Thanks to Brian from Howard County Library for pointing this out to me.
Let's say you've got a chart, and it's fine, but you're just not that jazzed about how it looks. You'd like a more Graphic Designer look to it. Here's how to break it down and do whatever you want to it.
You've got this data; great new data on the number of users that use open source computers at the library branches.
And you make a basic bar chart, or whatever kind of chart.
And you can do some things. Double-click the chart, click on the element you want to delete, and press Delete.
You can also right-click on things like the background, choose Object Properties, and choose Invisible instead of a line and click OK.
Then the lines don't show. (You could also re-create the chart without the lines.)
Another option, for adding text boxes, is choose View > Toolbars > Drawing. Click the T text box tool and draw a text box near the chart and type immediately. Then drag the text box over the chart.
But here's the thing you can do in Draw. Copy the chart; just click on it once and copy it. Then choose File > New > Drawing and paste it into the main slide work area.
Right-click on the chart and choose Break.
And now you can click on any particular part and just delete it or reformat it.