when presenting numerical data to your
audience
sometimes a chart is just what you need
to help them see the meaning behind the
numbers for example I have our bookstore
sales figures organized by genre and
year in this table but it's hard to see
any trends without looking at the
numbers one by one I think a chart would
make things much easier we'll first go
to the insert tab and then click the
chart command to open a list of our
choices let's take a look at some of the
more common ones column charts are good
all-around charts they work with many
different types of data whereas line
charts are best for showing trends over
time pie charts are unique because they
let you see your data in proportion
instead of on a graph we also have the
bar chart which is basically just a
column chart turned on its side and area
charts are like line charts except the
areas under the lines are filled in
I think I'll start with something in the
column category there are lots of styles
to choose from this one looks nice and
simple click OK and then something
interesting happens an Excel window
opens why
well PowerPoint uses an Excel worksheet
as the placeholder for your chart data
you enter your information here right on
top of the placeholder text and it shows
up on the chart see let's just add the
rest of the genres to this column now
what we need to do is fill in our sales
figures we're going to be covering the
last 5 years from 2006 to 2010 anything
you want to include on your chart has to
be inside this little blue box so I'm
going to drag the bottom right corner to
make some more room and Excel
automatically finishes the series with
2009 and 2010 to save us some more time
I'm going to copy and paste the rest of
the data from a spreadsheet I already
have just open the existing worksheet
copy the data you want to use then paste
it in the placeholder notice how the
chart and PowerPoint was updated right
away there's no need to save not even
when you close the Excel window because
PowerPoint automatically keeps up with
you while you work to go back and make
changes all you have to do is click the
Edit data command and the Excel window
will open again you can even import a
chart from Excel which is what I was
planning to do on the next slide I like
this feature because it lets you
repurpose an existing chart and you can
keep it up to date by linking it to the
original just go to insert object and
choose create from file browse to find
the right
on your computer then check the link box
if you want to create that link meaning
that any changes you make to the
original will be reflected here too
just be careful not to move or delete
the original file if the location of
either the PowerPoint or the excel file
changes you may have to insert the chart
again in order for it to display
properly and here's our second chart a
pie chart this time charts can be as
simple or as complex as you like in
PowerPoint I think the audience will
appreciate how easy it is to understand
the data when it's visualized in such a
clear way like what you just saw rate it
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