Graph -- visual display problems, and odd text fitting

[Guest]

I am having problems with the text in some of my graphs looking "funky," like
the spacing between the letters is odd. The graphs are not skewed out of
proportion because it happens with brand new ones that I have made. It seems
to happen with smaller fonts - Arial, 7pt for instance.

Also, PPT & I disagree about horizontal bar graphs, where the graph is 7"
long, but PPT feels it needs to smoosh the text in an inch on the left and
allow the bar to be 6" long. For example: (the bar is gigantic, but the text
is typically wrapping on top of itself -- and when will we get interline
spacing in a graph??)
xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
xxxxxxx
It doesn't always do this, but it does it a lot! Thanks much for any help!!

PPT 2002

 

[Brian Reilly, MS MVP]

Smitty,
Try Tools + Options + Printing + checking the box next to Print
Inserted objects at Printer Resoluton. Especially important at 8
points or below. Note fonts may change from other fonts here to and
get printed in New Times Roman if this is not checked.

Brian Reilly, PowerPoint MVP

 

[Echo S]

What Brian said. Also check http://www.echosvoice.com/charts.htm for a
couple of things that may help (turn off font autoscaling and don't size
your chart by dragging it on the slide).

 

[Guest]

I'll try the "Print inserted..." that Brian suggested. But as far as the bar
width goes, does anyone have any other suggestions? I automatically turn off
the auto-scale feature (one of the dumbest things I've found in PPT, although
auto-fit is even dumber) and I never rescale any graph from out in PPT.
(learned that lesson years ago) But I still can't figure out how to stop PPT
from, on a horizontal bar graph, wrapping a text label into a tiny spot while
allowing the bar to stretch out across the entire page. And since this graph
is used throughout a file that is reproduced 700+ times, it's very important
to figure out why.
Thanks!!!

What Brian said. Also check http://www.echosvoice.com/charts.htm for a
couple of things that may help (turn off font autoscaling and don't size
your chart by dragging it on the slide).

--
Echo [MS PPT MVP]
http://www.echosvoice.com

I am having problems with the text in some of my graphs looking "funky," like
the spacing between the letters is odd. The graphs are not skewed out of
proportion because it happens with brand new ones that I have made. It seems
to happen with smaller fonts - Arial, 7pt for instance.

Also, PPT & I disagree about horizontal bar graphs, where the graph is 7"
long, but PPT feels it needs to smoosh the text in an inch on the left and
allow the bar to be 6" long. For example: (the bar is gigantic, but the text
is typically wrapping on top of itself -- and when will we get interline
spacing in a graph??)
xxxxxxx
xxxxxxx
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----|
xxxxxxx
It doesn't always do this, but it does it a lot! Thanks much for any help!!

PPT 2002

 

[Guest]

Doesn't appear to have changed anything. :-(
Any other suggestions? (we are running over 700 multiple page reports based

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

I'll try the "Print inserted..." that Brian suggested. But as far as the bar
width goes, does anyone have any other suggestions? I automatically turn off
the auto-scale feature (one of the dumbest things I've found in PPT, although
auto-fit is even dumber) and I never rescale any graph from out in PPT.
(learned that lesson years ago) But I still can't figure out how to stop PPT
from, on a horizontal bar graph, wrapping a text label into a tiny spot while
allowing the bar to stretch out across the entire page. And since this graph
is used throughout a file that is reproduced 700+ times, it's very important
to figure out why.

Is it wrapping the text or is it jumbling the individual letters up atop one
another? If the latter, it might be a problem with the font in use (missing,
corrupted, multiple fonts with the same name ...).

See if switching temporarily to a different font helps.

 

[Guest]

It's wrapping the text. And since PPT leaves the interline spacing quite
large, the lines of text wrap onto one another. ie, the first bar's text
wraps on to 2 lines, which is then on top of the second bar's wrapped text.
Make sense? Thanks! (we typically use Arial for reports like this because
*everyone* has Arial)

 

[Echo S]

Only fix I know for this is to use a smaller font. Sorry. I know it sucks.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

It's wrapping the text. And since PPT leaves the interline spacing quite
large, the lines of text wrap onto one another. ie, the first bar's text
wraps on to 2 lines, which is then on top of the second bar's wrapped text.
Make sense? Thanks! (we typically use Arial for reports like this because
*everyone* has Arial)

Yes ... makes perfect sense and pretty much rules out the problem I was thinking of.
That said, I don't have a backup problem to think of. :-(

Let's see what t'others come up with ...