The Link Pane

After linking a range of data to a PowerPoint Table, Chart or Shape, the Link Pane will appear when selecting the table chart or shape. In the Link Pane we can edit the 'Link Properties' and that way control fonts, background colors, size, dynamic properties and visualize significance.

Basic Link Settings

Most of these check boxes speak for themselves. If you are not sure, just try!

Important: When populating charts, OfficeReports might add the rows to the legend while you need the rows on the category axis. Just click 'Switch Row/Column' to get it right!

Advanced Settings

You might want to read a bit more about the following advanced layout functionality:

Visualizing Significance / Using Icons

OfficeReports can add icons to tables, depending on the background color of the linked cells in the workbook.

By checking 'Show Significance', the background colors in linked range above are displayed as shapes in the PowerPoint Table. This is possible for charts and shapes as well. Read more about Significance Shapes.

Sticky Colors

Define a color for a specific text like e.g. a brand name. Charts using sticky colors will always use the specified color for the bar or column belonging to the specific brand. You can specify what colors to use for different texts by clicking 'Sticky Colors' in the OfficeReports ribbon tab. This way, specific brand(s) can easily be spotted in charts.

Report Automation: Variable number of Rows/Columns

When reporting international tracking studies, for some countries we might to compare the main brand to a different number of competitors. In that case we end up with some reports where tables (and charts) have a different number of columns. OfficeReports has functionality to control this so a single report template can generate the reports for all the countries we need. We run into the same problem when generating 360 feedback reports where different evaluated leaders have a different amount of sub-leaders in their department.

See Also