This is an Eval Central archive copy, find the original at depictdatastudio.com.

You might need text boxes for annotations or labels.

You might spend a few moments adding and editing the text box.

But then, it doesn’t get pasted correctly into Word or PowerPoint, argh!

In this 5-minute video, you’ll see 2 ways to add text boxes to Excel charts:

1. The sloooow way (adding a text box outside the chart, and then having to do extra editing and grouping)
2. The speedy way (being proactive and adding a text box inside the chart from the beginning)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgoPvIHWuJA

What’s Inside

• 0:00 The problem: Text boxes don’t get copied/pasted into Word or PowerPoint correctly
• 1:02 Dataviz on the Go
• 1:12 Example: Text boxes on small multiples histograms
• 1:55 The long, hard way: Text box is a separate object from the chart
• 2:59 The fix: “Group” separate objects together
• 4:18 The better, faster way: Click on the chart first!
• 5:10 Additional benefits: No grouping; No border; No removing white fill color
• 5:31 Recap

Transcript

Ann K. Emery: [00:00:00] In this video, I’m going to show you how to add text boxes to your graph. Like this.

You might need to add some labels. You might want to add some call out boxes or annotations.

But then I’m also going to show you the correct way to do this because I want your text boxes to come along for the ride as you copy and paste your graph into Word or PowerPoint.

Here’s the problem, right? You add these beautiful text boxes and then you copy and you go into word and you paste and you’re like, where are they?

And people tell me, “oh, I had to take a screenshot.” No screenshots. That is low resolution. It gets blurry. It looks unprofessional. No screenshots. Okay.

Or they say, “I had to copy and paste all of my text boxes separately.” So they’re doing copy, paste, copy, paste like 10 bajillion times. I don’t want that for you either.

I want you to save time. All right. So in this video, I’m going to show you how to add the text boxes the correct way so that they come along into [00:01:00] Word or PowerPoint with the rest of your graph.

I’m Ann Emery. You’re watching Dataviz on the Go, the series where you learn dataviz time savers inside everyday software like Excel.

And speaking of being on the go, I was teaching dataviz in South Africa a few days ago. Uh, the jet lag is mostly gone by now.

And we were looking at how to make column histograms. We were also making area histograms, and we were also making small multiples histograms.

And when we got to the text box section, I was reminded again, that a lot of people don’t know this trick, so that’s why I wanted to make a video about it to share this with more people like you.

All right, let me show you how to add the text boxes, what not to do. Or how to fix it in case you’re doing it the long, hard way.

And then I’m going to show you what to do. The yes version second. Okay.

What not to do? Let me delete these text boxes and I’m going to read them [00:02:00] in case this is new to you. Oops, oops, oops, too far, too far. Click the undo arrow, delete this little one.

Okay. What not to do? Insert. Find your text box. It lives under shapes. It’s also on the far right of your screen. Very similar to PowerPoint and Word, right? You add your text box and you’re like, wait, I thought you were going to tell us what not to do. Here’s what not to do. You like, you, you add your text box, you draw it where you want it, you add all your words, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

It would look something like this over on the side. You would remove the border from it. And then you’re like, great, I’m all done. I’m going to copy. And I’m going to paste and where is it? Where is it? Right? So what happened is your chart and your text box are separate objects. So you’d have to copy paste them individually.

Gross, right? [00:03:00] So if this has happened to you, the fix is just group them. You’ve probably done grouping in PowerPoint where you click on your chart and then you hold down. Is it control or shift? I never look at my keyboard. I just do it by muscle memory. It’s either control or shift. Let’s try control. Yeah, control work.

Did shift also work? Select, hold down shift, select. Okay. It’s both control or shift. I have no idea what the Mac keyboard shortcut is, but if you do comment below the video, share the Mac shortcut for selecting multiple objects with us. So we all know, okay. You’d have both of these selected. You hover your mouse over the border, right?

Not, not so it looks like this shape, but so that it looks like the little arrow shape. You right click and you group and then they are one object. Your two separate objects have turned into one object. They move together, the [00:04:00] location stays there, and then they also can be Copied and pasted together. Okay, now when you paste it, it’s like it’s there.

It’s not formatted, but it’s there. Um, so that works if you accidentally you’re like, where’s the text box? Just group them. Better case scenario that I want you to get in to the gist of doing. I think this saves time in the long run is just proactively trap your text box inside your chart. If you are clicked on some random cell and you insert a text box, your text box is just going to show up like separate.

It’s going to be a separate object, okay? Because you’re just clicked on something else. And then you’re going to have to group them. Just click on your chart first. Click on your chart. It’s activated. Get into the habit of doing that. Go to insert. You add your text box, right? You draw it where you want it.

Right here, for example, and then it’s automatically [00:05:00] inside. So when you copy and paste you don’t have to do group You don’t have to get stressed. It’s just there. It’s there exactly where you need it It also doesn’t add the little border around so I feel like it saves like yet a little more time. It also is Transparent and clear where this one is accidentally covering up the chart in the gridlines.

So Maybe it’s like Three time savers. Not having to group, not having to remove the border, and not having to remove the white fill color. So to recap, click on your chart first, then add your text box. It’s going to be trapped inside. You don’t have to do any extra editing later on.