Pattern Fills in Bar Graphs

[Christine]

We have enormous amounts of legacy slide decks that originated in PowerPoint
2000 and include bar graphs that utilize pattern fills (ie alternating yellow
& black diagonal lines).

Currently we are migrating over to Office 2007 and have been unable to find
the pattern fill option in the 2007 version.

In both instances, the user originated the graph in PPT (in 2000 using
Microsoft Graph, and now utilzing Excel through PPT).

Are the pattern fills gone in the 2007 version or are we just having a
difficult time finding them?

If they are gone, would it be possible to make "pictures" of these fills in
say, Illustrator, and then use picture fills?

This is actually important as we have thousands of legacy graphs and would
prefer them to all be formatted in a similar manner. We are trying to avoid
having to redo all the legacy graphs!

Thanks!
Christine

 

[Jean-Pierre Forestier [MVP[]

The pattern fills a re gone.
One way is to use Word 2007, draw your form, fill it with pattern fills,
copy it then paste it into PPT

 

[Christine]

Hmm...that would be a lot of work.

Well this is frustrating.

So apparently if I draw a shape in Word 2007, I can still choose a pattern
fill... but it is no longer available is I insert a graph into Word or PPT,
or as a fill in PPT for randomly drawn shapes.

Have I summarized that correctly?

I still wonder if I could make "pictures" of diagonal fills in Illustrator
and use them as fills in PPT?

We already have the fills set since we reformat Delta Graph graphs for
inclusion into PPT slide decks.

Thanks,
Christine

 

[John Wilson]

As Jean_Pierre said pattern fills are gone. We have a free add in to put them
back but because of the poor support for vba in 2007 graphs it will only work
with shapes.
http://www.pptalchemy.co.uk/powerpoint_hints_and_tips_tutorials.html#Tricks

You might want to make the registry change noted here will will allow you to
use the old graphing engine in 2007.
http://www.pptfaq.com/FAQ00872.htm
--

john ATSIGN PPTAlchemy.co.uk
Custom vba coding and PPT Makeovers
Free PPT Hints, Tips and Tutorials
http://www.pptalchemy.co.uk/powerpoint_hints_and_tips_tutorials.html

 

[Echo S]

Dunno if it will help or not, but Andy Pope has a pattern fill add-in for
use in Excel 2007. Like John says, the VBA support is poor in PPT, so Andy's
add-in doesn't work in PPT 2007, only in Excel.

http://www.andypope.info/charts.htm

 

[Pedro]

It's a registry adjustment that MS supports. I don't know why IT
should get all knottyshorts over it if it solves a problem for 20+
users that easily.

Most sensible people would think thusly. However, in my experience, IT
people are far less than sensible - in fact the opposite.

Pedro