PowerPoint, Excel, and Word documents remain indispensable tools even in the modern corporate world. Over 1 billion people around the world regularly use Office.
Excel is your go-to program if you need to prepare, crunch or interpret information for a sales analysis, survey findings, budget report, or any other kind of financial analysis.
Often, a PowerPoint presentation is used to share the findings and draw any necessary conclusions. This is because it facilitates visual communication and allows for the inclusion of accompanying commentary and context.
Data analysts often use Excel and related documents to organize and format their information before moving on to PowerPoint for presentation. If the data is revised, the presentation must be revised by reinserting all the revised Excel charts and tables into PowerPoint.
Factors to Consider When Linking Data from Excel to PowerPoint
Will Other People Need to Modify the PowerPoint Chart or Table?
If that is the case, people can feel annoyed when they see a warning saying the original file cannot be accessed. You need the original copy of the file to edit the linked data.
If Your Company Puts Any Effort into its Brand
Most do and they all adhere to a uniform style for their slides regarding color scheme, typography, and presentation format. Since Excel graphs usually take on the normal Microsoft Excel spreadsheet style when linked, they will not seem quite right. There is a disparity between the presentation and the brand’s usual style.
Automatic Update Checkbox for the Table or Graph to Refresh Concerns
Updating connected tables or graphs requires human interaction. While opening a PowerPoint presentation using certain ways, a security alert will appear.
If the recipient of your virus warning is not too concerned, they can see that refreshing the data involves clicking the right button in the dialogue window.
In contrast, updating each table or graph individually is necessary when using other connection approaches. You must track which presentation technique applies to which slide in your presentation if your file has a mix of presentation styles.
Methods of linking Excel to PowerPoint
Method 1: Standard Copy and Paste Functions
The Excel source file contains the desired chart.
Click on the chart.
You may copy something by selecting it and then clicking Copy (or using Ctrl + C) in the Clip group on the home tab.
PowerPoint should be started and the slide on which the chart will be placed should be selected.
Choose Paste on the Home tab and then perform one of the following:
An option is to keep the Excel files formatted and link the data labels to the chart.
Choose Use Destination Theme & Link Data if you want the chart to match the design of your PowerPoint slide show.
How to Update Your Data in PowerPoint
The connection between PowerPoint and Excel has recently been established. Your presentation will be updated instantly whenever you make a change in Excel.
You have opened both Excel (saved or not) and PowerPoint. Choose “Edit Data” or “Edit Data in Excel” from the context menu when right-clicking the chart image.
Shortcomings of the Standard Paste Functions
Changing where the Excel file is stored while the PowerPoint file is inactive can cause the chart data in PowerPoint to no longer update with the correct Excel data. If you make a copy of your Excel workbook, the new version will not work with the old one, either. Similarly, when trying to paste a table from the source workbook, you cannot use the updated version.
Method 2: Create a Link Between Excel and PowerPoint with the Use of a Special Paste
- Launch the Excel file with the desired diagram.
- Choose a chart.
- Click on the home tab and select Copy in the clipboard group or use Ctrl+C to copy anything.
- Start PowerPoint, then go to the slide where you wish to drop the chart.
- Select Special Paste from the drop-down menu under the Paste option on the home tab.
- Choose to paste the link.
- Select Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object or Microsoft Excel Chart Object, depending on the kind of object being imported.
How to Update Your Data in PowerPoint
You have just connected PowerPoint to Excel and both programs are running. Your presentation will be updated as you make changes to the Excel sheet.
Whether you are working with an unsaved or saved Excel file, here is what to do after you launch PowerPoint: An option to “Update the links” is shown to you.
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