Explain the chart with a legend

A structure chart is often read without you in the room: by the client's board, by the other side's counsel, or by a tax authority reviewing a reorganisation. The colours, shapes and line types carry meaning, and the legend is where the reader finds it.

Two questions decide what goes in it. Who reads the chart? A tax authority needs "Jointly taxed" or "Tax transparent"; a board needs "Listed company" or "Target". And does every slide need the same legend? In a step plan the reader compares slides, so the legend should not move or change from one to the next.

Put a legend on the slide

1. Open the Legend Manager: click Show legend on the Home tab of the Traditional ribbon, or the legend button (Show legend) in the canvas controls at the bottom of the screen.

2. Turn on Show legends on slide. A legend box appears on the current slide.

   

You can open the Legend Manager again at any time by double-clicking the legend on the slide.

Choose what the legend lists

1. In the Legend Manager, Available legend items on the left are the items not on this slide; Selected legend items on the right are the ones the legend on this slide shows.

2. Tick the items the reader needs and click > to move them to Selected legend items. ≫ moves them all; < and ≪ take them off again. Use the search box above each list on a long chart.

   

3. Drag an item by the handle on its left to change the order. Put the distinctions that matter for this reader first.

Name each item in the reader's words

Click an item's name in either list and type the name the reader will understand, such as "Jointly taxed" or "Danish tax resident", then press Enter. The new name is used on every slide that shows the item.

Add what the chart cannot show

Click Add custom legend item. A new item appears under Available legend items: click it to name it, then move it to Selected legend items. To remove a custom item you no longer need, point at it and click the bin.

Place the legend

1. Click the legend on the slide to select it, then drag it to a clear corner where it covers no boxes or lines.

2. If the structure has more than one slide, Juristic asks where the new position applies. Click Current slide to move only this legend, or All slides to put the legend in the same place on every slide.

   

3. To change its size, drag the corners of the selected legend, or use Decrease legend size and Increase legend size in the toolbar above it. The size buttons scale the legend items on every slide of the structure.

Find the boxes behind an entry

Click an entry in the legend on the slide. The elements on the slide that it stands for are highlighted and selected, and the rest of the canvas fades back. Because they are selected, you can change them all at once from the selection toolbar. Click the entry again, press Esc or click the empty canvas to clear the highlight.

If nothing is highlighted, Juristic tells you why: nothing on this slide uses that item, or it is a custom item that no element adds.

What the legend should say for each reader

Tips from practice

• The same legend on every step slide. The items on the legend are chosen slide by slide, so go through each step slide and select the same items. Move the legend with All slides so it sits in the same place throughout.
• Check the highlight before you send. Clicking each entry shows which boxes it covers. A box in the wrong colour shows up straight away.
• Hide it for a working draft. Turn off Show legends on slide in the Legend Manager when you only need the chart for yourself.
• The firm's position. Your organisation admin can set where the legend sits by default on new slides; see give new structure elements the firm's look.

Before the legend, tidy up the chart before it goes out. When it is ready, send the structure as an editable PowerPoint.