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What's new in think-cell chart 5.3

The following list describes all important enhancements of think-cell chart 5.3. Please refer to the product documentation for further details on the new features.

Compatibility with Microsoft Windows and Office

  • The main enhancement of think-cell chart 5.3 is its full compatibility with Microsoft Windows 8. As always, our installer supports all current full-featured versions of Microsoft Windows, including 32- and 64-bit. For information regarding the compatibility with Microsoft Windows RT please refer to our knowledge base.
  • think-cell chart 5.3 is compatible with co-authoring of PowerPoint 2010 presentations stored in SharePoint libraries.
  • The PowerPoint 2010 Compare feature that allows comparing and merging different versions of a presentation is now supported on slide level.

New and improved data features

  • Sorting of segments and series can be done at the click of a button without manipulating the data sheet. The following sorting orders are supported:
    1. values in sheet order (default)
    2. values in reverse sheet order
    3. smallest value at the top (segments within each column in order of their size)
    4. greatest value at the top (segments within each column in inverse order of their size)

    The feature is available for all compatible chart types: Stacked, combination and Mekko charts (and their 100% equivalents) allow 1 - 4. Area and Area 100% charts allow sorting order 1 and 2.

  • Full support for negative and mixed segment stacks has been added to the waterfall chart:
    • Signed values can be shown in segment and total labels.
    • Totals are calculated as sum of signed values not of absolute values.
    • Outgoing connectors in mixed stacks are automatically set to the "mixed sum" anchor as expected.
  • The new API function UpdateChart allows the updating of an existing chart with data from a given Excel range.
  • The overall performance of the product has been improved, in particular for charts with large amounts of data.
  • Category, total and bubble labels offer more options for the variable content, e.g., "Sum of Abs." in the category label, "Category" in the total label and "X"/"Y" in bubble labels.

New and improved formatting and style features

  • think-cell 5.3 features user-customizable fill colors. New think-cell style files allow users to modify the list of predefined fill colors and fill color schemes and store them on the PowerPoint master slide. We will constantly add more customization features in future think-cell versions.
  • think-cell 5.3 uses the font color from the text placeholder on PowerPoint's master slide for its labels. In most cases, the result is the same as in earlier versions of think-cell.
  • think-cell's Replace fonts... dialog now allows to set all text and charts to PowerPoint's current Body or Heading Theme Font (applies to PowerPoint 2007 and later).
  • Displaying absolute values has been simplified: Delete the minus sign in the number format control when a negative value is selected.
  • When you add or change data, think-cell 5.3 will
    • copy the style of new labels from existing labels,
    • copy the fill color of new bubbles from existing bubbles, and
    • copy the style of new grid lines from existing grid lines.
  • The style of axis breaks now follows the segment outline color. Moreover, an additional line style "No line" is available to create a lean break gap.

User interface

  • think-cell's user interface is now available in English and German. Other languages will follow soon.
  • The think-cell license key is hidden from the user when provided during installation.
  • A progress bar is shown in case updating Excel data links takes longer than three seconds.