User Settings

If there is more than one customizing for your company, you can change your default customizing. This customizing will then be used for all charts by default.

To change the default customizing, expand the drop-down menu for Default Customizing and choose the customizing you want to use (Figure 4, “Change Default Customizing”).

If you choose the option Use PowerPoint Master or Use PowerPoint Master (Modern), the Flex Customizing is used. This means that charts adapt to the master template.

If the live update mode is enabled, Excel links are updated automatically if the data in a linked Excel file is changed.

This only applies to linked Excel ranges and not to linked Excel tables or images.

To enable or disable live update mode, expand the drop-down menu for Live Update Mode (Figure 5, “Live Update Mode”).

Here, you have three options:

If you click on a point in a data chart, either the point itself or the series it is part of is selected.

In the user settings, you can define which option you prefer.

To do so, expand the drop-down menu for Selection and choose your preferred option (Figure 6, “Selection Settings”).

To first select the point, choose the option Points First.

To first select the series, choose the option Series First.

The second click will then select the other option, depending on what option you have chosen in the user settings.

When you insert a chart, you can either draw the chart area freely or insert the chart directly into a placeholder.

In the user settings, you can enable guiding lines which are displayed while you insert a new chart. The guiding lines can help you to align your new chart with existing elements on the slide (Figure 7, “Guiding Lines”).

You have the following options:

The default Gantt region defines which regional settings will be used upon the creation of a Gantt chart.

This setting can also be edited for each Gantt chart individually.

To select the region, expand the drop-down menu for Default Gantt Region and choose your preferred region (Figure 8, “Change Default Gantt Region”).

The empower^® AI Chart Assistant is based on a default system prompt.

If you want to change or adjust the behavior or the way to communicate of the AI Chart Assistant, you can customize the prompt via the user settings (Figure 9, “AI Instructions”).

To do so, enter your specifications in the input field under AI Chart Assistant Instructions.

For example, you can prompt the AI to be concise and professional.

The restricted mode is automatically enabled for charts that contain a large number of data points to improve the performance for those charts.

In restricted mode, only data points of interest can be selected and edited. Arrows can only be placed on these points and data labels are only visible for these points.

If restricted mode is enabled, only the start and end points as well as the minimum and maximum points are available per series.

By default, restricted mode is automatically enabled if a chart has more than 500 data points.

To increase or decrease this limit, enter the new limit into the input field next to Point Limit for Restricted Mode (Figure 10, “Limit for Restricted Mode”).

Under Preferred Category and Bar Width, you can enter the bar and category width that you want to apply to data charts by default.

The category width defines the width of a category. In bar, column and waterfall charts, the category width includes the bar or column as well as the gap on both sides of the bar or column. This value is entered in pt (Figure 11, “Category and Bar Width in Column Chart” (1)).

In other data charts such as line and Mekko charts, the category width defines how wide a single category is.

The bar width defines the width of the bars or columns within a category. This value is entered as a percentage (Figure 11, “Category and Bar Width in Column Chart” (2)).

If the bar width is set to 85 percent, the bar or column covers 85 percent of the total category width. The gaps on both sides of the bar or column represent the remaining 15 percent of the category's width.

To set your preferred category width, enter a new value into the input field (Figure 12, “Define Preferred Category Width”).

To revert the category width to the default value, click on the revert symbol next to the input field.

The default value for the category width is 79.416 points.

To set your preferred bar width, enter a new percentage value into the input field (Figure 13, “Define Preferred Bar Width”).

To revert the bar width to the default value, click on the revert symbol next to the input field.

The default value for the bar width is 84 percent.

Charts can be preloaded upon opening a slide. This setting is disabled by default.

Preloading charts improves the performance when using empower^® significantly.

If you want to enable this setting, tick the checkbox for Preload Charts (Figure 14, “Preload Charts”).

If the setting has been made available in your company, you can decide if you want to load the charting features upon PowerPoint startup or if they should only be loaded when you first use them (Figure 15, “Load Charting Features on Startup”).

If you tick the checkbox for Load Charting Features on PowerPoint Startup, the features are loaded each time you start PowerPoint.

The features will be made available automatically after PowerPoint startup.

If you untick the checkbox for Load Charting Features on PowerPoint Startup, the features are not loaded when you start PowerPoint.

If you click on one of the charting buttons in the group empower, a dialog box opens.

In this dialog box, you will be asked if you want to load the charting features now (Figure 16, “Load Features”).

To continue, click on the button Yes.

The charting features will then be loaded.

As long as the features are being loaded, a notification bar is displayed. When the notification bar disappears, all charting features have been loaded and you can start working with empower^® Charts.

If you have disabled the loading of the charting features upon PowerPoint startup and try to use one of the charting buttons in Excel, a notification bar is displayed.

To enable the charting features, navigate to PowerPoint and click on one of the charting buttons in the group empower.

A dialog box opens.

In this dialog box, you will be asked if you want to load the charting features now.

To continue, click on the button Yes.

The charting features will then be loaded.

As long as the features are being loaded, a notification bar is displayed. When the notification bar disappears, all charting features have been loaded and you can start working with empower^® Charts in PowerPoint and in Excel.