Office 2007 Bible

Starting a New Chart

The main difficulty with creating a chart in a non-spreadsheet application such as PowerPoint is that there is no data table from which to pull the numbers. Therefore, PowerPoint creates charts using data that you have entered in an Excel window. By default, it contains sample data, which you can replace with your own data.

You can place a new chart on a slide in two ways: you can either use a chart placeholder from a layout, or you can place one manually.

If you are using a placeholder, click the Insert Chart icon. If you are placing a chart manually, follow these steps:

1.	On the Insert tab, click Chart. The Insert Chart dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 23-28. Figure 23-28. Select the desired chart type. [View full size image]
2.	Click the desired chart type. See Table 23-2 for an explanation of the chart types. Figures 23-29 and 23-30 show examples of some of the chart types. Figure 23-29. Examples of chart types, from top left, clockwise: column, line, bar, and pie. [View full size image] Figure 23-30. Examples of chart types, from top left, clockwise: area, scatter, doughnut, and surface. [View full size image]
3.	Click OK. The chart appears on the ...