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Advanced Chart Options

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About this lesson

Understand and work with the tricky parts of charts such as axes and legends.

Lesson versions

Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:

2010, 2013, 2016, 2019/365.

Exercise files

Download the ‘before’ and ‘after’ PowerPoint presentations from the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.

Advanced Chart Options.pptx
128.7 KB
Advanced Chart Options - Solution.pptx
128.6 KB

Quick reference

Advanced Chart Options

Working with advanced chart features.

When to use

To customize and populate a chart that is already inserted on a slide.

Instructions

  • Chart elements can be added to a chart from:
    • The pop-out icon beside a chart when the chart is selected.
    • The Design tab, and then click the Add Chart Element drop-down arrow.
    • The chart elements pop-out icon includes a fly-out arrow to select sub-categories of that element, or further options.
  • Right-click any Chart element or double/triple clicking it will bring up the Task Pane to customize that particular option.
  • The context of the Task Pane changes depending on which chart element is selected.
  • General groups of options include Fill and Line, and Effects.

Good practice when working with charts

  • A chart should have a relevant title.
  • Each axis title should explain the category of data presented and the numerical range of the data.
  • The legend should identify and explain the series data.
  • A large (excessive) number of major gridlines is not necessary.
  • If you have two charts on a slide with similar data types, the scales of the Y axes should be the same to allow meaningful comparisons.

Also note:

The Format task pane contains a drop-down arrow item that allows you to select a chart element quickly such as chart area, chart title, etc. These can also be selected with the pointer on the chart and the Task pane will change to that option.

The Task Pane can be dragged to another monitor (if connected to your computer) and remain open while you work on charts.

Other fly-out icons include a Chart Styles icon and a Chart Filters icon.

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  • 00:04 In this video, we're going to start adding some chart elements,
  • 00:08 editing particular chart elements, and looking for potential problems.
  • 00:12 So we're going to start with a chart on our slide in PowerPoint.
  • 00:15 And there's another video that covers inserting charts on the slides.
  • 00:20 I select this particular chart and
  • 00:21 notice immediately there is a chart title there already.
  • 00:25 And I'm given these three little flyout icons.
  • 00:28 The little plus sign icon allows me to add or
  • 00:31 remove particular chart elements from the chart.
  • 00:34 A style and color icon, and what I term a filter icon to add or
  • 00:38 remove series and categories.
  • 00:42 For the chart elements icon, it's the same as if I went to the design
  • 00:45 tab on the ribbon, and used the add chart elements button here.
  • 00:50 So, I click on this icon, and
  • 00:52 add labels to the primary horizontal and primary vertical axis.
  • 00:57 And these display on the chart immediately.
  • 01:01 I get values for the vertical axis and the category names with the horizontal axis.
  • 01:05 I'll also add axis titles and we will rename them shortly.
  • 01:10 I don't need data labels or data table or error bars.
  • 01:14 But it's really handy to have them automatically display as I move my mouse
  • 01:18 over them.
  • 01:20 Now error bars are really more about advanced statistics.
  • 01:24 I also need a legend.
  • 01:26 It's good practice to let users know what your chart is telling them with as much
  • 01:29 detail as you can add.
  • 01:31 Without of course making a to cluttered.
  • 01:33 So your chart should explain themselves as if you weren't there to actually explain
  • 01:37 them to somebody.
  • 01:39 I'm happy with those additions to the chart elements now editing the elements on
  • 01:43 the chart is the simplest clicking within the element.
  • 01:46 Such as this chart title and I can drag my mouse over the text and
  • 01:50 type in City weather.
  • 01:52 I can click within the vertical access title and type in temp.
  • 01:56 With a full stop, because it's abbreviated, and
  • 01:59 the horizontal access I type city.
  • 02:02 If we go to the next slide, notice that we have what looks like two similar charts
  • 02:07 with similar data, but they're a bit different.
  • 02:09 So let's do some fixing.
  • 02:10 First of all, let's make them look the same.
  • 02:13 If I select chart one on the left,
  • 02:16 the chart styles group shows me that styles seven is selected.
  • 02:20 And the other chart shows that style one is selected, so
  • 02:25 I apply style one to both charts.
  • 02:29 Now, we'll also notice the colors of the columns don't match.
  • 02:31 This might be because some of the chart elements.
  • 02:34 Were changed some time previously after this style was applied.
  • 02:39 So with that chart selected, I click the change colors menu button and
  • 02:43 I can see that the first color ramp entry is selected for that chart.
  • 02:47 When I select the first chart the change colors menu button, and
  • 02:51 the second color ramp is selected so I click the first one.
  • 02:55 Which matches the one that was used in other chart, now they match.
  • 03:00 Now, to fix the scales,
  • 03:03 now charts with similar item must be compared with similar scales.
  • 03:07 It must be crazy to see charts scales out of wack or
  • 03:08 changing as the presentation advances.
  • 03:11 So I found a chart with a greatest scale on the left which is 40.
  • 03:16 And double click and we can see that the maximum here is 25 type in 40.
  • 03:22 And either enter or tab and close that down now that we
  • 03:26 can see that the scales is exactly match, that's much better.
  • 03:30 Now while we're here let's have a look at a few things, well double click again.
  • 03:34 And notice the Axis Options drop-down arrow.
  • 03:38 So we could select the chart area, the chart title, or various items.
  • 03:42 We have the fill and line, shadow, glow, soft edges, and so forth.
  • 03:49 I tend to leave those alone.
  • 03:51 Size and properties, such as the text alignment, the text direction, and
  • 03:54 custom angles.
  • 03:56 As well as the area where we will before to look at the actual data numbers.
  • 04:01 So we have the balance of the axis which is from 0 to 40.
  • 04:06 We have the major units or
  • 04:08 the minor units which govern the interval between these grid lines.
  • 04:12 We have the horizontal axis crosses at, we have tick marks
  • 04:17 where we can place tick marks either outside or inside.
  • 04:22 And sometimes it's easier not just to have them as well as the labels are numbers.
  • 04:27 And you can explore these as you explore charts in PowerPoint.
  • 04:30 So let's close that down.
  • 04:31 While we're here, we can apply a legend, and notice on this little flyer,
  • 04:38 we can apply the legend to the right, to the top, to the left or to the bottom.
  • 04:44 I tend to place it at the right because that's where people are used to seeing it.
  • 04:47 So I will do the same year legend, click to the right and
  • 04:52 now our charts are quite comparable.
  • 04:55 So in summary, there's so much to charting.
  • 04:57 It's often easier to use a particular chart style.
  • 05:00 To quickly format the chart let the power of both Excel and
  • 05:02 PowerPoint do the work for you.
  • 05:04 But you can also access these various icons on the chart, and
  • 05:08 they allow you to access further options including the ribbon as well.
  • 05:13 Remember the task pane works on the context of what you've selected,
  • 05:17 particularly if you double click.
  • 05:19 Or you can right click on any item and select the appropriate menu item.
  • 05:23 So good luck with charts, they are powerful when constructive and
  • 05:26 displayed well.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

Adding and Editing Charts
07m:24s
Structure Your Tables
06m:22s
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