The technology used to embed charts into other document, called OLE, has certain limitations on graphics[12]. To work around these, Msc-generator employs a few simplifications.
Due to clipping limitations, certain arrowheads, like ‘
line’ draw differently.Due to font limitations, the label of slanted arrows are drawn with limited resolution and looks somewhat different than non-slanted text.
Due to missing gradient fill support, gradient fills and shadows are approximated. At large magnification this becomes visible.
Due to the limited size of the coordinate space, placement of elements in very large charts appear imprecise.
Due to lack of transparency support, transculent areas (such as pipes) are drawn on a bitmap, a fallback image and then inserted, see below.
If a chart contains a lot of fallback images, the size of the embedded object can become large, several megabytes for a chart. To control the size of the embedded chart and eventually that of your container document, for embedded charts a third category ("Embedded Object") appears on the ribbon, allowing you to adjust the quality of the fallback images.
Note that this issue is fixed in newer versions of Microsoft Office, which are able to compress the images in embedded objects.
When this category is selected, Msc-generator shows the chart as it will appear in the container document. Fallback image locations are briefly highlighted when switching to this category. The ribbon category shows how large the embedded object will be (if not compressed by the container applications) and what percentage of the chart is drawn on fallback images (if any). There is a slider allowing you to set the resolution of the fallback images. You can observe the resulting image size and visual quality immediately.
You can also choose to insert a Link to a copied chart instead of embedding it
into the document. In this case updating the source chart will get
reflected in the document, as well. You can also insert a link to only a page
of a chart, by copying that page to the clipboard via the drop-down menu of the
Copy Entire Chart button.
Note, however, that you cannot insert a link to a chart that is not saved on
disk, but is yet ‘Untitled’. In addition, not all container applications
implement the full range of linking features.
LibreOffice and OpenOffice do not allow links to be inserted into documents. You can only embed charts in their documents.
Microsoft PowerPoint allows links to be inserted into a slide, but does not allow other programs to link to a chart embedded in a slidepack. This includes the case when you want to insert a link into a slidepack that points to a chart embedded in the very same slidepack.
Microsoft Excel implements full linking features, that is it allows you to insert links into worksheets, but also allows you to insert a link pointing to a chart embedded in a worksheet into other documents (or the same worksheet). You can even insert links that point to a single page of a chart embedded in a worksheet. (You can do this by opening the embedded object in Msc-generator and select ‘
Copy Page #1’, and use Paste Special to insert a link.)Microsoft Word allows you to insert link to charts that are saved in files or are embedded in some other container (such as an Excel worksheet). It also allows others (including Word itself) to link to a full chart embedded in a Word document, but does not allow linking to a page of a chart embedded in a word document. If you invoke ‘
Copy Entire Chart’ or ‘Copy Page #x’ from within Msc-generator for a chart embedded in a Word document, the link will not work. However, if you copy the chart to the clipboard from Word (and then you can copy all of it) then if you insert a link via Paste Special, you will geta valid link.
There is a suspected bug in Word 2003 that fails linking to a single page of a chart embedded in a Word document. [13] [14]
[12] Only drawing operations permitted in old-style Windows Metafiles (developed in 16-bit Windows times) are permitted by design.
[13] Interestingly you can link to charts embedded in Excel documents. As for PowerPoint, I think it does not support linking to any object in a presentation.
[14] To link to a full chart embedded in Word, make sure you place chart to the clipboard using Word and not using Msc-generator.