Module 2: Using Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Academic Coursework

Tips for Moving Charts from Excel to PowerPoint

If you copy charts created in Excel and paste them onto slides in a PowerPoint presentation, you will not retain the color schemes and formatting you have established in your presentation. Equally important, you will not be able to make any changes to the charts using PowerPoint.

To properly insert a chart on a PowerPoint slide, follow these steps:

1. Insert a new slide in your presentation. Choose Title and Chart as the layout of the slide.
2. Click on the Title area and type the title you want to give the slide. (This title should clearly describe the contents of the chart.)
3. Click on the icon labelled "Double click to add chart." (A sample chart based on sample data will appear.)
4. Pull down the Edit menu and choose Import File
5. In the Import File dialogue box, navigate to the Excel workbook that contains the data and chart you wish to use. Click Open to open the file in Excel.
6. In the Import Data Options dialogue box
   1. Select the worksheet that contains your data and chart
   2. Under Import, select the Range: radio button and and check Overwrite the existing cells
7. In the Range: dialogue box, type the data range for the data (the table and labels you used in Excel to create the chart). The data range you type will be something like A10:C11. Be sure to use a colon--and no spaces--between the starting cell and ending cell.
8. Select OK.
9. PowerPoint will now copy the data from the Excel spreadsheet into the Datasheet view in PowerPoint. Then, it will create a chart based on the data and match the format of the chart elements to the slide design you have chosen in PowerPoint.

Suggestions

Once you have created the chart in the PowerPoint presentation, you may make formatting changes to the chart using PowerPoint. The formatting choices and controls for charts in PowerPoint are similar to those in Excel. (See Tips for Formatting Chart Elements Using Excel.)

When you create charts in Excel that you intend to use in PowerPoint documents, do not put the chart title within the Chart Area. (That is, leave Chart Title empty.) You can type the chart title in the Title area of the PowerPoint slide and it will be easier for viewers to read.

Be sure to include the data labels cells--both the left side and top row--in the range that you type in the Range: dialogue box.