Changing pie chart colours

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chris Hind
  • Start date Start date
C

Chris Hind

I'm trying to use the Primary Interop Assemblies for Office XP to
create a pie chart in Powerpoint in C#. I've managed to create the
chart and set up the data, but I cannot find a way to set the colours
of the various pie slices, nor can I tell it that I want the slices
drawn in solid colour (ie without a border). Can anyone help me? I
don't necessarily need C#: some (non-.NET) VB to do this would be an
invaluable aid!

I've read all sorts of FAQs and object models and so on, and the only
thing I've found which will change a colour is

Graph.Point point = (Graph.Point)s.Points(1);
point.Interior.ColorIndex = 1;

after where I set up the Series, s. This lets me choose a colour from
a predefined palette - but how do I set the colours in that palette?
Attempting to use the "Color" property of point.Interior throws an
exception (COMException, Unable to set the Color property of the
Interior class).

With regards to the border, the obvious try

Graph.Point point = (Graph.Point)s.Points(1);
point.Border.Weight = 0;

gives "COMException: Unable to set the Weight property of the Border
class".

Here's my code so far:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using PowerPoint = Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint;
using Microsoft.Office.Core;
using Graph = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Graph;
using System.Reflection;

namespace PowerpointWriter
{
class Class1
{
static int[] piSegments = {34,60,2,3,1};
static string[] labels = {"USA", "Europe", "Australia",
"Japan","Other"};
static string[] colors =
{"#3366FF","#000000","#000000","#000000","#000000"};

[STAThread]
static void Main(string[] args)
{
PowerPoint.Application powerpoint =
new PowerPoint.ApplicationClass();
powerpoint.Visible = MsoTriState.msoTrue;

PowerPoint.Presentation presentation =
powerpoint.Presentations.Add(MsoTriState.msoTrue);
PowerPoint.Slide slide =
presentation.Slides.Add(1,PowerPoint.PpSlideLayout.ppLayoutBlank);

Graph.Chart chart =
(Graph.Chart)slide.Shapes.AddOLEObject(150,150,480,320,
"MSGraph.Chart.8", "", MsoTriState.msoFalse, "", 0, "",
MsoTriState.msoFalse).OLEFormat.Object;

chart.ChartType = Graph.XlChartType.xlPie;
Graph.DataSheet data = chart.Application.DataSheet;
chart.HasLegend = false;
chart.HasTitle = true;
chart.ChartTitle.Text = "Geographical concentration";

Graph.DataSheet ds = chart.Application.DataSheet;
ds.Cells.Delete(Missing.Value);
for(int i=0; i<piSegments.Length; i++)
{
chart.Application.DataSheet.Cells[1,2+i] = labels;
chart.Application.DataSheet.Cells[2,2+i] = piSegments;
}

chart.PlotArea.ClearFormats();
Graph.ChartGroup chartgroup =(Graph.ChartGroup)chart.PieGroups(1);
chartgroup.FirstSliceAngle = 80;

Graph.Series s = (Graph.Series)chart.SeriesCollection(1);
s.ClearFormats();

s.ApplyDataLabels(Graph.XlDataLabelsType.xlDataLabelsShowLabel,
false, false, true, false, true, false, true, true, "\n");
for(int i=1; i<=labels.Length; i++)
{
Graph.DataLabel dl = (Graph.DataLabel)s.DataLabels(i);
dl.NumberFormat = "0.0%";
dl.Font.Name = "Arial";
dl.Font.Size = 10;
dl.Font.Bold = true;
}
chart.Application.Update();

presentation.SaveAs(@"C:\Documents and
Settings\hindc\Desktop\helloworld.ppt",
PowerPoint.PpSaveAsFileType.ppSaveAsDefault,
MsoTriState.msoFalse);
presentation.Close();
powerpoint.Quit();
}
}
}
 
If you just want to change the colors of the chart elements, rather than
changing the whole palette, you can. (I do not know how to do it using VB.)
Just right click on the pie slice and choose to edit the data point, then
you can apply fill colors, borders, labels and angles, etc. You can even
fill the slice with an image by choosing fill effects, then clicking the
picture tab.

