Importing charts to PowerPoint
Some users asked me whether it is possible to import charts to PowerPoint. It is possible and here is a short tutorial how to do it.
1. Create new PowerPoint presentation and save it somewhere, let’s say to the same folder where your amcolum.html file is.
2. In PowerPoint, click View -> Toolbars -> Control Toolbox.
3. New Toolbar will appear. Click ”More Controls” button and select “Shockwave Flash Object” from the list. Your mouse pointer should change to +
4. Click on your presentation area and adjust the size of your chart. You should get this:
5. Click on it and select “Properties”. “Properties” window will open.
6. Double click on (Custom). “Property pages” window will open.
7. Now in the “Movie URL” field you should enter path to swf file and pass required variables to this file. Most often you will need two variables (amcolumn_dataFile and amcolumn_settingsFile). The syntax of passing variables is:
your.swf?variable1=value1&variable2=value2
We saved our ppt in the same folder where amcolumn.html file is, so swf file will be:
amcolumn/amcolumn.swf
then we should add variable amcolumn_dataFile. Data file is also in amcolumn folder, so this will be:
amcolumn_dataFile=amcolumn/amcolumn_data.xml
and another variable - amcolumn_settingsFile:
amcolumn_settingsFile=amcolumn/amclumn_settings.xml
Now lets join all together:
amcolumn/amcolumn.swf?amcolumn_dataFile=amcolumn/amcolumn_data.xml&amcolumn_settingsFile=amcolumn/amcolumn_settings.xml
Click OK.
The flash movie will not appear in PPT. You should view presentation (click F5 or View->Slide Show).
That’s it.
The only uncomfortable thing is that these files will not be embeded in your ppt presentation. This means that you must always include all the files then you want to send presentation to someone.
P.S. since v 1.1.0 you can use shorter variable names:
“settings_file” instead of “amcolumn_settingsFile”
“data_file” instead of “amcolumn_dataFile”
May 21st, 2007 at 6:12 am
Update: You will be able to include pie charts into ppt file only since upcomming version 1.1.0
August 30th, 2007 at 8:08 am
Hello Antanas,
Is there a way to fuse all these files into an EXE and be able to send one file to the user - who can do one click to play the line chart?
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Excellent program! I am having a real headache adding in the examples into a powerpoint file. I can repeat the example you have given but the other examples 1-9, do not have a separate swf file in their amcolumn folder, and I always get the “file not loaded error.” What am I doing wrong?
Many thanks,
Paul Brown in the UK