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Formatting a Chart

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Before we can discuss the details of how to edit and format a chart, you need to know how to activate the chart and select items in the chart using a mouse.

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Activating a Chart Sheet

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When you activate a chart, the chart menu commands become available and the Chart toolbar is displayed.

To activate a chart sheet, select the chart sheet tab you want.

Select the chart sheet tab to activate the pie chart.

Once a chart is active, you can use the mouse to select chart items one at a time. To confirm what you have selected, refer to the name box on the formula bar.

Note that many items in a chart are grouped together. For some grouped items, such as data series, you click once to select the entire group, and then click the individual item you want to select within the group. The following list is an brief overview on how to select items in a chart using a mouse.

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Selecting Items In a Chart Using a Mouse

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To select one of the following items in an Excel chart:

• Data Series- click any data marker belonging to a data series.
  
  
• Pie slice- select the pie ring, and then click the slice.
  
  
• Data labels- click any data label associated with a data series.
  
  
• Single data label- select the data labels, and then click an individual label.
  
  
• Legend- click anywhere in the legend, or click its border.
  
  
• Single legend entry- select the legend, and then click the legend entry.
  
  
• Title- click the chart title, axis title, or text box.
  
  
• Axis- click the axis or a tick-mark label to format or modify the axis.

Let's change the colors of the pie slices.

Select the Pie ring.

Your pie chart should look similar to the following:


Select the 29% pie slice.
Observe:


Choose Selected Data Point from the Format menu.

The fowllowing Format Data Point dialog box should appear:


Select the Patterns tab and choose a different color and pattern for the slice.

Select another pie slice and change its color.

Select the Chart title.
Observe:


Choose a different color from the Font Color button ().

Select the chart.

Observe the ChartWizard toolbar that is displayed on your screen. There is a Legend button located on the toolbar. If you want to add or delete a legend to a chart just press that button.

Now that you have completed your weekly expenses pie chart let's print it out. Before you print it out let's preview it.

Save all your changes.

Choose Print Preview from the File menu.

Make sure that the text: Page 1 and Chart 1 is not displayed, if this text appears the layout of the page must be set.

Click on the Close button.

Choose Page SetUp from the File menu.

Within the Page Setup dialog box select the Header/Footer tab.

Observe:


Within the Header/Footer box select none from the Header and Footer pull-down menus.

This will clear the text: Chart1 at the top of your pie chart and it will also clear the text: Page 1 at the bottom of your pie chart.

Within the Page Setup dialog box, select the Chart tab and select the following setting:


Click on the OK button.

Click on the Print button.

You are now ready to create a column chart.

Next Topic: Column Charts

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