Excel Charts in PowerPoint

If you do a lot of presentations, you may deal with many large data reports that include charts and graphs that summarize data for your audiences. Sometimes you may need to add these charts and graphs to PowerPoint presentations.

The problem with doing a simple copy and paste of a chart from Excel to PowerPoint is that although you only see the chart in the PowerPoint slide, the entire workbook is copied into PowerPoint as well. If someone double-clicks the chart in the slide, PowerPoint will open the entire Excel workbook.

This poses a couple of problems. First, unless the PowerPoint file has been password protected (not really an option for mass distribution) a user could easily adjust the data feeding into the chart and corrupt accuracy.

Secondly, since the entire Excel workbook is copied into the PowerPoint file, this can dramatically increase the total size on the PowerPoint file, possibly making it too cumbersome for distribution.

One simple solution is to modify how the pasting into PowerPoint is done. Follow these steps:

1. In Excel, copy the chart as you normally would. (For instance, select the chart and press Ctrl+C.)
2. In PowerPoint, display the slide where you want the chart to appear.
3. Display the Paste Special dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.) In PowerPoint 2007 display the Home tab o the ribbon, click the down-arrow under the Paste tool, and choose Paste Special. In earlier versions of PowerPoint choose the Paste Special option from the Edit menu.
4. Select the Picture option.
5. Click OK.

This time, only the image of the chart is pasted into the slide. This maintains the accuracy and security of your chart and significantly reduces the size of your PowerPoint presentation.