The PowerPoint® Blog

The latest episode of The Presentation Podcast, episode 218 – “Navigating the Data Visualization Landscape: Tools, Tips, and Techniques with Ann K. Emery” was a wonderful conversation about Data Viz, specifically around displaying content on slides (it is a great conversation – listen to it here!). Over the past 19 years of PowerPoint and presentation related posts here at The PowerPoint Blog, there is a rich library of chart, graph, table and general data viz related posts. As example, this post from September 2012, “Help – This Shape is Stuck in the Chart“. And this is still a common frustration for many people as they work on slides. Allow us to share this old post, so that you may troubleshoot, and get back to focusing the audience’s attention on the key data (eg. Data Viz).

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Let’s explore this common frustration that appears to be bug in PowerPoint, but is in fact the way PowerPoint charts and graphs work. There is a good reason for this feature, but for most it seems to be bug. Which is it, depends on your preference.

Here is the scenario. A chart is on a slide:

With the chart selected, you decide to add a callout box to highlight the important data in the chart.

The new shape is inserted, editable and look like what you wanted. But the shape is actually within the chart boundaries. In this case you select the new shape, and the chart is also still. Select the chart, and the shape is also part of the selection.

The dilemma is the new callout shape can be edited and moved – but it can only move within the chart boundaries. It is also connected to the chart for animation.

What PowerPoint has done, which is actually by design, is inserted the shape as part of the chart element, because the chart was selected while the shape was inserted. If the chart is moved, the shape moves. If the chart is deleted, the shape is deleted. But the shape does not directly interact with the chart. As example the chart styling options do not change the shape styling. Chart animations do not animate the new shape(but animations can be added and controlled for the shape, they are part of the chart element animation).

For some, this is a feature – the ability to tie new shapes to a chart. For others, it is a bug –  they did not want the shape tied to the chart.

SOLUTION: If you want the shape outside of the chart, the easiest fix is to select the shape (select the chart, then select the shape within the chart) >> copy >> delete >> unselect the chart >> paste. Now the slide has a chart element and a separate shape element.

– Troy @ TLC

This is from our Look Back series, rediscovering previous blog posts with relevant PowerPoint tips, tricks and examples. The original post from September 19, 2012 can be viewed here.

Back a decade+ ago, onscreen fonts being “smooth” (aka anti-aliasing) was a big conversation – and concern. Windows did not have a good story on its display technology and PowerPoint relied on Windows for content rendering. In 2016, Microsoft had recently updated Windows the display engine, and PowerPoint was finally able to confidently display text anti-aliased (eg. “smooth”). Happily, this is not a conversation much today, as smooth font rendering and display from PowerPoint is taken for granted.

This post is just a good reminder that the PowerPoint team continues to improve its software, and general knowledge of what anti-aliased display rendering is (here’s a thought, do design schools even address this issue today…?).

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Picking a font style is important. Should it be a “safe” font, a professional font, a bold font, etc.? Any font style needs to display well and anti-aliasing is a big part of that. So, what is anti-aliasing?

The simple description of anti-aliasing is that it makes fonts display with smooth curves and angles, not jagged, low res looking edges. So if “anti-aliased ” is smooth, the opposite – hard edged fonts would make sense to be called “aliased.” However, the better term is “bit-mapped.”

Here’s a visual showing Aliased and Anti-Aliased Text:

Aliased (Jagged, Hard Edges):

Anti-Aliased (Smooth Edges):

The good news is PowerPoint applies anti-aliasing to text (which has not always been the case). But it is applied when in slide show. Objects and text may appear to have jagged edges (aliased) when editing. Anti-aliasing is also applied when printing, but through a different ‘engine’ than when presented. So, when running as a slideshow, everything is smooth, when printing, everything is (almost always smooth), when editing, it may not look as smooth.

In addition, Microsoft Windows OS has its own term and feature for anti-aliasing called ClearType. ClearType is basically Microsoft’s technology for doing anti-aliasing and making fonts have nice smooth curves and angles. ClearType is currently used by web browsers (all web browsers) and the operating system dialogs. But not Microsoft Office at this time.

On PowerPoint, when using the PowerPoint web app it is viewed through a browser for editing and slideshow. So, all text is anti-aliased in both views because the Microsoft ClearType works with all major web browsers.

So, should you be worried about anti-aliasing or smooth fonts with PowerPoint? Yes, it is a concern, but starting with Windows 10 and PowerPoint 2007 all fonts display anti-aliased with presented as a slideshow – and I can attest to being happy with text that is projected 20′ tall is HD, is smooth, and overall display very well (with the caveat that there is room for it to be better!).

-Troy @ TLC

This is from our Look Back series, rediscovering previous blog posts with relevant PowerPoint tips, tricks and examples. The original post from May 13th, 2016 can be viewed here.