How To Draw Dotted Line In Powerpoint

Hither's a common data visualization claiming: Slides with some, but not all, of the chronological data included.

Image showing data statistics that are missing a number of years' data.

The Challenge

The challenge is twofold:

First, how practise you take your bullet points and transform them into a graph? What type of graph should it be? How should it exist formatted? How practice y'all brand the graph easy to sympathize?
Second, what if your dates don't get in order? What if you've got data for one point in time… and so you skip a large clamper in the centre?

The Excel Solution thatDoesn't Piece of work

First, I tried filling in my table with the few data points that were available.

Excel doesn't quite know what to exercise with that.

Excel didn't show anything at all for FY07. No dot. Nothing.

And, there's all this white infinite betwixt FY07 and FY17, which is evidently not going to work.

Screenshot of an Microsoft Excel line graph that is missing data.

Using Dotted Lines to Show Incertitude

Here's the edited version.

We used a dotted line to connect two points on the graph. Dotted lines are great for visualizing estimates or uncertainty.

Screenshot of a Microsoft Excel graph that fills in missing data with a dotted line.

Then how did I practise this?

How to Add Placeholder Data to Your Table

You lot demand to fill in some placeholder numbers with estimated values.

In this example, nosotros'll make our line increase by five.27% each twelvemonth.

How to Calculate a Placeholder Value

To find the placeholder value, I took the FY18 number minus the FY07 number and divided that by 11. Why 11? Because there'south an 11-yr gap between FY07 and FY18.

Increase Each Yr by the Placeholder Value

Each yr increases by 5.27%.

In the starting time box, it's 30% plus five.27%.

The side by side box is 35% plus 5.27%. And and then on.

Screenshot showing how to increase each year by the placeholder value in Microsoft Excel.

Selective Labeling Will Focus Your Audition on Your Years of Pick

In the table, you'll notice that these placeholder values don't take financial years above them.

I don't want every unmarried year'due south label to show up in the graph. I desire to focus on the numbers that we do have data for.

Screenshot showing in Microsoft Excel how to selectively label data.

How to Change Solid Lines to Dotted Lines in Excel

Afterwards setting up your tabular array, you're going to insert a line graph simply like you've done a meg times before. By default, Excel gives you a solid line.

How practise you lot get the dotted line advent? This part is really like shooting fish in a barrel!

Click Once to Edit the Entire Line

If yous click once on the line, you'll find that all of the dots are selected.

You can edit the entire line at once, just every bit you lot normally do. For example, you can change the line'due south colour, width, etc.

Screenshot showing in Microsoft Excel how to change a solid line into a dotted line.

Click Twice to Edit Pieces of the Line

If you click on one of the dots a 2d time, and then you can edit i smaller segment of the line at a time.

The dot controls the piece of the line just before it. Y'all would click on the dot in this screenshot, for example, to edit just the section of line to the left of information technology.

Screenshot showing in Microsoft Excel how you can edit sections of a line at a time.

Right-click on that dot and selectOutline.

Screenshot in Microsoft Excel showing how to change a solid line into a dotted line.

And so, click onDashes.

Experiment with a Few Different Dashed Styles

Y'all'll need to attempt a few dissimilar dashed styles.

Some styles piece of work better for smaller graphs, and some styles work better for larger graphs. Information technology depends on whether your graph is going into a tiny space in a Discussion written report, or into a large slide in a PowerPoint presentation.

For this particular graph, I didn't change the segments to dashed lines i at a fourth dimension. That would be way too much work! Since all simply one segment would be dashed, I set the entire line to be dashed, and so set one segment to exist solid.

Avoid Using Text Boxes and Shapes Whenever Possible

Sometimes people think I'grand going toInsert –> Shape and calculation some type of dashed line.

While y'all'd go the same end result… that would be a lot of work.

Screenshot in Microsoft Excel suggesting you not use text boxes and shapes whenever possible.

I don't desire to add text boxes or shapes on my graphs if I tin can avoid it.

I work on a lot of automation projects, so the more than born features you tin can have, the better. Manually creating shapes is clunky and time-consuming.

Bonus! Watch a Tutorial

I've always found that watching someone's mouse click on the screen makes learning a one thousand thousand times easier than following screenshots.

Here's the video version of this blog mail, where you'll learn exactly which buttons to click on.

Bonus! Download the Excel File

Download the Excel file used in this tutorial and utilise it even so you'd like.

Download the File

Your Turn

Comment below and let me see examples of dotted lines in your projects. I expect forward to hearing from you.

More well-nigh Ann 1000. Emery
Ann K. Emery is a sought-after speaker who is determined to go your data out of spreadsheets and into stakeholders' hands. Each yr, she leads more 100 workshops, webinars, and keynotes for thousands of people around the globe. Her pattern consultancy also overhauls graphs, publications, and slideshows with the goal of making technical information easier to understand for non-technical audiences.

Source: https://depictdatastudio.com/how-to-add-dotted-lines-to-line-graphs-in-microsoft-excel/

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