Saving Chart Templates in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows

You can tweak your chart in PowerPoint as much as you want so that the resulting chart follows your specifications. You have now created a standard that you may want to replicate often. PowerPoint makes it easy to save the chart you create as a template. Saving a chart as a template saves all the tweaks you made, and you can use the template as a starting point when you insert another chart.

Follow these steps to learn how to save a chart as template in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows:

1. Select the chart that you want to save as a template. You can see a chart selected, as shown in Figure 1, below.
2. 
   Figure 1: Chart selected
2. Right-click the selected chart, and from the resultant contextual menu, select the Save as Template option, as shown in Figure 2, below.
3. 
   Figure 2: Save as Template option is selected
3. Doing so brings up the Save Chart Template dialog box, as shown in Figure 3, below. Note that you don't have to choose a folder location if you want to use this template on the same computer where it was created. Give your template a name, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3, and save it by clicking the Save button.
4. 
   Figure 3: Save Chart Template dialog box

Use File Names that Make Sense

It is a good idea to give a nice, descriptive name that you can remember later -- Chart1.crtx may mean nothing to you next week, but something like Company Primary Colors Column Chart.crtx may make so much more sense! Note that the extension crtx is automatically suffixed to the file name you choose—CRTX is the chart template format that PowerPoint and other Microsoft Office applications use.
4. The next time you want to use the saved template as a starting point for a new chart, click the Insert Chart button on a content placeholder. Alternatively, select the Insert tab of the Ribbon and click the Chart button within the Insert tab.
5. Either way you will see the Insert Chart dialog box. Within the left pane, select the Templates category, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 4, below, to access the chart template(s) you saved. Note that you can see a tool-tip when you hover your cursor over a custom chart template, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 4. This is essentially the name you provided to the CRTX file in Step 3. Select the chart template you want, and click the OK button.
6. 
   Figure 4: Chart Template within Insert Chart dialog box
6. Doing so will insert a new chart on your active slide based on your saved chart template.