Advanced PowerPoint:
Import Data

Step-by-Step:Import Data

---

What you will learn:

to insert a file as an object to select a sheet to display to format imported data to use TAB to select a covered object

---

Start with: ,  nz-chart.ppt from previous lesson, nz-languages.xls from your resource files

The Story So Far:
You are creating a presentation on New Zealand for World Travel Inc.
 
You will add a chart about what languages are spoken in New Zealand. The main language of New Zealand is English and most World Travel Inc. customers speak some English, but English is not the native language for many customers.
 
A co-worker has found some tables from the census office in New Zealand about the languages spoken, but there is more there than anyone probably wants to know! She created an Excel file, nz-languages.xls, using some of that data. You will import a chart from that spreadsheet.

1. If necessary,  open nz-chart.ppt from your Class disk.
    
2. Add a new slide to follow Rain Days.
    
3. Type as the new slide's title  Languages .
    
4. Save As  nz-import.ppt  to your Class disk.
   How to handle a full Class disk

---

Import Data

When you import data into PowerPoint, you are bringing in a whole file. For Excel files, you can choose which sheet is displayed on the slide.

1. From the menu select  Insert  |  Object...  The Insert Object dialog appears.
   
    
2. Click on the radio button (circle) for Create from file and then click the Browse Button.
   The Browse dialog opens.
    
3. Navigate to the resource files on your hard disk and select nz-languages.xls
   or enter the path
   c:\My Documents\complit101\presentations\nz-languages.xls

   
    
   If you do not find this file on your hard disk, you can download it.
    

4. Click on OK.  The Insert Object dialog changes to show the path to the file you selected.

   

5. Click on OK. The sheet that was showing when the file was last saved is displayed on the slide, centered.
    
   Ick! What a horrible table for a slide. Far too many table entries and text is far too small.
    
   Before making any formatting changes, let's look at this file in Excel and see if there is something else there that you can use instead!
    
   If AutoLayout is on, the table will be sized smaller to fit in the Body placeholder. Makes a bad situation even worse!

---

Open Object

One of the advantages of importing your data as an object is that you can edit it in place with the original program. It's as easy as a double-click!

1. Double-click the table on the Language slide.  Several things change!
   • The table turns into a spreadsheet.
   • The toolbars change to Excel toolbars.
   • Navigation buttons from Excel show up at the bottom of the table.
   • Menus change to Excel menus

   

   These changes happen only if you have Microsoft Excel installed on the computer.

   Alternate method: Right click the table. From the popup menu choose Worksheet Object and then Edit.
    

2. Click on the right arrow in the navigation bar at the bottom of the spreadsheet. There are two more sheets in this Excel file.
    
   If the spreadsheet is too narrow to read the full chart names, you can resize it by dragging on one of the resizing handles.
    
3. Click on the last tab, Chart-Non-English Languages. The display changes to show the chart sheet.
   You need to resize and position this object!
    
    

---

Edit Object

While your object (the spreadsheet) is in this window, you can make changes. Since you did not Link this object back to the original file, your changes don't affect the original at all. You are free to play!

1. If your chart is off the slide to the right, move your mouse pointer to the inside edge of the border and drag left. The mouse pointer does NOT change shape in this case.
    
2. Resize the chart by dragging the corner handles. (The display may look like overlapping charts but there aren't really two of them.)
    
   You don't need the chart title so let's remove it.
   
    
3. Click on the chart title to select it.
    
4. Press the DELETE key. The whole chart resizes to use the space.
    
   You can change the font and remove some of the numbers to make the axes easier to read.
    
5. Right click on the number labels for the Y-axis.
   
    
6. Select the Scale tab.
    
7. Change the major unit to 40000.
   
    
8. Select the Font tab.
    
9. Change the font size to 20.
    
10. Click on OK.
     
11. Right click on the language names across the bottom (the X-axis) and select Format Axis.
     
12. In the Format Axis dialog, select the Font tab and set the Font Size to 20.
     
13. Click on OK.
     
    Chart frame is off the slide at the bottom:
    You need to change the Zoom setting to see the bottom of the frame. If you try to scroll to see it, you will probably slip over to the next slide. So frustrating!
    On the Formatting toolbar, change the Zoom to the next smaller percentage. Can you see the handles at the bottom of the chart's frame? If not, try smaller Zoom settings until you can see the handles.
    Drag the bottom center handle up until the chart frame is fully onto the slide. The language labels may turn vertical, as in the illustration at the right.
    
    When you resized the chart, the font size for the axes labels may have dropped from 20 to 18.
    
     Chart area is too small: Drag the bottom edge of the chart frame down to the edge of the slide.
     
14. Click on the slide, outside of the chart area.
     
    The Excel features vanish and those finicky labels slant again. Your chart may look different if its size is different.
    So confusing when what you see while editing is not what you see on the slide!!
     

---

Select & Delete Placeholder Under Chart

Is the original text placeholder is still here underneath the chart? It won't show when the slide is shown. But you can get rid of it.

You will to use a new technique to get at it. The TAB key comes to the rescue!

(Even if your text placeholder vanished, read through the steps to see how get to an object that is covered by another object.)

1. Click on the words Click to add text to try to select the placeholder. Did the placeholder's border turn to dots? Probably not. As the illustration at the right shows, the circle handles for the chart are showing.
    
   Since the chart is stacked on top of the placeholder, it was covering those words.
    
2. Press the TAB key on your keyboard. The Title text box is selected.
    
3. Press TAB again. NOW the text placeholder is selected.
    
4. Press the DELETE key. The placeholder vanishes. Much neater!
    

Alternate method- Change Stacking Order: Select the chart. From the Drawing bar, click the Draw button and select  Order | Send to Back . This puts the chart underneath the text box. Now you can select the text box and delete it.

---

Add Text Box and Format

The chart does not include the number of people who speak English. The bar for English would be so tall that the other bars would be impossible to read! You can add that information in a text box, as a kind of subtitle for the slide.

1. Create Text Box: On the Drawing bar, click the Text Box button . When you move your mouse over the slide, the pointer changes to vertical bar with a small crossbar near the bottom.
    
2. Click underneath the Title placeholder. A small text box appears with the cursor in it, ready for your typing.
    
3. Enter Text:  Type: English Speakers = 3,425,304
   With this method, the text box will be exactly wide enough to hold your text.
    
4. Format the text:  
     Font Size = 20
     Color = Green
     Bold
    
   The text box is probably not centered under the title, depending on exactly where you clicked to create it.
    
5. Align Text Box:
    
   Horizontally: While the new text box is selected, hold the SHIFT key down and click on the Title placeholder, Languages, to add it to the selection. On the Drawing bar, select  Draw  |  Align or Distribute  |  Align Center .
    
    The placeholder and the text box line up neatly over each other.
    
   Vertically: Select the Title placeholder, the English Speakers text box and the chart. From the Draw menu select  Draw  |  Align or Distribute  |  Distribute Vertically .  The three items are rearranged neatly, even though the text box must overlap the others.
    
6. Click onto a blank area of the slide to deselect the objects.
7. Save. [nz-import.ppt]
   How to handle a full Class disk

   

8. Play the Slide Show starting with this slide.
   Hmmm. The title and chart are animated, using the Slide Master settings, but the text box appears when the slide shows up. Perhaps you can fix this unhappy state in the next lesson.

---

Evaluate

Is the chart working well on this slide? What was the purpose for this presentation? Will this slide help accomplish that purpose?

The font size may have changed to 18 for the numbers and languages. (It changes automatically when you resize the chart.) This is OK for viewing on a monitor. It may be too small to do much good on a projection screen in a large room.