ExcelDashboardWidgets

I am trying to use these charts in presentation made with PowerPoint 2007. To link the chart from Excel to Powerpoint, I understand all you need to do is copy and "paste special", and check off the "past link" radio button on the left side to keep the data linked for updating purposes. I have downloaded the Excel file, registered and input the activation code, but the "paste link" is not an option right now. Am I missing something here? I can copy from Excel and paste special to PowerPoint with other charts that I make outside of this downloaded file. I am thinking there is some kind of block. I would like to know if pasting the chart to PowerPoint will be available if I purchase.

Thanks, Tom

Hey Tom

There's absolutely no problem to do this with either the free or commercial versions of our dashboard widgets spreadsheet. You can try this out with the free version - simply select the block of cells around a widget in MSExcel and use 'paste special' to paste into MSWord 2007 or MSPowerPoint 2007 as an MSExcel Workbook. The PowerPoint document is automatically linked to Excel Dashboard and updates are automatic.

However there is one caveat - the MSPowerPoint render quality is appalling for linked spreadsheets. This is a well known issue with Microsoft Office products (do a Google search for "embed" + "poor quality" + "excel" to see for yourself). I've searched for a while and played around and haven't managed to see any solutions to improve the pixelation - maybe Microsoft will address this in Office 2013??!!

All we can recommend at this stage is to perhaps format your dashboard so it fits nicely on a single screen and then use MSExcel's "VIEW > FULL SCREEN" option during your presentation. If you also right-click on your bottom windows toolbar and select "PROPERTIES > AUTO-HIDE THE TASKBAR" you get quite a nice full-screen dashboard effect. Take a look at the example attached to get an idea of what we mean..
Sorry we can't be more helpful at this stage and good luck with the project.

Sincerely,

DashboardWidgets

Thanks for the reply. I could make the Excel doc full screen for presentation, but what I am trying to do is put the charts into PowerPoint presentation so I can make a looping slide show to put on a TV on the lunch room wall for people to see what our company metrics are.

What you have recommended is that I "select the block of cells around a widget in Excel and use paste special". I want to copy and paste the gauge chart, not the data cells, right? If I want to copy a chart, I cannot select cells, I have to click directly on a chart. This is where my problem is, I cannot paste special as linked with this grouped chart, right?

Thanks, Tom

Hi Tom

Sounds like a great idea to show the company's KPIs on a loop during lunchbreak!!

In order to paste the gauge as an embedded excel object you need to select the cells behind the gauge object rather than the gauge object itself. In fact it doesn't seem to matter too much which part of the Excel sheet you copy and embed (as long as you select some cells) as you can resize and reposition the content once it is pasted (paste-special) in MSPowerPoint by double-clicking the embedded object.

Hope this makes sense - you should be able to do all of this in the demo version of the dashboard spreadsheet.

Feel free to keep asking questions if you need further assistance.

Cheers

DashboardWidgets