Use triggers to create interactive charts

Triggers are a way to cause an animation by clicking an object. Clicking the object triggers the animation. For example, you can click a bar in a chart to trigger the display of a more detailed explanation, as shown here.

Using a Trigger to Cause an Animation

When I clicked the 2nd Qtr bar, the text box opened. If I click another bar, the first text box disappears and a new one opens. Each text box’s color matches the color of the chart bar.

Sometimes I find a great tutorial and decide to simply refer you to that tutorial.You can find a tutorial for this type of triggered chart at the Glen Millar Communications Web site. Glen Millar is a PowerPoint MVP (Most Valuable Professional) and he presented this technique at PowerPointLive, a PowerPoint convention. I thought that I would share this tutorial with you (with his permission, of course).

To get the tutorial, click here. At the end of the tutorial, you can download the PowerPoint presentation that I show above.

Once you get used to the power of triggers, you’ll find other uses for them.