Is there any way to stop chart imagery from scaling randomly?

[how_D]

[I have already posted this in the Excel charting ng; I post it here also
because there is a Word connection...]

============================================================================

Excel charts have this tendency to change size in a random way, an I need to
figure out how this can be prevented, either programmatically, or through
use of object options that I have somehow missed.

Example: Pie chart. Clicking on it to access some of the settings can, even
if nothing is changed, cause the pies to change their size, usually smaller.
This is especially true if some setting IS changed, and even more so if the
chart in question is accessed as an object placed within Word.

When I say "change size", I mean the imagery, not the size of the bounding
box containing the imagery.

The problem is worsened by the activity of grabbing one of the bounding box
corners and scaling the chart larger. Yes, the image grows, but after the
image is grown to the desired size, you cannot then reduce the size of the
bounding box without the image scaling down again, and it will be even
smaller then before. It is like a ratcheting effect.

Is there no way to specify or at least lock the size of the image,
independent of the box containing it? Is there no way to keep these things
from randomly changing their size?

My goal is to have two adjacent pie charts, comparing different data, but
coordinated in style, angle to viewer, 3D thickness, etc. Even if one pie
only has two pieces with labels and the other has six with labels, I want
the final product to show the overall pies to be the same physical size on
the page.

I also want them to print without reducing their size, and to come into Word
with the same smoothness of curves that they have when they are still in
Excel.

Is this too much to want???? Are there any definitive and affirmative
solutions to these problems?

Bill

 

[Jim Gordon]

Hi Bill,

Excel's chart tool is always trying to maximize the chart size within the
bounding box. The settings you choose affect how much room it has to grow.
Things like turning labels on, turning lines on, font sizes, etc all affect
how the size of the pie graph itself turns out. I usually make the bounding
box quite large, adjust the settings to my liking and then make the box
smaller until it starts to affect the pie's size.

One of the ways to put a chart into Word is to use Word's Insert menu.
Insert > Object > Microsoft Excel Chart. When you do this you'll get a
sample set of data and a sample chart both of which you can adjust and
change to your liking. There are lots of other ways to add graphs to Word
depending upon how you want the finished product to look and work.

-Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

All responses should be made to this newsgroup within the same thread.
Thanks.

About Microsoft MVPs:
http://www.mvps.org/

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<http://www.rondebruin.nl/Google.htm>

----------

[I have already posted this in the Excel charting ng; I post it here also
because there is a Word connection...]

============================================================================

Excel charts have this tendency to change size in a random way, an I need to
figure out how this can be prevented, either programmatically, or through
use of object options that I have somehow missed.

Example: Pie chart. Clicking on it to access some of the settings can, even
if nothing is changed, cause the pies to change their size, usually smaller.
This is especially true if some setting IS changed, and even more so if the
chart in question is accessed as an object placed within Word.

When I say "change size", I mean the imagery, not the size of the bounding
box containing the imagery.

The problem is worsened by the activity of grabbing one of the bounding box
corners and scaling the chart larger. Yes, the image grows, but after the
image is grown to the desired size, you cannot then reduce the size of the
bounding box without the image scaling down again, and it will be even
smaller then before. It is like a ratcheting effect.

Is there no way to specify or at least lock the size of the image,
independent of the box containing it? Is there no way to keep these things
from randomly changing their size?

My goal is to have two adjacent pie charts, comparing different data, but
coordinated in style, angle to viewer, 3D thickness, etc. Even if one pie
only has two pieces with labels and the other has six with labels, I want
the final product to show the overall pies to be the same physical size on
the page.

I also want them to print without reducing their size, and to come into Word
with the same smoothness of curves that they have when they are still in
Excel.

Is this too much to want???? Are there any definitive and affirmative
solutions to these problems?

Bill