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Charts and embedded Excel in PowerPoint: the data a slide carries behind the picture

Last updated: 25 October 2026

This page is about charts and embedded Excel in PowerPoint. Speaker notes and hidden slides are in speaker notes and hidden slides, masters and layouts in slide masters, layouts and the template name, and objects in Word files in custom XML and embedded objects in Word. The examples here are typical cases, not reports of real ones.

Where a chart's data can be

A chart made in PowerPoint keeps a workbook

Microsoft's page Use charts and graphs in your presentation describes making a chart with Insert › Chart: "In the worksheet that appears, replace the placeholder data with your own information." That worksheet is saved with the presentation. Microsoft's Open XML SDK reference, which reproduces the text of the file-format standard ISO/IEC 29500 (first edition), describes the chart's externalData element: "The data can be linked, pointing to a spreadsheet in another file. Or, the data can be embedded, contained in a separate part within the same xml package containing the chart. In this case, it shall be stored as an embedded Spreadsheet object in Office Open XML format." In other words, an .xlsx file inside the .pptx.

The worksheet is a full workbook, not a list of the chart's numbers. If someone pasted a table into it to make the chart and then plotted only a few columns, the rest of the table is still there. Microsoft's page Change the data in an existing chart gives the way in: on the Chart Design tab, in the Data group, select Edit Data; "To edit the data directly in Excel, select Edit Data in Excel." Anyone who receives the .pptx can do the same.

A chart pasted from Excel

When you paste an Excel chart into PowerPoint, Microsoft's page Copy from Excel to another Office program lists the Paste Options: Use Destination Theme & Embed Workbook, Keep Source Formatting & Embed Workbook, Use Destination Theme & Link Data, Keep Source Formatting & Link Data, and Picture. The Embed Workbook options keep the data in a workbook inside the deck; the Link Data options keep "the chart linked to the original worksheet"; Picture "pastes the chart as a picture".

The Microsoft pages we read do not say how much of the source workbook an Embed Workbook paste takes with it. On a related page, Insert and update Excel data in PowerPoint, Microsoft's note on embedding Excel data says: "You may also unintentionally be giving more access to your Excel file than you intend to." So do not assume the embedded workbook holds only the chart's range: open it and look for other sheets, hidden sheets, comments and the workbook's own properties. Hidden sheets are covered in hidden sheets, defined names and personal information in Excel, and what Document Inspector does not look into in what Document Inspector misses.

A linked chart keeps a path

A chart pasted with Link Data does not carry the workbook, but the deck keeps where the workbook is. Microsoft's page Update or remove a broken link to an external file shows the list: File › Info, then, under Related Documents, Edit Links to Files; "In the Links list, click the correct path to the linked worksheet". A path such as C:\Users\(name)\… or a share name can show a user name, a server and the folders on the way, which can name clients or projects (that example is ours, not Microsoft's). The same page says that after Break Link, "The content will still appear in the slide, but it will be embedded in the presentation instead of linked", and that "the chart data that appears on the slide becomes static". After breaking a link, check the chart again as an embedded one. Paths in Excel's own links to other workbooks are covered in Excel external links and full paths.

Embedded Excel objects

An Excel workbook inserted as an object (Insert › Object, or pasted as a Microsoft Excel Worksheet Object) is stored as a file inside the deck, and the slide shows a picture of part of it. Microsoft's Document Inspector page lists, for PowerPoint, "Embedded files or objects" among the information it "finds but can't remove": "Embedded files (such as an Microsoft 365 or Text document) or embedded objects (such as a chart or an equation) that may have data that isn't visible", with examples that include Microsoft Graph Chart objects and Word Document objects. It explains: "Document Inspector can't remove these items for you because it might cause the presentation to not work properly." The page does not say whether the workbook behind an ordinary PowerPoint chart counts as one of these, so do not rely on Document Inspector to mention it.

How to check a deck

1. In PowerPoint, select each chart and choose Chart Design › Edit Data › Edit Data in Excel. Look at every sheet tab, right-click a tab and choose Unhide to see hidden sheets, and look at File › Info in that window for the workbook's own properties.
2. Go to File › Info. If the deck links to other files, Edit Links to Files under Related Documents lists them with their paths. Microsoft's page says to save the presentation first if you don't see the Related Documents section.
3. For a closer look, make a copy, rename it to .zip and unzip it:
   • ppt/embeddings holds the embedded workbooks and objects. An .xlsx file in there is a whole workbook; copy it out and open it. Large parts there also explain a file larger than its content.
   • ppt/charts holds a chartN.xml part for each chart, often with style and colour parts beside it; in its _rels folder, each chart's relationships file names the embedded workbook it uses, or the outside file it links to.
4. Search the parts, and the embedded workbooks once unzipped too, for client names, file paths and names of people.

Taking it out in PowerPoint

• Clean the chart's workbook. On a copy, open Edit Data in Excel and delete the sheets, rows and comments the chart does not need. Check that the chart still shows the same figures.
• Paste the chart as a picture when the recipient does not need to edit it. Microsoft's page says a chart pasted as Picture "cannot be edited or updated"; there is no workbook behind it.
• Break or change the link of a linked chart from Edit Links to Files, then check the chart again as above.
• Replace an embedded Excel object with a picture or a table of the figures the slide needs.

What ScrubDrop does

ScrubDrop reads the .pptx in your browser; the file is not uploaded. For free, one file at a time, it lists a chart's embedded workbook and other embedded objects under embedded objects (OLE, chart data workbooks, controls), naming the part, and a linked chart's target under links to other files, with the path. The free version removes properties, comments and tracked changes. It names an embedded workbook but does not list or clean what is inside it, and leaves its contents as they are (the part can get a new name in the cleaned file): a workbook kept in the deck keeps its own sheets, hidden ones included, and its own properties. Open it in Excel, or copy it out of ppt/embeddings and check it as a workbook.

ScrubDrop Pro removes embedded objects and links to other files. We tried this on a hand-written synthetic deck, not one saved by PowerPoint, with one chart whose data was an embedded workbook and one linked to a file path. With embedded objects removed, the chart's workbook and the chart's reference to it are taken out, and the chart part keeps the values and labels saved in it (its cache); there is no workbook left behind Edit Data. The chart's references to cells, such as a sheet name and a range, stay as text. With links removed, the path goes. An embedded Excel object on a slide is replaced by its preview picture, or removed if it has none. We did not check how PowerPoint opens the result. ScrubDrop reads the cleaned file again with separate parsers before it offers it.

Questions

Sources: the Microsoft pages linked on this page were checked on 25 October 2026. ScrubDrop is not affiliated with Microsoft.