a. Titles: type a meaningful heading in any desired area (for instance, a chart title may not
be sufficient, but the axes may need to be labeled as well)
b. Axes: select or deselect showing the axis values
c. Gridlines: select or deselect the gridlines on the chart to make it easier to read
d. Legend: choose whether or not to show the chart legend and where to place it
e. Data Labels: choose whether to include data labels, values, percents, etc.
f. Data Table: choose whether or not to include the table of values from your worksheet
4. The final step is to select where to place the chart; select As a New Sheet [Chart 1] for the chart
to be placed on a new worksheet in your workbook or select As Object In [Sheet1] for the chart to
be placed within a spreadsheet. Selecting As a New Sheet will yield a chart that is easier to
export to other applications such as MS Word or PowerPoint
Formatting the Chart
Once your chart is created, you may decide there are some things you need to change about how it looks
or how the data are displayed.
Scale: To adjust the scale of the chart for bar or line graphs, highlight the axis to adjust and go to
Format→Selected Axis (or double-click on the selected axis). Depending on which axis you select,
you’ll get different options. Typically the x-axis (vertical) is the one you’ll want to adjust. You can
uncheck the “Auto” boxes and set the values at your own levels. Minimum is the lowest value displayed
on the x-axis. Typically, this is zero, but it may at times be negative or you may want to start it at 1000,
depending on how your data are distributed. Maximum is the highest value displayed, and is usually set
at the most logical value based on your highest data point. You may want to adjust this value in order to
change the distribution of the points on the graph. Major and minor unit refer to how the gridlines are
displayed on the chart and how the numbers are displayed on the x-axis. If the major unit is 10, then the
values on the axis will be something like: 10, 20, 30, 40, 50; unless you have minor gridlines shown (an
option in the chart wizard), then the minor unit value will not affect the chart appearance.
Colors, Patterns and Fonts
To make your chart even more stunning visually, you can adjust the colors of the background,
foreground, borders, fonts, axes, bars, lines, pie slices, etc., etc. Just double-click on the object you want
to format and the color palette will open for you to express your artistic creativity. Patterns come in
useful when you are relying on black-and-white displays of multiple parameters because you can more
easily distinguish one bar or one line from another.
When working with Pie Charts, be careful to select the piece of the pie you to which you want to apply a
color or pattern (the first click will select the pie itself, the second click will select a piece of the pie) and
then double-click on it. Otherwise you will change the color or pattern for the entire pie instead of each
piece.
You can also adjust the size and style of the font for different pieces of your chart by double-clicking on
the desired text or section. (Note: if you change the font for a value on the x-axis, for instance, all values
on the x-axis will change formatting).
3-D Charts: If you have created a chart using a 3-D chart type, you can modify the angles at which the
chart is portrayed. Click once on the Chart so the black handles are selecting the entire chart. Go to
Chart→3-D View to change the depth or angle.
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