» How to link a Pivot Chart to a Powerpoint Presentation (IV)Jumbabox

In this tutorial I will go through how you can link a Pivot Chart in Excel to a PowerPoint presentation. I suggest you read a post I did earlier which is an overview on linking between Excel and PowerPoint.

Related Posts :

If you are going directly to this tutorial I highly recommend that you check on the 1st part of this tutorial by clicking here, I run through the basics on linking within PowerPoint, its a long read but worthwhile!

Step 1 - Creating your PivotChart

After creating your PivotTable you usually just hit the chart icon to build your PivotChart, this creates a whole new separate sheet (in the example below, Chart4) for your PivotChart.

Here is a handy tip to put your PivotChart as an object within a different sheet, after creating your PivotChart right click anywhere on the chart and click on the Location… option. (You don’t need to do this to link your Pivot Chart to your PowerPoint presentation)

A Chart Location dialog box will pop up asking you where you would like to place your chart.

You can either place your chart as a :

A new sheet in the workbook
As an object in a Sheet

I will place mine in the same sheet that contains the PivotTable the PivotChart is built on. Click the OK button when you are happy with your selection.

Here is the final outcome:

Step 2 - Hide your PivotChart fields

PivotChart fields can be annoying especially in a presentation so here is how you can hide the fields, make sure you have your PivotTable toolbar active, if you don’t right click in the top area of Excel and click the PivotTable option.

This should now display the PivotTable toolbar. Make sure you have selected your PivotChart, then on the PivotTable toolbar click on the PivotChart button then click on the Hide PivotChart field buttons option.

Here is a before and after look at what this option does.

Step 3 - Let the linking begin!

Now we have formatted our PivotChart we are ready to link it to PowerPoint. Select your PivotChart and press CTRL+C (or copy).

Now go to your PowerPoint presentation and click on Edit > Paste Special… this should bring up a Paste Special dialog box.

Make sure you select to Paste Link As Microsoft Office Excel Chart, your options should look similar to the ones in the screen shot below. Click on the OK button to continue.

You have successfully linked your Excel PivotChart to your PowerPoint presentation!

Here is a screenshot of the PivotChart without fields in a PowerPoint slide:

Here is a screenshot of the PivotChart with fields in a PowerPoint slide:

Now, any changes that are made in your Excel PivotChart will now flow through to your PowerPoint presentation.

An Example

I want to add a new series in my Excel PivotChart. First, lets activate the PivotChart fields again, by using the PivotTable toolbar (see above), next drag an object into the series field and to finalize the PivotChart lets hide the PivotChart fields again.

The Pivot Chart in Excel looks like this:

The chart in PowerPoint also looks the same:

To make sure it is linked correctly you can double click the object in your PowerPoint presentation this will take you directly to the Excel worksheet which it is linked to!

Things to remember!

Make sure you keep the location of your Excel workbook static. Moving it around will cause links to break in your PowerPoint presentation.
Size your charts appropriately in Excel before they go to PowerPoint - you will loose aspect ratio and resolution of your charts if you change the size too much in PowerPoint.
How do I update my links? Have a look at my first post on linking between Excel and PowerPoint - I run through all the different methods to how to update your links (at the bottom of the post)!

If you have any problems or questions please comment!

Enjoy!

Jumbabox