Export to PowerPoint / Word

Overview

One of Macabacus' most popular features is the ability to export Excel ranges (cells) and charts into PowerPoint presentations and Word documents with a professional look. These tools overcome numerous limitations of using native Office functionality to paste Excel data into presentations and documents.

You can export ranges and charts from Excel to PowerPoint presentations and Word documents in a variety of forms using convenient keyboard shortcuts, or buttons on the Macabacus tab within the Export group. Alternatively, in PowerPoint and Word, Excel ranges and charts can be imported into your presentations and documents using the buttons on the Macabacus tab within the Import group.

Export Methods

There are several ways to export Excel ranges and charts to PowerPoint/Word.

Export as Picture

Export the selected cell range or chart to your PowerPoint presentation or Word document as an enhanced metafile picture.

Macabacus automatically hides error checking and cell comment indicators (the green and red triangles in the corners of cells), blue Page Break Preview borders, and table header sorting arrows so they do not appear in pictures exported to PowerPoint/Word, without affecting the appearance of the original source range.

Export as Table

Export the selected cell range to PowerPoint/Word as a table. You may prefer this option if you plan to make formatting changes to the data in PowerPoint/Word that you do not intend to reflect in the source workbook.

When exporting ranges containing cells with Center Across Selection alignment as a table, an apparent PowerPoint bug may insert extra columns in the resulting table in some cases. You can confirm this behavior by copying/pasting cells natively using PowerPoint's Keep Source Formatting option. Also, exporting large cell ranges as tables with the recolor fonts option enabled may noticeably slow the export operation.

Export as Embedded Workbook

Export the selected cell range or chart to PowerPoint/Word as an embedded workbook. This option allows you to make changes directly to the underlying data/chart from within PowerPoint/Word, although this is not generally recommended.

Export as Chart

Export the selected cell range or chart to PowerPoint/Word as a chart. Exporting cells in this manner may be preferable when you do not wish to include the chart in your workbook. However, it is generally a best practice to include the chart in your workbook, format it to your liking, and export it as a picture. When exporting charts in this manner, you may prefer this option if you plan to make formatting changes to the chart in PowerPoint/Word that you do not intend to reflect in the source workbook.

Export as Text

Export the text in a single cell inline with other text at the cursor position in PowerPoint or Word. This is useful when writing memos that contain lots of data sourced from your spreadsheets that can be updated with just a few mouse clicks. In PowerPoint, if you have a shape selected, rather than text, Macabacus will replace the entire contents of the shape with text from the selected cell.

PowerPoint and Word behave differently when creating inline text links due to fundamental differences in how Microsoft built these applications. When you export inline text to PowerPoint, the imported text must be hyperlinked to store information about the link. Unfortunately, PowerPoint provides no useful ability to format hyperlinks, so linked text will be underlined and colored blue (or another color as determined by your theme). When you are ready to finalize your presentation, click the Macabacus > Links > More Linking Tools > Remove Hyperlinks button to remove all Macabacus hyperlinks from the presentation. This breaks all inline text links in the presentation, and cannot be undone (aside from using Undo promptly afterward). Word does not use hyperlinks for inline text linking.

Inline text linking in PowerPoint was introduced in v8.8.0. Prior to this version, Macabacus replaced the entire contents of the selected shape with text from a single cell.

Export Behavior

Active Presentation/Document/Workbook

When exporting from Excel and multiple presentations/documents are open, Macabacus pastes the exported cell range/chart from into the active presentation/document. When importing from Excel in either PowerPoint or Word, Macabacus will choose the range/chart selected in the active Excel workbook.

Destination Shapes

A shape that is selected in PowerPoint or Word upon an import/export operation is called the "destination shape." Whether or not a destination shape is selected, and the type of destination shape, if any, determines placement and sizing of the pasted range/chart on the destination slide or in the destination document.

PowerPoint Placement

Placement of pasted objects in PowerPoint is summarized as follows:

• If any destination shape is selected, the pasted object (e.g., picture, table) will be inserted onto the slide at the top left position of the destination shape.
• If the destination shape is a placeholder that accepts the type of shape being pasted, then the pasted object is inserted into the placeholder.
• If the destination shape is a placeholder that does not accept the type of shape being pasted, then the pasted object is positioned on top of the placeholder.
• If the destination shape is NOT a placeholder, but another type of shape, then the pasted object replaces the destination shape, and the destination shape is deleted.
• If no destination shape is selected, then the pasted object is placed either at the center or top left corner of the slide, depending on your import/export settings (see below).

Word Placement

Placement of pasted objects in Word is summarized as follows:

• If a destination shape is selected and that shape is an inline shape, the pasted object is inserted into the document at the same point as the destination shape, and the destination shape will be deleted.
• If a destination shape is selected and that shape is a floated shape, the pasted object is inserted into the document at the same top left coordinates as the destination shape, and the destination shape will be deleted.
• If no destination shape is selected, then the pasted object is placed either in line with text at the cursor, or floated over text, depending on your import/export settings (see below).
• If the destination shape is a table and more than one cell—or the entire table—is selected, the placement described above applies. If a single cell in a Word table is selected, the pasted object is inserted into that cell.

