Advanced PowerPoint:
Chart

Step-by-Step:Create a Chart

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What you will learn:

to add a chart to enter data in datasheet to choose a chart type to format a chart

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Start with: ,  nz-table.ppt

The Story So Far:
You are creating a presentation on New Zealand for World Travel Inc. to show customers.
 
You will create a chart of the number of rainy days in each season for the same places in New Zealand that you used for the table of temperatures.

Insert Chart

1. Add a new slide after the Temperatures slide.
    
2.  Type  Rain Days  as the title.
    
3. Apply the Title-Chart layout  from the Slide Layout task pane.
   
    
4. Double-click the icon on the slide. The default chart and datasheet appear with the default data.
    

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Enter Data

You must replace the default data with your own. The chart will change automatically to match.

1. Enter the data from the table below into your datasheet. The numbers are the number of days with rain in the season. You do not need to worry about the cell size in the data table.
    
   Printable copy of data table

   Alternate to typing it all: Copy the table below and paste it into Word or Excel.  Copy the whole table from Word or Excel and paste into your datasheet. You cannot copy the table directly from this web page and paste into your datasheet because each row will paste into 1 cell!
    

   Places	Spring	Summer	Fall	Winter
   Bay of Islands	11	7	11	16
   Auckland	12	8	11	15
   Rotorua	11	9	9	13
   Wellington	11	7	10	13
   Christchurch	7	7	7	7
   Queenstown	9	8	8	7

   

2. Click on the slide to close the Microsoft Graph interface. The chart is showing on the slide.
    
   You can make some formatting and layout changes that will make this chart easier to read and more attractive.
    

3. Save As to your Class disk as  nz-chart.ppt .
   How to handle a full Class disk
    

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Format Chart

You actually have a lot of control over how your chart looks. You can change the fonts, color, background, and layout.

You will fix the following problems:

• Missing some seasons from the X-axis.
• Color for Bay of Islands data is same as the background.
• The colors of the chart bars are not attractive.
• The legend is taking too much space.

Unfortunately, your chart text may look more jagged than expected. Anti-aliasing does not work as well for charts in PowerPoint. If you use PowerPoint Viewer to run you show on a computer that does not have PowerPoint installed, all the fonts will be more jagged.

Remember: While in Microsoft Graph, Undo will work only for the previous action. There is no list of actions!

1. Double-click the chart to open it in Microsoft Graph again.
    
   Alternate method: Right click and choose Chart Object | Edit.
    
2. X- and Y-Axes:
   The default font is Arial Black. The characters are too large for all of the season names to fit on the X-axis. The numbers on the Y-axis are hard to read. The strokes are too thick.
    
   1. Right click on the X-axis labels (Spring, Fall).
       
   2. From the popup menu select  Format Axis...   The Format Axis dialog appears with several tabs.
       
   3. On the Font tab, change the Font to Arial.
      
       
   4. On the Alignment tab, change the Orientation to 45º by dragging the Text line up. The dot turns red when you are at exactly 45º.
       
      If you have trouble with dragging, you can type 45 in the Degrees box.
       
      Now all four seasons show. Sometimes all you need to do is change the font or font size.
       
   5. Click on OK to accept the changes to the X-axis.
       
   6. Right click on the Y-axis (the vertical numbers) and choose   Format Axis... 
      
       
   7. Change the Font to Arial and click on OK.
      
       
3. Bar Colors:
   The light blue color on the first series of bars looks OK on the white background, but the chart background is actually transparent. On the slide those bars are the same color as the background. Not good!
    
   The automatic colors are chosen first from the colors in the slide color scheme and then from standard colors.
    
   1. Right click on a light blue bar. All of the light blue bars are selected and show handles.
       
      Clicking twice on a bar will select just that one bar. Be careful  how many times and where you click!
       
   2. From the popup menu select  Format Data Series...  The Format Data Series dialog opens.
      
       
   3. If necessary, click on the Pattern tab.
       
   4. Click the light green color at the bottom of the upper color palette and click on OK.
       
      All the bars for Bay of Islands are now light green. The legend changed to match.
       
      Automatic colors: The colors used automatically for the data bars are listed in the second palette of colors. The first row is the colors from the slide's color scheme. The order on the palette is the order in which they will be picked.
       
      If you change your color scheme later, only the colors that you chose from the scheme will change to match the new color scheme.
       
   5. Repeat for the black bars, choosing light blue from the upper color palette.
       
4. Legend:
   The legend at the left takes up way too much space and the font is too thick to read easily.
   1. Right click on the legend.
       
   2. From the popup menu select  Format Legend... 
      The Format Legend dialog opens.
       
   3. On the Font tab, change the Font to Arial.
       
   4. On the Placement tab, select Top.
       
   5. Click on OK to close the dialog.
      The legend moves to run across the top of the chart and the chart expands horizontally.

   

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Add Text Box

Perhaps it is clear to you that the numbers on the Y-axis are a number of days. Some people might think it's the number of inches of rain. To make it clear, you should add a label. Unlike Excel, Microsoft Graph does not include an option to add an axis label, so you will have to add a text box yourself.

1. With the chart displayed in Microsoft Graph,  display the Drawing toolbar. [View | Toolbars | Drawing]
    
2.  Click on the Text Box button on the Drawing bar.
    
3. To the left of the Y-axis, drag to create a small vertical text box.  (Exact dimensions do not matter right now.)
    
4. Type the word Days. The font size is far too small.
    
5. Right click on the border of the text box.
    
6. From the popup menu select  Format Text Box...  The Format Text Box dialog opens with several tabs.
    
   If the dialog only shows a Font tab, then you clicked inside the text box instead of on the border.
    
7. Font Size: On the Font tab, change the Size to 20.
   
    
8. Text Direction: On the Alignment tab, select the orientation for text from bottom to top.
    
9. Click on OK to close the dialog.
    
10. If necessary, drag the text box down to center the word Days vertically along the Y-axis.
     
     

    

11. Click onto the slide to close the chart and go back to the slide.
     

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Align

With all the editing you have done, it is likely that your title placeholder and the chart are not quite in alignment, making the slide feel unbalanced. The Drawing Bar can come to the rescue!

1. Click on the Title placeholder to select it.
    
2. Hold the SHIFT key down and click on the chart. Now both the placeholder and the chart are selected.
    
3. Click on the Draw button on the Drawing bar.
    
4. From the Draw menu, select  Align or Distribute  and then  Align Center .
    
   If your parts were not centered, a small shift occurs that aligns the legend and the placeholder better.
    
5. Save to your Class disk.[nz-chart.ppt]
   How to handle a full Class disk
   
    

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Evaluate

View the slide full screen.

How easy is it to read? Is there too much data? Could you accomplish the same purpose with fewer data bars? Multiple charts?