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Why are there new Chart Placeholders ?

The Chart Format tool uses new chart placeholders. These can be placed anywhere on a slide and are not restricted to the pre-defined slide layouts.

They look very similar and behave in exactly the same way although there are a few important differences:

The new chart placeholders can be quickly added to existing slides without using the Task Pane.

The new chart placeholders have a pre-defined size and position and are repositioned automatically.

The new chart placeholders can be easily replaced with charts copied from Excel.

You can have more than one chart placeholder on a slide, you are not limited to just one.

If you delete a chart from a slide an empty chart placeholder will not be displayed.

How to insert the new Chart Placeholders ?

Using this tool removes the need to use the task pane for inserting new chart placeholders.

It is now possible to insert the new chart placeholders directly using the additional toolbar.

The drop-down box on the left of the toolbar displays the chart placeholders that are available.

Lets imagine that we have a slide that only contains a title (see screen shot below).

Just select the placeholder you want to insert in the left drop-down box, in this case "Slide - Chart (Left)".

 Insert Placeholder - Inserts a placeholder onto the current slide of the type selected in the drop-down box.

Press the button immediately to the right of the drop-down box.

The new chart placeholder will be added to the existing slide.

Automatic Formatting

Double clicking on a chart placeholder creates the default chart using the default template colours.

Using a Colour Scheme does not give you full control over the colours used in a chart.

Once you have finished adding or changing the chart it will automatically reformat to the correct colours when you deselect the chart object.

Automatic Repositioning

Although placeholders can always default to the correct position on the slide it is possible that they may get repositioned or even resized.

The position of a chart placeholder can be easily changed accidently by dragging the edge of the box.

The size of a chart placeholder can be easily changed by dragging one of the resize handles.

The size and position of the chart placeholders is restricted to try ensure that there is consistency throughout a presentation.

If you change the size or position of a chart placeholder it will be automatically repositioned and resized when you deselect the placeholder.

Things to Remember

The new placeholders will be printed and will not be automatically excluded when a presentation is printed.

The new chart placeholders can be added to existing slides.

You don’t have to use the Chart Placeholders to actually create your charts, you could create your charts in Excel and then copy them across.