There are dozens of major improvements in PowerPoint 2007/2010 when compared to the 2003 version and one of them is the ability to create graphs directly in Excel. In PowerPoint 2003 graphs were created by using Microsoft Graph which was, at best, a poor tool.

This simplifies the process and considerably improves the quality of your graphs. Just following these steps:

• In PowerPoint, click Insert > Illustrations > Charts
• Select the type of graph you want.
• Excel opens in a separate window, with a sample chart, to boot.
• Just key in your data. The graph is created in PowerPoint, in parallel.

It’s as simple as that!

To edit the data, just right click on the graph, select Edit Data, and you are back in the Excel sheet.

If you try to edit a PowerPoint 2003 graph in PowerPoint 2007, you only have access to a limited number of
options, similar to those available in Microsoft Graph. The best thing to do is double-click on the graph in
PowerPoint 2007/2010 to access a dialog box that lets you convert the graph to the newer format. It is then fully editable in Excel.