How can I specify the size and position of a plot area in inches?

Question

When I highlight a chart area, I get these options:

However, when I highlight a plot area, I don't get the "size & properties" options any longer:

My issue is that I have the same type of chart with different data on several slides and the height and width of all the plot areas is inconsistent (however, the chart areas all have the same size & position).

How can I adjust the plot areas exactly (with numbers), rather than having to eyeball them?

Answer 1

Quite a startling omission, isn't it?

A little VBA may help:

Sub SizePlotArea()
    Dim oSld As Slide
    Dim oCht As Chart

    Set oCht = ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange(1).Chart

    With oCht.PlotArea
    ' Edit these values as needed
    ' Change the following lines to e.g. Msgbox .Left etc
    ' to get the values of the chart you want to match others TO
        .Left = 50
        .Top = 50
        .Height = 400
        .Width = 400
    End With

End Sub

NOTE: The dimensions for .Left, .Top etc are in Points, the unit PPT uses for most programmable functions. 72 points to the inch.

If you prefer, you could do something like:

.Height = 72 * 5.25

to set the .Height to 5.25 inches.