example, for data labels, there is both a Size & Position icon and a Label Options icon. If the selected element has a Size & Position icon, you can use its controls to set vertical and horizontal alignment, angle, and text direction as well as control AutoFit settings for some types of text.

From the Home tab or the Mini Toolbar, you can also choose all of the text effects that you learned about earlier in this book, such as font, size, font style, underline, color, alignment, and so on.

Applying chart styles

Chart styles are presets that you can apply to charts in order to add colors, backgrounds, and fill styles. The Chart Styles gallery, shown in Figure 23.57, is located on the Chart Tools ⇒ Design tab, which appears when you select a chart. Point to a sample in the gallery to see its style previewed on the chart.

FIGURE 23.57 You can apply a chart style using the Chart Styles gallery.

If you used PowerPoint 2010, it might seem at first glance that there are fewer chart styles in PowerPoint 2013. However, this is an illusion because in PowerPoint 2010, the different color variations were included in the Chart Style gallery as separate entities. By separating the color choices from the style choices, PowerPoint 2013 actually provides more choices and more flexibility.

Each of the chart styles uses whatever colors are assigned to the placeholders in your current color theme for the presentation. You can change the colors for the chart only, without having to change the colors for the whole presentation, by clicking the Change Colors button to the left of the Chart Styles gallery. However, the colors on the Change Colors button’s menu are indirectly related to the color theme in use for the whole presentation; they are various tints and shades of the theme colors, in various combinations. To change colors completely, you must change the whole presentation’s colors, as you learned to do in Chapter 22 “Working with Layouts, Themes, and Masters.”

New in PowerPoint 2013, you can also apply chart styles via the Chart Styles icon that appears to the right of the chart when it is selected on the slide. Click the Chart Styles button, as shown in Figure 23.58, and then click the desired style. You can click Color at the top of the panel to select colors from there also, as you would from the Change Colors button on the Chart Tools Design tab.

FIGURE 23.58 Click the Chart Styles button to the right of the chart to quickly apply a different style or color.

Formatting the chart area and plot area

The chart area is the entire chart, everything within the big frame that contains the plotted data and all the associated elements: the legend, the data series, the data table, the titles, and so on. Right-click anywhere within the chart area (not on any specific element) and choose Format Chart Area to open the Format Chart Area pane.

The Format Chart Area pane has many of the same sections the pane for text boxes has. Under Chart Options you’ll find Fill & Line, Effects, and Size & Properties. Under Text Options are Text Fill & Outline, Text Effects, and Textbox. Any settings you apply to the chart area will apply to all the text and objects within the chart area unless a specific chart element is formatted differently to override that.

The plot area is the part of the chart where the data is plotted. It includes the data series and axes as well as any data labels, but it excludes the axis titles, the chart title, and the legend. You can choose to format the plot area differently from the chart area if you like, although it’s not common to do so. For example, you could apply a different background fill color to the plot area, as in Figure 23.59. By default the plot area’s background is transparent, so the background of the chart area shows through. If, in turn, the chart area is also transparent, then the background of the slide behind them both shows through.

FIGURE 23.59 The plot area has a different fill color than the chart area in this example.

Formatting the legend

When you use a multiseries chart, the value of the legend is obvious — it tells you which colors represent which series. Without the legend, your audience will not know what the various bars or lines mean. You can do all of the same formatting for a legend that you can for other chart elements. Just right-click the legend, choose Format Legend from the shortcut menu, and then use the Format Legend task pane to make your modifications. For example, you could apply a background fill to the legend box, place a border around it, and so on. You could also change the font and size used for the legend text from the Fonts group on the Home tab.

Formatting gridlines and walls

Gridlines help the reader’s eyes move across the chart. Gridlines are related to the axes, which you learned about earlier in this chapter. Although both vertical and horizontal gridlines are available, most people use only horizontal ones. To turn gridlines on or off, click Chart Tools ⇒ Design ⇒ Chart Layouts ⇒ Add Chart Element ⇒ Gridlines. See Figure 23.60.

FIGURE 23.60 Turn gridlines on and off from the Add Chart Element button’s menu.

