Using Charts with MS Powerpoint 2007

MS Office PowerPoint 2007 includes many different types of charts and graphs that you can use to inform your audience about inventory levels, organizational changes, sales figures, and much more.

FYI – If Microsoft Office Excel 2007 isn’t installed on your computer, you will not be able to take advantage of the advanced charting capabilities in the 2007 Microsoft Office system. If Office Excel 2007 is not installed, when you create a new chart in Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007, Microsoft Graph opens. A chart then appears with its associated data in a table called a datasheet. You can enter your own data in the datasheet, import data from a text file to the datasheet, or paste data from another program to the datasheet.

Charts are an Illustration feature than can be found in MS Word 2007 and MS Power Point 2007. Here is a quick list on how to find and activate charts in Word and Power Point 2007:

1. Look for the tab the says “Insert”
2. Once you have clicked “Insert” tab, look for the section of options called “Illustrations”
3. Once you have found the “Illustrations” section, click on “Charts”
4. When you click on the “Charts” logo, list of charts opens up. Choose the “Chart” that best illustrates the information you are trying to portray
5. Not sure which chart to use? Try a few until you find the one that illustrates your information in the most concise way

After you create a chart, you can modify it. For example, you may want to change the way that axes are displayed, add a chart title, move or hide the legend, or display additional chart elements.

To modify a chart, you can:

• Add titles and data labels to a chart To help clarify the information that appears in your chart, you can add a chart title, axis titles, and data tables.
• Add a legend or data table You can show or hide a legend or change its location. In some charts, you can also show at data table that displays the legend keys and the values that are presented in the chart.
• Apply special options for each chart type Special lines such as high-low lines and trendlines , bars, data markers , and other options are available for different chart types.

Here is an example o a basic line chart with labels and data:

Instead of manually adding or changing chart elements or formatting the chart, you can quickly apply a predefined chart layout and chart style to your chart. Check out this quick guideline for changing chart layout and style:

• Select a chart using the “Insert” and then “chart” option.
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• Once you have selected the chart that will best illustrate your information, apply a style and layout by clicking the “Picture Tools” tab at the top of your screen.
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Not sure which style and layout to use? Try a few until your chart has the feeling and look you presentation needs.

Smart Art is another way of communicating information in Power Point. Check out this youtube video on how to produce an organizational chart. The info in this video should give you a good idea on how to apply Smart Art to any presentation.

There are a variety of self help services. If you get really stuck google ‘help-ms powerpoint 2007 charts‘. Here are two of my favorite help sites:

1. Power Point 2007 help
2. Google/Youtube videos