Best Practices for PowerPoint: Charts
Using Charts:
Charts are a visual way of representing a group of data. Best Practices for charts in Power Point is to create the chart within the program. When a chart is imported into PowerPoint from another program or source, the Accessibility Wizard recognizes it as an image instead of a chart. This causes confusion since the information will not be presented as it is intended by the chart.
Best Practice Advantage
By creating the chart in PowerPoint, the Accessibility Wizard can automatically pull information from the chart, where as if you copy and or insert your chart from another program the Wizard will render it as an image. The image below shows the Text Mostly View of an exported PowerPoint presentation with the left screenshot being the export with a chart that was created in PowerPoint and the right screenshot being the export with a chart that was imported via cut and paste from another source. Notice how the chart that was created in PowerPoint includes the Data Table and information about the chart and the imported chart is rendered as the image only with no supporting data.
Creating Charts in PowerPoint:
To create a new chart, go to INSERT on the main top menu and select CHART. (If you do not see the CHART choice, the menu may be compressed. Select the arrow located at the bottom of the menu. This will cause the menu to expand and show all choices available.)
When you select CHART, the Datasheet View appears for entry of your table data. Add values by selecting a cell and typing in the value. Remember to add labels for the rows and columns. You can also paste information from another source into a cell. Information in the Datasheet can be formatted for font, size, color, etc. from the Formatting Toolbar or by selecting specific attributes from FORMAT on the main menu along the top. Close the Datasheet window by selecting ESC from your keyboard.
Importing data from Excel to PowerPoint
You can import your chart data that has been created in Excel into a PowerPoint slide by using copy and paste. Open your Excel document to the workbook page that has the data information on it for your chart. Highlight the cells that are for the chart you are wanting to create in PowerPoint. Go to EDIT on the main top menu and select COPY. This will copy the data onto the clipboard.
On the Datasheet in PowerPoint, select the first cell (first row, first column) and then go to EDIT on the main top menu and select PASTE. This will paste your data from Excel into the Datasheet. You should see the chart in the background change to represent the data values. Information in the Datasheet can be formatted for font, size, color, etc. from the Formatting Toolbar or by selecting specific attributes from FORMAT on the main menu along the top. Close the Datasheet window by selecting ESC from your keyboard.
Changing Attributes
Chart attributes can be changed by selecting the chart (a strong dotted line will box the chart) and then using your cursor to select specific parts of the chart such as the Data Series (the bars or sections that represent the data), the Axis (the labels), or the Walls and Gridlines (the chart itself). After selecting the object to change, select FORMAT from the menu at the top and then select SELECTED DATA SERIES. A window will open with the attribute features for that item that can be changed.
To change the Chart Type or Chart Options, select the chart (a strong dotted line will box the chart), and then select CHART from the menu at the top and select the option from the dropdown menu. You may want to experiment with these options to see what will best represent your data.
Charts and Slide Layouts:
Another way to enter a chart is to select the Chart Layout from the Slide Layout menu. Access the Slide Layout sidebar and scroll down to the layout icon with a chart. When this layout is selected, a chart icon is displayed in the center of the slide. Select this icon to bring up the Chart Datasheet options. Continue creating your chart as noted above.
Organizational Charts:
The Accessibility Wizard does not currently support conversion of Organizational Charts. These charts will be rendered as images in the conversion. If you have an organizational chart comprised of several objects, group the objects together to create one graphic. By grouping the multiple objects, the Wizard will prompt for a description of the one image instead of descriptions for each individual object of the Organizational Chart on the page.
Organizational Chart Alternatives
Since Organizational Charts are not supported in the Accessibility Conversion, there are some alternative options. Creating an additional slide that describes the hierarchy of the chart in text form is one method.
Another method is to utilize the short and long description feature in the Accessibility Wizard to explain the layout of the chart. When running the Accessibility Wizard and the slide with the organization chart appears, the Accessibility Wizard will ask for image type. Choose informative image and the next slide will prompt for a short and long description of the chart.
