Anybody that does presentations will someday need to use a chart. A manager needs charts to show production numbers and profits. A scientist or trainer needs charts to show facts, figures and results. A sales seminar leader needs charts to explain sales figures. So, what's involved in getting these nifty things into your OpenOffice.org-based slide show?

The process of integrating charts into your Impress slide show is fairly straightforward, although it does involve a few steps and two different components of OpenOffice.org.

People hate doing jobs that they have to re-learn every time. A good policy is to develop a process that is easy to remember and can be used over and over again. Helping you develop your process is the aim of this article. I'll discuss the steps, then go through each one in greater detail. I'll finish up with some production tips that will help you streamline your charting tasks, in OpenOffice.org.

We'll keep everything in the OpenOffice.org family and use Calc for our spreadsheet and data input tasks.

Here is a quick list of the steps involved in adding charts to your slide show:

• Collect and organize the data in Calc
• Build the chart in Calc
• Place the chart on your Impress slide
• Tweak your chart for your theme, colors, etc.
• Review and make adjustments to the charts or slides

Now that you have an idea of what's involved, let's go put a chart in an slide.

Next: Collect, Organize And Build The Chart In Calc »