I’ve had some fun today learning this new feature of Microsoft Office 2016 — the ability to make bubble diagrams. Bubble diagrams are basically a way to plot out information points with three sets of values. The first two values in the set are plotted on the x and y axes of the chart. The third value determines the size of the bubble. If you would like to learn more about bubble charts, click here to see a Wikipedia article.

Why Bubbles?

Most charts in Office reflect two values of data. For example, sales amount in dollars per month; number of subscriptions per country; and so on. Bar charts and line charts do a fine job of illustrating those. But, what if you have a third value that goes with each pair? For example, let’s say you have dollars in sales, number of subscriptions, and square miles of sales territory represented by the sale? And what if those square miles of coverage are a major data point that you need to convey in your document or presentation? That is where a bubble chart comes in. The POSITION of the bubble reflects your first two data points. The SIZE of the bubble reflects the third data point.

How to Set It Up

Bubble charts are a little hidden in MS Office. Technically, they are a kind of scatter chart, and that is where you will find the bubble charts in the Insert Chart dialog.
1. Go to Insert Tab, click Chart, and select X Y (Scatter), and on the top right click on the bubble diagram icon. When you have the right choices selected, the dialog should look like this:

2. Click OK.

3. Word will show the diagram in your document with some dummy data filled in a spreadsheet. Modify this data to contain your own. You will see the bubble diagram update live as you update your numbers.

4. Click the X in the top right of the data window to close it.

5. Now you can format the bubbles and labels. Click the plus (+) icon next to the diagram.

6. Check the box for Axis titles. Note here that Word does not pick out the column titles from your data sheet. You have to type them in. Format them as you wish, by double clicking on the axis title.

7. I find it helpful to show a number in the bubble to reflect its numerical value. It takes a little bit of massaging of the labels to get this to work, though! If you simply check the box next to Data Labels, Word places the value in your data sheet’s second column inside the bubble. Visually, you expect that value to be the one in the third column, which is the one that determines the size of the bubble. There is a workaround. Click the plus (+) icon. Check Data Labels, then click the right arrow next to Data Labels to open another context menu. In the second menu, select Data Callout.

8. You will see all three values next to each bubble now. For each one, double click the label and simply delete the first two values. A bit of a pain, but it works.

9. If you would like to change the color, click the Paintbrush icon, then click the color tab in the menu that appears to the right. Click the color you want to use from the available selections. For the multicolor palettes, Word uses the color that shows on the left (first square) of the palette.

10. If you need to edit the data, right click the diagram and click Edit Data.

Bubble Diagram Limitations in MS Office

There are a few things to remember when creating and editing bubble diagrams in MS Office:

• Bubble diagrams will not render correctly with less than 3 rows of data values.
• You must have exactly 3 columns of data. If you add a 4th column, Word just creates another set of bubbles on the diagram to reflect the size values of the 4th column, with no visual correlation to the rest of the data.
• Do not remove columns and add columns to the data sheet. Type into it as is. The bubbles get really funky if you start moving columns around.

Let me know in the comments how you are using Bubble diagrams in your presentations and documents. I reply to all comments and questions!

Ever try to set up a Word document with headings that are numbered (1, 2, 3, etc) with subheadings that are also numbered (1.1, 1.2, 1.3…)? In this tutorial video I explain the mechanics of how to set up this feature, as well as the situations and types of documents in which you would use it. You can get more free training at my YouTube channel, Young Career Pros.

Just when I thought I had written off transitions completely as a waste of time, Microsoft PowerPoint has gone and implemented a beautiful one! It is called Morphing, a technique that lends itself well to situations where you want to include a graphic or textual idea on multiple slides in a presentation, but needs the element to be presented in different positions on the slides, or in different sizes.

Here is a quick video that demonstrates the effect:

I believe the effect is a little unfortunately named. When I first read about it, I was expecting graphic morphing something more along the lines of the Michael Jackson “Black or White” video. It is not. At all. However, this effect can be very useful. Here are some reasons I can think of that I will be using it:

• To provide continuity to a presentation by including an important graphic or text block on more than one slide
• To help audience members remember a certain graphic and illustrative point (think of key takeaways)
• To add visual interest to the presentation without being “cheesy”
• To balance the need to repeatedly show a graphic while creating room on a slide for other important text or graphics

Great, now that we have established a solid business need for this new feature, let’s break down how it is done. In general, the technique for this transition is the same as any other PowerPoint slide transition… you want to apply the transition to the slide you are moving TO.

Steps for the MS PowerPoint 2016 Morph Transition

1. Create a slide with the object you want to morph. Remember, in this context, “morph” means “smoothly animate, move and/or resize the same graphic.”
2. Create a second slide. Copy and paste the graphic from the first slide to the second. (If it is easier, you can duplicate the whole slide. But you do not have to.)
3. Move the graphic on the second slide to the new position and size you want it. You can move the graphic to a new position, resize it, and even crop it. The only rule is, it must be the exact same graphic.
4. Be sure the second slide is selected/active.
5. Click Transitions –> Morph to apply the transition.
6. Repeat for all slides where you want to include the graphic.
7. When you show the presentation (click the Slideshow icon), you should see your graphic move around and very smoothly resize, even growing/shrinking smoothly to accomodate differences in cropping AND differences in font sizes for text blocks!

A Few Tips About Morphing

1. Morphing works on graphics, but it must be the same graphic. Morphing does NOT make one graphic appear to “turn into” another graphic.
2. Morphing also works on blocks of text, as long as the text is the same. This includes changes in font size, and even the font itself!
3. If you change a block of text after you copied/pasted to another slide, you cannot “trick” PowerPoint into morphing if you change the text afterward. I tried it. The text must contain exactly the same characters to morph properly.
4. The Morph transition ONLY works for Office 365 users.

Have fun with this new feature. I am hoping to use it myself! Feel free to leave questions or other tips in the comments. I would love to hear from you.

Become a member of my site, and you can download the demo PowerPoint file from the video for FREE.