In most cases, the default gridlines that PowerPoint adds work well. However, you may want to make the lines thicker or a different color. Apply those changes by selecting the gridlines and then using the Chart Tools ⇒ Format tab’s commands. You can select one of the Shape Styles from there, or use the Shape Outline and/or Shape Effects drop-down lists to apply formatting.

Walls are nothing more than the space between the gridlines, formatted in a different color than the plot area. You can set the walls’ fill to None to hide them. To set the wall color, right-click the wall and choose Format Wall, and then choose a fill color in the Format Wall pane.

Formatting the data series

To format a data series, just right-click the bar, slice, or chart element, and choose Format Data Series from the shortcut menu. Then, depending on your chart type, different series options appear that you can use to modify the series appearance. Here are the icons available for bar and column charts, for example:

• Fill & Line: These options enable you to choose a fill and a border for the series, with choices for fill including solid, gradient, or picture/texture. Under Border you can choose a border color, style, and thickness. This is just like filling drawn shapes, as you learned in Chapter 9.
• Effects: These options include the same standard options available for any drawn object, including Shadow, Glow, Soft Edges, and 3-D Format.
• Series Options: This section contains options that are specific to the selected chart type. For example, when you’re working with a 3-D bar or column chart, the series options include Gap Depth and Gap Width, which determine the thickness and depth of the bars. For a pie chart, you can set the rotation angle for the first slice as well as whether a slice is “exploded” or not. For charts involving bars and columns, you can choose a shape option such as Box, Full Pyramid, Partial Pyramid, Cylinder, Full Cone, or Partial Cone. The partial options truncate the top part of the shape when it is less than the largest value in the chart.

Other chart types have very different series options available. For example, a line chart has Line and Marker Options, including marker Fill, line Color, line Style, marker outline Color, and marker type.

Rotating a 3-D Chart

3-D charts can be rotated in one or more directions: X (side to side), Y (top to bottom), and Perspective (the angle from which you view it). There is also a Z rotation (pivoting around a center point), but it is inactive for most chart types.

The Right Angle Axes check box (in the Format Plot Area task pane) is very important when setting chart rotation for most chart types. If the Right Angle Axes option is enabled, the chart axes do not rotate — only the data bars (or other shapes) rotate. If Right Angle Axes is disabled, the entire content of the plot area rotates together as a whole, including the axes. Figure 23.61 shows a rotated chart where Right Angle Axes is turned off.

FIGURE 23.61 Right Angle Axes is disabled, and both X Rotation and Y Rotation are set to 30°.

To set a chart’s rotation, follow these steps:

1. Select the chart’s plot area. You can do this by clicking it, or by displaying the Chart Tools ⇒ Format tab and selecting Plot Area from the drop-down list in the Current Selection group.

2. Display the Format Plot Area pane. You can do this by right-clicking the plot area and choosing Format Plot Area, or by clicking Chart Tools ⇒ Format ⇒ Current Selection ⇒ Format Selection.

3. In the Format Plot Area pane, click the Effects icon, and then expand the 3-D Rotation controls.

4. Mark or clear the Right Angle Axes check box as desired, depending on how you want the chart to appear. If the feature is off, the whole plot area rotates, including the axes; if the feature is on, only the data series rotate.

5. Click the increment buttons to increase or decrease the X Rotation, Y Rotation, and/or Perspective settings as desired. You may need to experiment with these to find the settings that show your chart the way you want it. See Figure 23.62.

FIGURE 23.62 Set the 3-D Rotation options for the chart in its Format Plot Area pane.

6. Close the pane when you are finished working with the chart’s rotation.

Summary

In this chapter, you learned the ins and outs of creating and formatting tables and charts in PowerPoint, including how to:

• Insert tables using multiple methods.
• Add text in a table, navigate, and select rows and columns.
• Work with the table structure, such as adding and removing rows and columns and changing table size.
• Use table styles and other formatting to enhance a table.
• Create a chart and specify how it plots data.
• Change chart type and data range.
• Use optional text elements on them such as titles, data labels, and so on to clarify the chart.
• Format the various parts of the chart.