Excel Charts: Other Uses

Charts are, without a doubt, one of the Superstar tools in Excel.  They can take otherwise dull, confusing data, and make it Visually Exciting and Informative.  After all, if your hard work and data is not easily understood, it serves no good purpose.

Limiting the accessibility of these spirited charts for use only in Excel worksheets, however, is not making the most of what they can offer.  For instance, how many of us have suffered through mundane PowerPoint presentations showing rows of dreary data and narrated by a presenter that has the droning voice of a far-off engine?  PowerPoints can be so much better with the introduction of some lively Charts!

So how do you add a Chart to a PowerPoint presentation?  For a Static chart, simply select the chart in Excel, right-click copy it, and simply paste/embed it into your presentation.  It can then be resized and further modified if you wish.

But what if you want to make a dynamic link between your Excel worksheet and your PowerPoint, so that when your data and chart changes on your worksheet, it also changes in your presentation?  Merely copy your chart as you did before, but when you paste it, use the “Keep Source Formatting and Link Data (F)” option.  You then have the luxury of having nearly instantaneous changes in your PowerPoint whenever you have changes in your Excel worksheet.

 

Very Cool!  Use this elementary technique to enhance the overt Professionalism in your presentations and documents.