Embedding charts within PowerPoint presentations has always been possible but perhaps one of the most ignored possibilities is actually embedding web applications directly in the presentation sheets.

Did you know this was possible to add this charts in PowerPoint?

As said, this is a rarely known feature, to say the least. We at LightningChart just found this out and immediately tested it with our powerful real-time charts. Ever wanted to display a patient’s heartbeat in real-time while presenting? Hehe, probably not?, but now it is possible:

Here’s another example of what a real-time map dashboard looks like within a PowerPoint presentation.

The coolest part here is that these charts are fully interactive even during presentations, and they perform with the full LightningChart performance. Okay, enough with the silly demonstrations, show us how it’s done!

Embedding charts and any other web application is possible thanks to a PowerPoint Add-in called Web Viewer. That’s right, embedding websites are not supported out of the box, but this can be fixed by downloading an extension to the default features, which are known as Add-ins.

And don’t worry! This is an official add-in published by Microsoft that you can either directly download the Web Viewer add-in from the Microsoft store or install right from your PowerPoint. 

Opening right from the Microsoft Store

You can visit and download the Web Viewer add-in from the Microsoft Store and:

1. Click on “Open in PowerPoint“.

2. Accept the pop-up window asking for permission to open PowerPoint.

3. Once in  PowerPoint, you’d have to click on “Trust this add-in”.

Opening right from PowerPoint

Here’s how it works, you add a Web Viewer to your sheet:

1. Click on the Insert tab then My Add-ins

2. Click on the Office Store button (or tab) and almost immediately, you’ll see the Web Viewer add-in. Click on add, agree to the terms and conditions, and accept. Good to go!

Now all you have to do is to input the URL to the website that you want to show. This must be a secure site, meaning that the URL has to start with “https”.

Select your chart from the gallery & embed it.

To select a chart, go to LightningChart JS interactive examples and copy the URL of any chart you want. In this case, I’m selecting the JavaScript 3D Surface Grid Chart that has the following URL:

“https://lightningchart.com/js-charts/interactive-examples/examples/lcjs-example-0912-surfaceGrid.html”

• This URL needs to be changed to the following format: https://Lightning-Chart.github.io/lcjs-example-0912-surfaceGrid/
•  So you’ll have to use the form https://Lightning-Chart.github.io/ + the visualization name starting with “lcjs-example…”
• Don’t include the “.html” ending!

Once in PowerPoint, navigate to Insert > My Add-ins > Web Viewer, and replace the URL with the one from your chart and remove the “https://” part (as is already written there). Click on “Preview” and you’ll see your chart ?

Finally for developers here’s a special treat that guides you on how to transform your development applications to securely hosted web applications, allowing you to place them in your or your colleagues’ presentations.

Web.dev guide to using HTTPS in locally running applications. Now go and make your next presentation the flashiest one around – creative madness!

LightningChart Data Visualization Solutions are advanced data visualization libraries for .NET and JavaScript featuring 200+ charts that can be easily integrated into cross-platform applications that demand high-performance charts with fast rendering and large dataset processing of several billions of data points.