Size Matching

When a destination shape is selected in PowerPoint or Word, you can match the width, height, both width and height, or neither dimension of the pasted object to the destination shape. These options are set with checkboxes labeled Width and Height on the Macabacus tab in the Import group in PowerPoint and Word, and in the Export group in Excel. If no destination shape is selected, pasted objects will be inserted at their original sizes.

Exporting Pictures

When exporting charts or cells to PowerPoint/Word as pictures, Macabacus transparently changes the zoom level of the source sheet to 100% before copying the chart or cells, and then restores the zoom level to its original value once the operation is complete. This may result in pictures that do not exactly match what you see in Excel if your zoom level is not already set to 100%, because text wrapping and chart elements may display differently at different zoom levels. This occasionally happens with charts, but is less common with cell ranges. If this happens, ensure that your chart or cells appear correctly at 100% zoom prior to exporting to PowerPoint/Word.

If you find that the picture exported by Macabacus to PowerPoint/Word is cut off (i.e., missing rows or columns), this could be a native Office problem. To confirm, try copying the cell range as a picture natively (Home > Copy > Copy as Picture) and then paste this picture into PowerPoint/Word natively (Ctrl+V). If you observe the same result, then the problem is with Office and you you must resolve the issue natively. We can only help you troubleshoot this native problem if you are able to email us the affected workbook.

Export Options

The Import/Export tab on the Common Settings dialog lets you specify a number of behavioral and formatting preferences.

Recolor Fonts

A properly built spreadsheet will use font color coding to highlight the nature and/or function of cells. These colors are specified in Macabacus' AutoColor settings. While color coding your spreadsheets is good practice, these colors have no place in your presentation materials. With this option enabled, Macabacus recolors fonts of exported cells that use Recolor colors to your default font color (usually black) upon exporting, without affecting colors in the source workbook.

Remove Gridlines

The use of gridlines in Excel is a personal preference. Rarely should they appear in presentation materials, however. When you export cells as a picture with this option enabled, Macabacus excludes gridlines from the picture without affecting the visibility of gridlines in the source workbook.

Remove Outer Border

With this option enabled, Macabacus removes any outer border on an exported Excel chart prior to pasting into PowerPoint/Word, without affecting the appearance of the chart in the source workbook.

Check for Formula Errors

With this option enabled, Macabacus scans cells to be exported for formula errors. If any errors are found, Macabacus will notify you. This way, you can avoid unexpected #DIV/0! and other errors in your PowerPoint and Word outputs.

Scale Chart Fonts

When exporting a chart from Excel to PowerPoint or Word as a chart object, and the pasted chart object is resized to match the size of a destination shape , you may observe that, while the chart itself is resized properly, data labels and other fonts on the chart appear too big or too small. If this occurs, enable this option to additionally scale font sizes to better conform to the resized chart. You can specify minimum and maximum font sizes for pasted chart objects for Macabacus to use when scaling fonts.

Default Destination Application

You can specify the default destination application (PowerPoint or Word) so that if both PowerPoint presentations and Word documents are open when exporting from Excel, Macabacus knows to which application it should export ranges/charts.

Switch to Target Application

When exporting ranges/charts from within Excel to PowerPoint or Word and this option is enabled, Macabacus will switch to the destination presentation or document upon export.

Copy Appearance

When exporting a range/chart as a picture, you can specify whether you want the picture to resemble its display on screen, or appear as it will look when printed. In practice, there may be little or no visual difference between the two.

PowerPoint Placement

When exporting cells/charts to PowerPoint and no destination shape is selected, you can specify whether pasted objects are inserted at the center of the slide or at the top left corner of the slide.

Word Placement

When exporting cells/charts to Word and no destination shape is selected, you can specify whether you want the pasted object inserted in line with text or floated over text.

Quick Export

Quick Export allows you to export Excel ranges (cells) or charts to PowerPoint or Word using convenient keyboard shortcuts described below, or corresponding buttons on the Macabacus tab in the Export group.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Default Options

Export Cells As

Set Macabacus to export ranges as pictures (recommended), tables, or embedded workbooks by default.

Export Chart As

Set Macabacus to export charts as pictures (recommended), charts, or embedded workbooks by default. Note that charts cannot be exported as embedded workbooks if the default target application is set to Word.

Target Application

You can specify the default target application (PowerPoint or Word) so that if both PowerPoint presentations and Word documents are open when exporting from Excel, Macabacus knows to which application it should export cells and charts.

This documentation refers to Macabacus version 8.8.15, and may differ from the PDF documentation
on your computer that installed with your version of Macabacus.