Excel Lesson 3: Part 5 (Formatting Charts using the ‘Chart Design’ Menu)
Please Note: This session builds on, and assumes that you have completed, the previous Excel sessions. If that is not the case, please go back and complete them before returning to this session.
STEP 1: Getting Started
Launch Excel and create a new blank Workbook or open up an existing Workbook. We will use the various charts we created for the familiar Car example:
STEP 2: Select a Chart
The first step is to select the chart you want to customize. Double-click the chart and a new menu will appear at the top of the screen – the ‘Chart Design’ menu.
Here we will customize the Bar Chart, one aspect at a time.
STEP 3: Changing Chart Bar Colours
Simply click the ‘Change Colors’ button (note the US spelling!), pick your colour and it changes automatically. Here I went from Blue to Orange.
STEP 4: Changing Chart Styles
The next step is to present the bars in a different style. Select the style you like from those shown at the top of the screen and click it to change your chart.
STEP 5: Changing Chart Titles, Backgrounds & Borders
After you have double-clicked on a chart, a window appears on the far right of the screen called ‘Format Chart Area’ where you can customize the background, border and many other cosmetic issues:
Click on ‘Chart Options’ and you get the following drop-down list. I shall select ‘Chart Title’:
This automatically opens the text box on the chart, allowing you to change the chart title:
You may have noticed the shaded blue background on the above chart. I did this by using the ‘Fill’ option with a ‘Gradient’ fill. The colour is controlled by the slider bar
You can also insert a picture as a background using:
Click here to select your image. Then choose your source.
I searched the Stock Images on ‘Car’ and found the following suitable image for a chart displaying car sales data, which Excel automatically inserted:
The problem here is that the chart itself has now become difficult to read. But we have a solution. Go to the ‘Transparency’ option and slowly increase the level of transparency until you are happy that you can see the chart clearly. I settled on 80%
The revised background now looks like this:
Once you have fixed the chart colours, style and background, you can turn your attention to the chart border. Again, there a wealth of options available. Select border width, colour, style etc.
I went for a heavy solid line in orange.
STEP 6: Other Features of the ‘Chart Design’ Menu
There are far too many features within ‘Chart Design’ to show you them all here but in this final section we very briefly point you towards some other features.
You can apply these customization techniques to most types of chart in Excel. Just play around, experiment and go with what suits you.
That completes this session.
Now your turn…
Practice Tasks
Launch Excel
Either create a new blank Workbook or open up an existing one.
Select a pre-existing chart (you cannot move forward without one – see previous sessions).
Then use the ‘Chart Design’ menu to:
Change the colours of the main chart’s bars, slices etc.
Change the background to the chart – try including an image
Change the chart title
Change the chart border
Change the axes names
Look at other options available
Re-save if you wish.
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