Excel® 2007 Bible

Chapter 20. Learning Advanced Charting

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• Understanding chart customization

• Changing basic chart elements

• Working with data series

• Discovering some chart-making tricks

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The preceding chapter introduced charting in Excel and described how to create basic charts. This chapter takes the topic to the next level. You learn how to customize your charts to the maximum so that they look exactly as you want. You also pick up some slick charting tricks that will make your charts even more impressive.

Understanding Chart Customization

Excel 2007 makes creating a basic chart easier than ever. Select your data, choose a chart type, and you’re finished. You may take a few extra seconds and select one of the prebuilt Chart Layouts, and maybe even select one of the Chart Styles. But if your goal is to create the most effective chart possible, you probably want to take advantage of the additional customization techniques available in Excel.

Customizing a chart involves changing its appearance, as well as possibly adding new elements to it. These changes can be purely cosmetic (such as changing colors modifying line widths, or adding a shadow) or quite substantial (such as changing the axis scales or adding a second Value Axis). Chart elements that you might add include such features as a data table, a trend line, or error bars.

Selecting Chart Elements

Modifying a chart is similar to everything else you do in Excel: First you make a selection (in this case, ...