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rebeccalinger
New Participant
April 11, 2018
Answered

Placing Excel graphs into InDesign

  • April 11, 2018
  • 6 replies
  • 49948 views

Can someone please help me place an Excel graph into an InDesign document? I have tried dragging and dropping, copy paste, putting the graph into AI and making an AI file and doing the "Place" function of InDesign, making an EPS file in AI and doing the same, copy pasting from powerpoint, and no matter what i do, the text on my graph looks terrible. I have tried several different fonts, and have increased the dpi to the max quality. Thank you!

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Correct answer Dave Creamer of IDEAS

In Excel, move the chart to its own worksheet.

PDF the chart (Windows: use the Save As PDF function)

Place in ID.

If data updates, re-PDF the chart and replace of one with same name.

ID will update chart when open. (Watch out if the chart changes proportion.)

For output, rather than moving chart to AI for color conversion, do the following.

Laser: Just make a PDF; don't worry about the Excel colors--the laser printer will do fine with charts.

Offset Printing: Open PDF in Acrobat Pro and Convert Colors (under Print Production).

Set appropriate color conversion profile and check the Preserve Black and the Promote Gray to CMYK Black settings.

By the way, I believe the fancy 3D charts end up as bitmaps; use the standard chart layouts.

6 replies

amanitadigital
amanitadigital
New Participant
November 1, 2021

Another option is to select the graph in Excel and Copy as Picture. Then it can be pasted in InDesign and it looks great. Only issue is that it isn't linked, so if you have changes, you have to paste it in again.

 

S
Staffan Wingborg
New Participant
November 2, 2021

The copy and paste method work ok, but I get "glitches" with text – kerning problems etc. I only use this method for quick and dirty pie charts that most likely won't be updated.

N
Niruban
New Participant
October 26, 2020

Hey, 

I found that the easiest was copying the chart to illustrator - which converts it to vector (but with a ton of clipping masks). From there, i copied only the shapes I wanted to a new layer, changed the formatting etc, and pasted it onto indesign.

 

ps. The export to pdf and placing it option didn't work out for me. 

    S
    Staffan Wingborg
    New Participant
    November 25, 2020

    I've used an excel file with "input data" sheets and macros to generate tons of pie charts and bar charts on separate tabs. Then done we had a button with a macro to generate a multi-page pdf. That pdf was placed in Indesign. Every time we had to update the data we just generated a new pdf in Excel and updated the link in Indesign.

    Srishti Bali
    Community Manager
    Srishti BaliCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    May 22, 2018

    Hi Rebecca,

    I would like to know if the above mentioned suggestions helped you, or the issue still persists.

    Kindly update the discussion if you need further assistance with it.

    Thanks,

    Srishti

    E
    efrem2896
    New Participant
    May 20, 2018

    Did you decide that your graph looks terrible on the basis of what you see in InDesign? It often doesn't display these at full resolution. Before you decide that it really looks terrible, try exporting your document to a PDF and examine that. There's a good chance that it will look fine. In that case, treat the low-resolution ID display as "FPO" (For Positioning Only).

      jane-e
      jane-e
      Brainiac
      April 12, 2018

      You can also choose File > Place and place an Excel worksheet.

      If you want it to be linked so the updates can be made in Excel, there are a few more steps. Otherwise it comes in as a table.

      You might want to do it this way:

      • File > Place
      • Select the Excel file
      • Shift + Click Open to bring up Options so you can choose formatted table, unformatted table, text with tabs, etc.

      If you have an insertion point, it goes into the existing text. If not, it creates its own frame.

      Dave Creamer of IDEAS
      Dave Creamer of IDEAS
      Adobe Expert
      April 12, 2018

      I think the OP wanted the graph from Excel, not the Excel file as a table.

      David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
        BobLevine
        BobLevine
        Adobe Expert
        April 12, 2018

        Right…and FWIW, I’ve found that as long as you keep the charts simple, copy/paste works well…at least on Windows.

          Dave Creamer of IDEAS
          Dave Creamer of IDEASCorrect answer
          Adobe Expert
          April 11, 2018

          In Excel, move the chart to its own worksheet.

          PDF the chart (Windows: use the Save As PDF function)

          Place in ID.

          If data updates, re-PDF the chart and replace of one with same name.

          ID will update chart when open. (Watch out if the chart changes proportion.)

          For output, rather than moving chart to AI for color conversion, do the following.

          Laser: Just make a PDF; don't worry about the Excel colors--the laser printer will do fine with charts.

          Offset Printing: Open PDF in Acrobat Pro and Convert Colors (under Print Production).

          Set appropriate color conversion profile and check the Preserve Black and the Promote Gray to CMYK Black settings.

          By the way, I believe the fancy 3D charts end up as bitmaps; use the standard chart layouts.

          David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
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