Excel 2007 line-chart pasted as an enhanced metafile - editing

[Guest]

To tailor all our charts we past/special/metafile line charts into
Powerpoint, then ungroup twice to be able to move/chop/change elements of the
chart. When I ungroup the second time the line (representing data) actually
breaks into a huge number of invidual lines (according to the underlying
source data), as opposed to one single line. As a result, things are much
more tedious/complicated. Any way to ungroup a chart in Powerpoint and have
the line stay as a line, and not a ton of individual lines?

 

[Jon Peltier]

I'm actually disgusted with how 2007 ungroups a chart into shapes. You don't
get individual gridlines, for example, you get an indivisible set of
parallel lines. And line chart series give you a polygon rather than a set
of line segments. Both of these shapes are called freeforms, but you are not
able to edit their nodes to change the shape. Also, what should be lines are
not lines: the axis is converted to a thin rectangle, and if you're not
careful, you'll turn it into a thick rectangle.

I thought maybe your series had a dashed line, resulting in the huge number
of individual lines, but when I tried that, the dashed line still turned
into a single freeform.

I guess I can't be of much assistance, but if you want to cry into a beer,
let me know.

- Jon

 

[Guest]

Thanks Jon for your response, and the new changes in the way 2007 charts are
indeed a big step backwards for the way we do things. There is just know
where near the ease and edit-ability of ungrouping charts (typically pasted
as wmf or emf files into Powerpoint), and I reckon we have to go back to
using Sigma Plot or some such application to get what we need. As a Microsoft
person, do you think that the changes are fundamental to how things work, or
could Microsoft come up with a patch or something that made things work
(lines, not free forms, etc.) like they did before??

Thanks,

 

[Jon Peltier]

I don't know if there is a sea change in how charts and shapes are going to
behave. I do know that a huge amount of resources were devoted to the new
shapes in Office, and for turning the plain old chart elements into new
Office shapes. I also wonder whether they simply ran out of time and took
the most expedient option. This is backed up by the fact that nothing
related to the new shapes or the formatting of chart elements as new shapes
is recorded by the macro recorder.

I would expect no changes to Office 2007 via patches or other means, except
perhaps to change actual "bugs" instead of ineffectual features. Microsoft
has received a steamship full of comments about their charts and shapes, and
I would hope that these will encourage them to improve the way shapes and
charts work in Office 2010 (I know they say it will be Office 2009, but I
hope they've learned about rushing a half-baked product out the door).

I should point out that I am a Microsoft MVP, but that in no way should
indicate that I am employed or compensated by Microsoft. I am independent of
Microsoft except for the reliance of my livelihood upon Microsoft products.
I received the award for contributing to the community of Excel users
through forums like this.

- Jon

 

[Guest]

Thanks again Jon, and points noted on your indepedence. Much appreciated
all-around.