How to export Excel charts as vector graphics?

[Don Newmeyer]

Hello,

I need to be able to edit charts made in Excel X using Adobe Illustrator. I
can't seem to figure out how to export or save the charts in an appropriate
format. I can paste as an object in PowerPoint (the hope is to save them as
PICT files), but even then the chart won't convert into a drawing object,
and when I save the PowerPoint presentation as a PICT file it can't be
opened in Illustrator.

What's the trick?

Thanks!

Don

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Hi Don,

There are several approaches you can take depending upon the resolution
you need.

First there are some new features in Excel 2004, one of which is the
ability to simply control-click on a graph (or any drawing or picture
object) and save it as a 72 dpi PICT file.

In Office X and Office 2004 you can paste the graph into PowerPoint and
use PowerPoint's Save As feature. Choose the file type Macintosh PICT.
There are options that you can use to adjust the resolution higher if
you want.

-Jim

 

[Don Newmeyer]

Hi Don,

There are several approaches you can take depending upon the resolution
you need.

First there are some new features in Excel 2004, one of which is the
ability to simply control-click on a graph (or any drawing or picture
object) and save it as a 72 dpi PICT file.

In Office X and Office 2004 you can paste the graph into PowerPoint and
use PowerPoint's Save As feature. Choose the file type Macintosh PICT.
There are options that you can use to adjust the resolution higher if
you want.

-Jim

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the reply. I've already tried pasting into PowerPoint. I get the
Excel chart object to paste into the PowerPoint slide. But after I save as
PICT, Illustrator can't open the file. I also can't convert the Excel chart
into a drawing object within PowerPoint. I can always save as jpeg, but
that doesn't give me the ability to edit the individual elements of the
chart, which I'd like to do in Illustrator.

Any idea why the "save as" PICT doesn't work?

Don

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Sorry, Don. I don't have Adobe Illustrator and don't know enough about
the product to give you advice.

-Jim

 

[Don Newmeyer]

It has nothing to do with Illustrator per se.

FYI, I found out from a Google search that the way to get editable vector
graphics from Excel into other programs is to print to a PDF file, which is
easy to do in OS X. The result isn't very pretty when opened by Illustrator,
but at least the individual elements can be edited, after you get rid of a
lot of clipping masks.

It's really too bad that Microsoft doesn't provide a direct way to do this,
especially since the charts in Excel aren't all that wonderful as is.


Don