How to cross-Chart Data in Powerpoint?

Question

Hello Everyone,

There's something that has been bothering me a lot recently at work while using PowerPoint, and I really can’t wrap my mind around it (I'm currently working on Powerpoint 2016).

I have a set of different charts that I’ve generated directly in Powerpoint in one slide. There's a total of 6 different charts and I need to calculate percentage values in some of those charts. To do so I have to retrieve data from one specific chart (the very first one here (Chart no1)) to get the results I'm interested in.

So, for example, in my second chart (Chart no2), I’ll write this formula :

C2/SUM('[Chart 1 in Microsoft PowerPoint]Sheet1'!$B$4:$B$8)

C2 refers to a cell in my Chart no2 and here I would like to divide the value in the C2 cell with the sum of a data range located in my very first chart (Chart no1).

At first, everything seemed to work seamlessly but the formulas started to break when reopening the PowerPoint presentation and displaying #REF! errors unexpectedly. Sometimes I would work on the presentation and everything would go fine and if a colleague of mine opened the PowerPoint Presentation to work on it on his laptop the same issue would occur.

In other cases, the formatting that for example was done on Chart no2 would go crazy and suppress everything.

I really need to find a dynamic formula that'd be robust enough for me to be able to use the data from one chart in a formula for another chart in Powerpoint.

Any idea?

Thank you~

Answer 1

Hi Grace

PowerPoint 2016 does have some limitations when it comes to dynamic formulas and external references between charts.

you may consider using the following approach:

Create a Table: Instead of using the chart directly, create a table in PowerPoint that contains the data you want to reference across different charts. You can use the "Insert" > "Table" feature to create a table with your data.

Link Charts to Table Data: Now, instead of directly entering formulas in your charts, link the charts to the data in the table. This can be done by selecting your chart, going to the "Design" or "Format" tab (depending on your PowerPoint version), clicking on "Select Data," and then selecting the data series you want to modify. Use the "Edit" button to update the data range to refer to the table data, like 'Sheet1'!$B$4:$B$8.

1. Update the Table Data: Whenever you need to update the data in your charts, you can simply update the table. The linked charts will automatically reflect the changes, and you won't need to worry about formulas breaking or external references.

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If this helps kindly accept answer, thanks much