PPT97: 3-D Pie Chart Is Displayed and Printed with Poor Quality (189938)

SYMPTOMS

If you copy a three-dimensional (3-D) pie chart from Microsoft Excel and use the Paste or Paste Link command to paste it into PowerPoint, the chart printed from PowerPoint is different than the chart printed from Excel:

From PowerPoint, the chart's outlines are slightly jagged.
From Excel, the outlines are smooth.

NOTE: In some cases, these symptoms may also appear in the chart you see on the screen.

CAUSE

When you copy a 3-D pie chart from Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Excel pastes a picture of the chart on the Clipboard. In this picture, all the arcs are described as a series of small straight lines instead of as smooth curves. When you paste the chart into another program and print it, the arcs are printed as though they are complex polygons rather than arcs.

WORKAROUND

These workarounds only reduce the problem. They do not completely correct it.

Method 1: Turn Off the Chart Border

Double-click the pie chart in PowerPoint.
Select a data series, and on the Format menu, click Selected Data Series.
Under Border, click None.
Click OK.
Repeat steps 2-4 for each data series in your graph.

Method 2: Change the Angle of the Chart

Double-click the pie chart in PowerPoint.
On the Chart menu, click 3-D View.
Increase the Elevation to above 30.
Click OK.

Method 3: Use Ellipses to Smooth Lines

Superimpose an ellipse over the top portion of the pie that has a wider width.
Turn off the Snap To Grid feature, so that you can make fine adjustments.
Select the ellipse and use a copy and paste operation to place the ellipse over the bottom edge of the pie. Then, send it behind the pie chart.
Make any fine positioning adjustments and print the chart.

Method 4: Printing Only: Change Print Options

On the Tools menu, click Options.
On the Print tab, click to select the Print inserted objects at printer resolution check box.

When you print, the printed pie chart has smoother borders than it did before.

MORE INFORMATION

This problem is not exclusive to PowerPoint (this same behavior occurs if you paste a 3-D pie chart into Microsoft Word for Windows or Microsoft Write). However, in Microsoft Word, if you use a Paste Special command followed by Paste Link, then the chart is printed much better than it is displayed. This is because when you print your Word document, Excel provides the print functionality for the chart, not Word.