In PowerPoint 2011 for Mac, the entire data that shows up on your chart in the form of series and categories is stored within an Excel sheet. These series and categories may show up on your chart in different ways—sometimes as an individual column or a set of columns within a column chart. For some charts, this data may also be represented as values or a legend. However, almost any chart type, even if it is not a column chart compares a set of values. Once you delete any of these values, they no longer show on your chart, and so the level of comparison reduces. However deleting is not always the best option, especially if you want to retrieve those values later whenever required. The solution is to temporarily hide values you no longer need, and then unhide as and when you want to reveal those values.
Look at the chart shown in Figure 1, below. We will use this chart as a sample chart to show you how its appearance changes after hiding a given series or category.
Figure 1: A sample chart
Before you proceed further, make sure you bring up the Excel sheet that contains the data related to your PowerPoint chart. Learn more about this process in our Edit Chart Data in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac tutorial. Thereafter, follow the steps explained in the subsequent two sections to hide or unhide your data:
Hide/Unhide a Series
Follow these steps to hide/unhide a series in your chart:
- Look at Figure 2, below. We want to hide the entire 'Apples' series. To do so, you will need to click the Column Header to select the entire column (series) to be hidden. Then right-click (or Ctrl+click) the Column Header. From the resultant contextual menu, select the Hide option as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Select the Hide option - This step will hide the selected series (Apples), as shown in Figure 3, below. Notice that the column C, representing Apples no longer shows in between columns B and D, as highlighted in red within Figure 3.
Figure 3: Series hidden within the Excel data - While keeping your Excel sheet open, navigate to your PowerPoint slide (use the ⌘+Tab keyboard shortcut to navigate between open applications). You'll see that the hidden 'Apples' series is no longer showing in the chart, as shown in Figure 4 (compare with the chart in Figure 1, earlier on this page).
Figure 4: Chart reflecting the result of hiding the Series - To restore the hidden series, first hover your cursor over the position of the hidden series in the Column Header so that the cursor changes to what you see in Figure 5 (highlighted in red). Alternatively, select both the Column Headers of the columns before and after the hidden column.
Figure 5: Cursor changed to point the hidden Series - Now, right-click to bring up the contextual menu shown in Figure 6 and select the Unhide option.
Figure 6: Select the Unhide option to reveal the hidden Series - Doing so will display the hidden series in both the Excel data as well as the Chart on your PowerPoint slide.
Hide/Unhide a Category
Follow these steps to hide/unhide a category in your chart:
- Look at Figure 7, below. We want to hide the category representing the year 2011. To do so, you will need to click the Row Header to select the entire row (category) that we want to hide. Then right-click (or Ctrl+click) the Row Header. From the resultant contextual menu, select the Hide option as shown in Figure 7, below.
Figure 7: Select the Hide option to hide the Category - This action will hide the selected category (2011) as shown in Figure 8. Notice that the 4th row representing the year 2011 is no longer showing between 3rd and 5th rows, as highlighted in red within Figure 8.
Figure 8: Category hidden within the Excel data - While keeping your Excel sheet open, navigate to your PowerPoint slide (use the ⌘+Tab keyboard shortcut to navigate between open applications). You'll see that the hidden category is no longer showing in the chart, as shown in Figure 9, below (compare with chart in Figure 1, earlier on this page).
Figure 9: Chart reflecting the result of hiding the Category - To restore the hidden category, first hover your cursor over the position of the hidden category in the Row Header so that the cursor changes to what you see in Figure 10 (highlighted in red). Alternatively, select both the Row Headers for the rows before and after the hidden row.
Figure 10: Cursor changed to point the hidden Category - Then, right-click to get a contextual menu and select the Unhide option as shown in Figure 11.
Figure 11: Select the Unhide option to reveal the hidden Category - Doing so will unhide the hidden category in both the Excel data as well as the Chart on your PowerPoint slide.
When you are done with hiding/showing the series or categories within your Excel sheet, go ahead and close Excel. The changes will automatically reflect within the chart on your PowerPoint slide.
More about Hiding Series and Categories
Sometimes when you are trying to hide a series or a category, you may find that even though you have hidden them within the Excel sheet, they are still visible in the chart! To learn how to solve this issue, follow these steps:
- Click the down-arrow of the Edit button (highlighted in red within Figure 12) to open a small menu that you can see in in Figure 12. From this menu, select the Select Data in Excel option (refer to Figure 12 again).
Figure 12: Select Data in Excel option - Doing so opens the Excel sheet containing the chart data along with the Select Data Source dialog box that you can see in Figure 13. Here, make sure that the Show data in hidden Rows and Columns check-box is 'deselected' as shown in Figure 13 (highlighted in red). Click OK button.
Figure 13: Select Data Source dialog box - This step will result in hiding those series or categories from the chart, which were hidden in the Excel chart data.
