Solved: Charts in Master Slide

[justme]

Now I know I can have multiple slide masters, I would like to create one that has a chart template. This way I will have the proper font/size and color order the president wants in all presentations. I've done some searching in this and on other forums and found where some people use color schemes to set the colors, but this is good only to four columns. I need to call out to at least 10 columns.

When I inserted a chart in my slide master, all I get is that chart in normal view. You can not enter data or change it in any way.

Is there a way you can call out chart info in a slide master?

[Killian]

Hi there,

when you add an object to the slidemaster (other than one of the slide master placeholders), it will appear on each slide that follows that master as part of the master layout - you will not be able to edit it unless you do so on the master and then that change will apply to all slides that use that master.
For what you want to achieve, you need a different approach...

The easiest way to provide users with way to follow a corporate style using PowerPoint's charting system (MSGraph) is to create a slide library with all the approved layouts and chart types required and save this file to a shared location so that users can use the "insert slide from files" method to select their "template" slide. (they'll only have to browse to the location once, then they can add it to thier favorites in the dialog to get back to it quickly).
This has the additional benefit that you can amend and update the central slide library so everyone has access to the current version. There's no coding involved - just the preparation of the slide layouts in the library.

In order to prepare this how you want it, you'll need to familiarise youself with the workings of MSGraph... insert a graph in PowerPoint and instead of double-clicking to open it, right-click and select "Chart Object>Open".
This will open an instance of MSGraph for you to explore. You'll see some similar features to Excel (although don't get too excited - the functionality's pretty limited). If you go to Tools>Options and select the color tab, you'll see you'll be able to modify all the available chart colors. This info is saved with the chart object, so once you've created one chart how you want it, you can copy that slide and to edit the chart type, repeating this process for each type you want in the library.

As an alternative, you may instead want to apply one of the chart slide layouts and have the user select from a list of user-defined charts you've built in MSGraph. This will involve creating all the chart types you want, adding them you the user-defined types (in the chart type dialog) then distributing this file to all users (depending on how the network is configured, this can be a real pain).
If you're feeling brutal, you can do the same but overwrite MSGraph's chart type library instead (GR8GALRY.GRA) - it's easier to deploy and prevents users from selecting the "wrong" chart types but like I said, a bit brutal.

There are, of course, ways of getting some vba code involved i.e.


'change the layout of slide one to "Title & chart"
ActivePresentation.Slides(1).Layout = ppLayoutChart

Or you can be a bit more ambitious and insert a chart object yourself


Sub test()
Dim myNewChart As OLEFormat
Dim v
Set myNewChart = ActivePresentation.Slides(1).Shapes _
.AddOLEObject(120, 110, 480, 320, "MSGraph.Chart").OLEFormat
myNewChart.FollowColors = ppFollowColorsScheme
For Each v In myNewChart.ObjectVerbs
MsgBox v
Next
End Sub

this will insert a chart, set it's colors to follow the presentation color scheme and then display the "ObjectVerbs" you can issue to the chart object from powerpoint.
And here's the problem... Open and Edit... that's it, there's no VBA in MSGraph so there's a limit to what you can do - you'll need to use one of the above library/graph gallery methods to finish the job in any case, so it's probably not worth the extra deployment hassle.

I my view, a properly set up template and a well organised slide library system (you can introduce a custom user form to manage this if you prefer) in a shared location is a good solution.

Unless you want to make everyone change to using Excel graphs - then you can go crazy with code for months!

I hope this helps clarify a few things - feel free to post back if there's more info required

K :-)

[justme]

Thank you Killian for another excellent answer to my Power point questions. I will try your suggestion and start building a library for the end users. I can only hope they use it correctly.

I will mark the post solved.

Thanks again!

[justme]

Help Killian!!

I went to the MSGRAPH via right click object open. Then I modified the chart fill in tools-options. Then I saved. I went through the process above so many times I don't have to refer to your notes anymore. The problem is the colors won't "stick". I just made a change to a chart and the colors all went back to default colors. This particular file is a combo chart with columns and lines. I need the lines/columns to be the same color (one is MTD the other is YTD info). Is it normal to lose your formatting if you make any adjustments??

[Killian]

Indeed, strangley enough, this is considered "normal" behaviour. By default, a chart will automatically follow the slide color scheme. You can prevent this by right-clicking the chart object (but don't open it), select "Format Object", go to the "Picture" tab and hit the "Recolor" button. Here you'll set the option "None" which should make your charts keep their defined colors.

[justme]

Hello Killian,

Thanks for the reply. I have not had a chance to test yet, but will this afternoon. I have to say that you are right, it certainly is odd.

[JonPeltier]

.... there's no VBA in MSGraph ...
That's not true. MSGraph has its own object model, not as extensive or as easy as programming Excel charts, but still workable.

It's too late to help with this particular query, but let's set the record straight for the archives. A simple Google search of MSGraph and VBA will provide numerous helpful links, and here are some focused links:

http://pptfaq.com/FAQ00496.htm