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Anonymous
2012-10-03T22:31:24+00:00

I have a powerpoint presentation that has many charts. All charts were created in 'PowerPoint's Excel', not native Excel. Some of the charts have become "de-linked" or, "linked" to a NULL Excel file. Is this a bug? Is there a fix? The file says there are two NULL links, but I did not link these charts and, I cannot break the link. Frustrating, is the only fix to recreate the charts?

Microsoft 365 and Office | PowerPoint | For home | Windows

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Steve Rindsberg 99,166 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2012-10-04T21:09:14+00:00

Thanks for sending the example file.  

Does "THINKCELL" ring any bells?  These charts were apparently created by their software (they have tags indicating that, at any rate).

I would contact them about this oddity ... they'd have more insight into what they're doing behind the scenes to make the data uneditable.

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  1. Steve Rindsberg 99,166 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2012-10-10T14:56:43+00:00

    A little more information on this;  I stumbled on a way to reproduce this NULL business while trying to sort out a different problem.

    If you choose a normal chart in PPP, go to the Links dialog box and use the button to break the link, you then get "NULL" in the area where the link is normally listed.

    Something (Thinkcell?) has apparently created linked charts then broken the link deliberately.  I'm not familiar with ThinkCell so I don't know why they might want to do that, but I'd imagine they have good reason.

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  2. Steve Rindsberg 99,166 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2012-10-04T15:18:48+00:00

    I tried a couple ways that I thought might reproduce this, but no luck.

    Can you post or send me an example file ... a one-slide PPT/PPTX with the slide that contains the chart in question?

    steve at-sign pptools dot com

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-10-03T23:37:03+00:00

    Hi Steve, thank you. I do not get any messages regarding links when I open the file. I see the NULL under the File | Info Pane | Related Documents | Edit Links to Files

    I do not see the link when I initiallyopen the file, only when I go to the chart to Edit Data and find that option greyed out. Then I check the links and see the NULL | Chart | Manual link; a link which cannot be broken.

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  4. Steve Rindsberg 99,166 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2012-10-03T23:01:19+00:00

    Where do you see NULL, and what exactly do you see there?

    Do you see any messages when you update links and/or open the file after closing it?

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