TO ASK A QUESTION: If you have a question or need help with Office, please feel free to use the 'Click to Contact' link at the bottom of this page. You'll get a form that you can use to email a question to me. (I had been getting a ton of spam when accepting direct emails, so only emails that use this form will get through to me.)
Please be sure to mention the version of Office you are using when you send your question.
I answer all e-mails that I receive via this form, as long as they are polite :)
Since disabling comments on this site, I'm actually hearing from more of you with questions ... so, as it seems people prefer to email rather than comment, I'm going to leave comments disabled. As always, you can ask me any Office-related questions you have. If the question is outside of my expertise, I'll try to direct you to where you can get an answer.
Follow-up on today's webcast - additional resources
Hi, everyone! Thanks to the folks who took time to attend today's Excel 2003 charts webcast. It was a fun session for me -- I haven't been spending much time in Office 2003 these days. Was also fun to drop in a quick intro to Excel 2007 charts at the end ... I'm a big fan of change, and pretty excited by a lot of the cool stuff in the upcoming Office release.
As promised, lots of links and additional resources from today's session ... so here goes:
Sizing Excel charts for Word - earlier blog post with step-by-step instructions and downloadable sample files to try this out for yourself.
Step-by-step instructions for showing the exact start and end date on a line chart's x-axis (as demonstrated with the Price\Volume chart demo)
The Excel MVP I mentioned during the Q&A at the end of the session - Jon Peltier -- has a superb set of charting tutorials on his website, that you can find here: http://peltiertech.com There was one question in the Q&A that i'm now forgetting ... but I recall responding that the person asking would find the answer among these tutorials, as I remembered it was a subject Jon has helped people with. If you don't find what you need, please post a comment to this post -- and I'll get you an answer.
Also - I had a really nice discussion with Jon right after the webcast about a few of the topics I covered.He and I have different perspectives on some things, and he has a lot of expertise -- so if you're looking to learn more about Excel charting, his is definitely another good opinion to have and his site is a great place to get some good tips ... so please check out his tutorials at the link above.
Next, for those who want a review of basics ... another resource is a terrific series of Office Online training courses available for Excel charts. Free, self-paced, and pretty quick to follow ... this is a particularly good series among a lot of really good classes you'll find at this site (including my series on Word tables :)
Charts I: How to create a chart
Charts II: Choose the right chart type
Charts III: Create a professional-looking chart
For those who haven't had a chance yet to check out the 2007 Office beta, get access to downloading the beta (or take an online test drive if you don't have an extra computer where you can install the beta without having to depend upon it yet for your daily work production) - and learn a great deal about what's coming up for the 2007 Office system: Microsoft Office Preview Site
You can also find articles about the beta from me and other MVPs and technology experts, as well as access to lots of other great content and upcoming events at the Office Beta Community site
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I believe that covers everything promised for follow-up today. If I've forgotten something, or if you have a question that came up after the session was over ... just post a comment and I'll respond as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, happy Tuesday everyone!
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Comments
Dear Stephanie: I have created in Excel a chart that has data series with gradient fill. When I copied the chart to Word, the data series' gradient fill were poorly visible. Is it possible to accomplish the abovementioned task? Or, should I stick to non-gradient fill data series when creating Excel charts for Word documents?
Posted by: Wilfred C. Ambrosina | June 20, 2006 08:43 PM
Hi, Wilfred,
Assuming that you're talking about Excel 2003 (so please correct me if not) ... When pasting a chart into Word, use Paste Special (on the Edit menu) and select the Enhanced Metafile Picture paste type. That will give you the best resolution for he smallest file size when copying graphics between Office programs.
If you still are not happy with the quality of the fill, I would suggest making a different formatting selection.
Note: If you are using Copy as Picture instead of the regular Copy command in Excel - you may get different results, depending upon your default printer, between the 'as seen on screen' and 'as printed' options. You don't need to use 'Copy as Picture' however if you're using Paste Special once you get to Word.
Posted by: Stephanie Krieger | June 21, 2006 10:46 AM
Dear Stephanie:
Thank you for your response.
Yes, I am talking about Excel 2003.
And Congratulations on your well-presented web cast, which you perfectly delivered yesterday.
Posted by: Wilfred C. Ambrosina | June 21, 2006 12:31 PM
Dear Stephanie:
In your November 10th, 2005 web cast on legal documents, you showed an example financial pitch book. On page one in that financial pitch book, there is an Excel chart with a table in the chart. Could you provide me with step-by-step instructions how to that and have the chart and table remain stable? I know that the chart is supposed to be enhanced picture metafile and in line with text, but is the table created and just positioned over the chart in the upper right hand corner?
Posted by: Wilfred C. Ambrosina | June 21, 2006 12:57 PM
Hi, Wilfred,
The way that was accomplished was to copy the completed, formatted Word table to Excel and paste it as a Word document object (using Paste Special in Excel). You might have best luck pasting it first onto a worksheet and then copying to the chart sheet.
The chart was then copied back into Word and pasted as an Enhanced Metafile picture, formatted as inline with text. When a chart is copied from Excel to Word, objects sitting on the chart are automatically copied along with it.
If you do something like this, be sure to retain a copy of the live, formatted Word table in a separate document in case you need to update the image.
Best,
Stephanie
Posted by: Stephanie Krieger | June 21, 2006 03:01 PM
Dear Stephanie:
Thank you for your response.
The procedures to copy an Excel chart with a word table copied on it into Word worked well in Office 2003. However, this procedure is not working with Word 2007 and Excel 2007.
The Excel chart is being copied into Word without the Word table.
If you do know a method that would accomplish this task in Word 2007 and Excel 2007, please let me know?
Posted by: Wilfred C. Ambrosina | June 22, 2006 12:20 PM