General Information

1. empower® Charts 9.7 can optionally be used in a .NET 8 variant. The .NET 8 variant has a slightly better performance (~20%), but requires an Office 64-bit version and an installed .NET 8 Desktop Runtime. If the .NET variant is used, two empower® Add-ins will be visible under the COM add-ins in PowerPoint.
2. Due to the greatly changed and optimized data storage, it is not possible to edit charts that were created or edited with version 9.7 (or empower® Chart Creation 9.6) with older empower® Versions (<9.6). Conversely, it is of course possible to continue editing older charts. These are technically migrated during the first selection.
3. The ribbon integration has been changed. If only empower® Chart Creation is installed, the ribbon group is located in the tab Insert in PowerPoint. If other empower® Products or Solutions are installed, empower® Chart Creation ribbon elements are also located in the empower® Ribbon.
4. The functions of the layout tools have been slightly adapted, so the last selected shape for functions with a reference shape (e. g. Align) is the reference shape. The tooltips explain the respective functions in detail.

General Improvements

1. Numerous performance optimizations have been implemented, including:
   • The start of PowerPoint is now only minimally delayed. The loading of empower® Charts takes place in the background after the start.
   • The data storage of charts has been significantly reduced. This results in smaller files despite large/many charts and improved OneDrive synchronization.
   • Performance when working with charts, large line charts, many charts on one slide, Gantt charts and Excel links has been improved.
   • The problem of PowerPoint objects occasionally sticking to the mouse pointer has been solved.
2. The linking with online Excel files (OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams etc.) has been optimized and simplified. App registration by IT is no longer required.
3. The customizing can now be changed for all charts in a presentation.
4. Further small improvements and bug fixes.

New Functions

Data Charts

1. A mixed chart option (bar + line) has been added directly to the main menu for inserting new charts. 
   Note: Mixed charts can also be created from any column chart by changing the type of one or more series.
2. The calculation for delta arrows has been optimized and is now always based on the axis delta between two points, even in waterfall charts.
3. In bubble charts, individual bubbles can now be brought to the foreground when overlapping.
4. Multiple data labels can be selected and formatted.
5. The space requirement in charts with multiple arrows has been optimized.
6. The icons/color blocks in the legend have been enlarged for better readability.
7. All settings for axes can now also be found directly on the axis (e. g. changing the limit values).
8. The series colors can be reset to the standard of the customizing.
9. The options for text additions have been merged (user-defined format > free text).

Gantt Charts

1. When moving the mouse pointer over Gantt objects and when moving objects (e. g. a bar), information on the start, end and duration of the bar is displayed.
2. It is possible to set the font sizes for the timeline levels individually. The display of days on the timeline can also be changed (e. g. Mon for Monday).
3. The position of milestones and date lines in a day (start, middle, end) can be set.