Colleen

Chris Hind said:
I'm trying to use the Primary Interop Assemblies for Office XP to
create a pie chart in Powerpoint in C#. I've managed to create the
chart and set up the data, but I cannot find a way to set the colours
of the various pie slices, nor can I tell it that I want the slices
drawn in solid colour (ie without a border). Can anyone help me? I
don't necessarily need C#: some (non-.NET) VB to do this would be an
invaluable aid!

I've read all sorts of FAQs and object models and so on, and the only
thing I've found which will change a colour is

Graph.Point point = (Graph.Point)s.Points(1);
point.Interior.ColorIndex = 1;

after where I set up the Series, s. This lets me choose a colour from
a predefined palette - but how do I set the colours in that palette?
Attempting to use the "Color" property of point.Interior throws an
exception (COMException, Unable to set the Color property of the
Interior class).

With regards to the border, the obvious try

Graph.Point point = (Graph.Point)s.Points(1);
point.Border.Weight = 0;

gives "COMException: Unable to set the Weight property of the Border
class".

Here's my code so far:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using PowerPoint = Microsoft.Office.Interop.PowerPoint;
using Microsoft.Office.Core;
using Graph = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Graph;
using System.Reflection;

namespace PowerpointWriter
{
class Class1
{
static int[] piSegments = {34,60,2,3,1};
static string[] labels = {"USA", "Europe", "Australia",
"Japan","Other"};
static string[] colors =
{"#3366FF","#000000","#000000","#000000","#000000"};

[STAThread]
static void Main(string[] args)
{
PowerPoint.Application powerpoint =
new PowerPoint.ApplicationClass();
powerpoint.Visible = MsoTriState.msoTrue;

PowerPoint.Presentation presentation =
powerpoint.Presentations.Add(MsoTriState.msoTrue);
PowerPoint.Slide slide =
presentation.Slides.Add(1,PowerPoint.PpSlideLayout.ppLayoutBlank);

Graph.Chart chart =
(Graph.Chart)slide.Shapes.AddOLEObject(150,150,480,320,
"MSGraph.Chart.8", "", MsoTriState.msoFalse, "", 0, "",
MsoTriState.msoFalse).OLEFormat.Object;

chart.ChartType = Graph.XlChartType.xlPie;
Graph.DataSheet data = chart.Application.DataSheet;
chart.HasLegend = false;
chart.HasTitle = true;
chart.ChartTitle.Text = "Geographical concentration";

Graph.DataSheet ds = chart.Application.DataSheet;
ds.Cells.Delete(Missing.Value);
for(int i=0; i<piSegments.Length; i++)
{
chart.Application.DataSheet.Cells[1,2+i] = labels;
chart.Application.DataSheet.Cells[2,2+i] = piSegments;
}

chart.PlotArea.ClearFormats();
Graph.ChartGroup chartgroup =(Graph.ChartGroup)chart.PieGroups(1);
chartgroup.FirstSliceAngle = 80;

Graph.Series s = (Graph.Series)chart.SeriesCollection(1);
s.ClearFormats();

s.ApplyDataLabels(Graph.XlDataLabelsType.xlDataLabelsShowLabel,
false, false, true, false, true, false, true, true, "\n");
for(int i=1; i<=labels.Length; i++)
{
Graph.DataLabel dl = (Graph.DataLabel)s.DataLabels(i);
dl.NumberFormat = "0.0%";
dl.Font.Name = "Arial";
dl.Font.Size = 10;
dl.Font.Bold = true;
}
chart.Application.Update();

presentation.SaveAs(@"C:\Documents and
Settings\hindc\Desktop\helloworld.ppt",
PowerPoint.PpSaveAsFileType.ppSaveAsDefault,
MsoTriState.msoFalse);
presentation.Close();
powerpoint.Quit();
}
}
}
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