Customize charts

After you create your chart, you can customize it to show additional chart elements, such as titles and data labels, or to make it look exactly the way you want.

We are customizing the pie chart we created in the previous video.

To change the title, click it, and type the text you want.

When you select a title or label's text, you get a context sensitive menu that enables you to change its formatting, such as Font, Font Size, and Font Color.

If there isn't a chart title, I'll show you how to add one next.

To add elements to your chart, such as a title and data labels, select the chart.

The Chart Elements, Chart Styles, and Chart Filter buttons appear next to the chart.

Click the Chart Elements button and check or uncheck the elements you want to add or remove, such as Chart Title.

Different chart types have different elements, styles, and filters. To add data labels, you check Data Labels.

They look pretty good, but I want the labels to include Sales as a dollar value and as a percent of the total.

To do that, click the arrow beside Data Labels. I can point to each option and see a preview.

None of them give me what I want, so I click More Options. The Format Data Labels task pane appears.

A task pane provides you with more options for customizing elements.

I click Percentage, and the data labels now contain what I want.

We are almost done. But the overall look of the chart isn't exactly what I want.

So I click the Chart Style button.

When you point to an option, you see a preview of what it'll look like. I think this one looks good, so I click it.

And we have our finished pie chart.

Now we are customizing the bar chart we created in the previous video.

Select the chart, click the Chart Elements button. The bar chart has more elements than the pie chart.

I check Data Table and it is added to the chart.

To change the data series for the chart, right-click the chart, click Select Data in the right-click menu, select the Chart data range and click OK.

Now that I have seen the data charted, I think a column chart would work better.

But I don't have to delete this chart and create a new one from scratch.

Instead, I right-click the chart, click Change Chart Type, click Column. It looks good, so I click OK.

And now we have a chart that does a great job of presenting the data.

Lastly, we are customizing the line chart we created in the previous video.

I fill in the title.

I also want to add a title for the vertical axis of the chart, the numbers, so people will know what they represent.

I click the Chart Elements button, point to Axis Titles, click the arrow beside it, check Primary Vertical, and type Inches into the title text box.

Data labels would make the chart easier to fully comprehend.

I click the Chart Elements button again.

If I checked Data Labels, it would put the values above the markers, which is a little confusing.

When I click the arrow beside Data Labels, I get options for where to place them.

I get a live preview when I point to an option. Right one looks good, so I click it.

To filter the data in a chart, click the Chart Filter button, uncheck items you don't want to display, and click Apply.

You check items and click Apply to display them.

You can double-click a chart or virtually any element in a chart for even more customization options.

I am adding a finishing touch to the chart. I double-click the chart, expand Fill in the task pane, and select Gradient fill.

Lastly, I make the chart a little bigger, and we have finished our chart.

Up next, Create a combo chart.