Excel charts in PowerPoint 2007 are not editable by PowerPoint 2003

Question

I'm trying to save a PowerPoint 2007 presentation which includes a chart copied from an Excel 2007 sheet in 97-2003 format but the chart is no longer editable by Office 2003 since it's automatically converted to an image. Here are the steps to reproduce the problem:

1. Prepare a basic chart in Excel 2007
2. Copy & paste the chart to PowerPoint 2007 presentation
3. Click Save As -> PowerPoint 97-2003 presentation -> Save. You'll see "Microsoft Office PowerPoint Compability Checker" warning message telling you that SmartArt graphic will not be editable by earlier versions of PowerPoint.
4. Open the presentation file using PowerPoint 2003 and you'll see that the chart is converted to an image. Other SmartArt objects are converted to shapes which allow them to be edited.

Is there a way to save the charts in PowerPoint 2007 so that they are editable by PowerPoint 2003? Any ideas?

Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

A PowerPoint 2007 presentation can be edited in PowerPoint 2003 without first saving it in the earlier version's file format, as is also the case for Word 2007 and Excel 2007 documents.

Download the Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats and install it on the computer with Office 2003 to enable it to handle Office 2007 formats.

Answer 2

After pasting the chart into PowerPoint, selecting "Excel Chart (entire workbook)" in paste options menu worked for me. I could edit the chart in the saved ppt file using PowerPoint 2003.