Tips for line graphs in PPT 2013

1. Do not use too many series.

Below an example of sales results in 10 European countries over a period of 4 years. The default settings have been used. As you can see it is a bit of a mess, lines crossing each other make it virtually unreadable. The legend does not help much.

By splitting the data into two charts, one for the best scoring countries and one for the lowest scoring countries results are usable. See the result below for the best scoring countries.

2. Don’t start the Y-axis scale at zero; break the scale if needed.

You can adapt the scale, in our example you can start the Y-axis at 300.000 €.
Double click the Y-axis, in the task pane Format axis, change the minimum value. The chart is more balanced, no more excess white space below the series.

3. Start the series on the Y-axis

For clarity let the series start at the crossing of the two axes.
Double click de X-axis, in the task pane Format Axis, under Axis position, choose On tick marks. Now the starting value can be read easier, the series line continues to the end of the chart.

4. Do not use gridlines when it is not necessary

The most important thing in the chart is to see the trend the results are following over a period of time. The exact values are less important. 

Select the gridlines by clicking on one and press Delete.

5. Do not use a legend instead use direct labelling of the series

Click on the series to select it. Click one intersection point so that it is the only intersection point selected. Right click it and in the quick menu choose the Add data label option and then Add data label again. The value now appears next to the intersection point.

Click the value once, then click it again, finally right click the value and choose Insert data label field.

Choose the name of the series, in our example [Series]France.

You can move the data label. When you move it a leader line may appear. You can use the leader line to your benefit to improve clarity, especially when series lines cross. In the example I formatted the line by changing the width and added an end arrow point. Just select the leader line by clicking on it, right click it and choose Format leader lines.

       

After some additional formatting the chart looks like this: