The Basics of Excel Charting: Part IV
This is the fourth of a Four (4) Part series on the Basics of Charting with Microsoft Excel 2010. Previously we'd set up our Data Set, Created our Chart and made adjustments to our Chart Axis. Today, in Episode #1408, Bill shows us how to Change our Chart Title, set up a comprehensive Legend and adjust the colors of our charted data.
...This episode is the video podcast companion to the book, "Charts And Graphs: Microsoft Excel 2010", by Bill Jelen a.k.a. MrExcel.
For more Excel 2010 knowledge, check out "Excel 2010 In Depth", by Bill Jelen a.k.a. MrExcel.
For all of your Microsoft Excel needs visit MrExcel.com -- Your One Stop for Excel Tips and Solutions.
This is the fourth of a Four (4) Part series on the Basics of Charting with Microsoft Excel 2010. Previously we'd set up our Data Set, Created our Chart and made adjustments to our Chart Axis. Today, in Episode #1408, Bill shows us how to Change our Chart Title, set up a comprehensive Legend and adjust the colors of our charted data.
...This episode is the video podcast companion to the book, "Charts And Graphs: Microsoft Excel 2010", by Bill Jelen a.k.a. MrExcel.
For more Excel 2010 knowledge, check out "Excel 2010 In Depth", by Bill Jelen a.k.a. MrExcel.
For all of your Microsoft Excel needs visit MrExcel.com -- Your One Stop for Excel Tips and Solutions.
Transcript of the video:
MrExcel podcast is sponsored by Charts and Graphs, from Que Publishing.
Learn Excel for MrExcel, Episode 1408: Chart Title, Legend, and Colors.
Well, hey, welcome back to the MrExcel netcast, I'm Bill Jelen. This is the last of our four-part series talking about creating a chart-- creating your first chart-- in Excel.
So far, we set up the data-- that was on Monday-- then we created the chart on Tuesday, Wednesday we learned how to fix this scale, earlier.
Now, today, three last adjustments I want to make to this chart.
So we're going to select the chart to get our chart tools under the Ribbon.
Once we have the chart, we go to layout and, okay, these legends are taking up a lot of space.
They're really helpful because they allow us to see the two populations, but, if we move the legend to the top-- first of all people say that the legend should always be on the left or the top.
That way you get to the legend before you see the chart-- but having it at the top really allows those long, long series titles to stretch out-- first thing.
Next, Chart Title; they offer us two different places for a chart-- Above Chart and Centered Overlay chart.
Back in the old days, Chart Titles were always Above the Chart.
Centered Overlay-- that only works if you lost most of your employees, right?
If the numbers were down here in the 50s and 40s and 60s, then you might have room up here at the top for an Overlay title, but not in this case.
Alright, so, click Above Chart, and we get the world's worst chart title-- "Chart Title"-- you're going to have to change this every single time.
My advice is to, at least, double click-- click-- in here or triple click, to select the whole title.
If you only single click, then you're typing up here in the formula bar and not seeing the changes here.
So, this is, "% of Employees Retained One Year".
One year, all right, so, great, we have that.
Now, last thing: With the blue-- I don't have any problem with the blue; red-- red, to me, is negative, and in the default office theme, office red is the color that we get for the second series over time.
So, maybe just come here and choose a different theme, although that's going to change your fonts and all kinds of other things.
I really just want to fix the red; and to fix the red, I'm going to single click.
You'll see that we have-- now have-- handles around every red column.
Good.
Go to the Format tab.
Under Shape Fill, I'm going to choose some other color.
Maybe I'll go with that green.
So, Data Labels-- if you're a fan of Data Labels, we definitely want to add Data Labels to both series.
I'm going to click away-- that way, there's no series selected-- and, then, Layout, Data Labels, I'll go to what's called the Outside End, that means, in this case, the top.
Alright, so, hey, this was a four-part series, started on Monday.
Just setting up the data, taking the data from Word and setting it up in Excel. Tuesday, creating the chart.
Wednesday, fixing the scale, that really important thing, and then; today, just fixing up a few basic formatting options.
There you have it, the four-part series.
I want to thank you for stopping by, and we'll see you next time for another netcast from MrExcel.
Learn Excel for MrExcel, Episode 1408: Chart Title, Legend, and Colors.
Well, hey, welcome back to the MrExcel netcast, I'm Bill Jelen. This is the last of our four-part series talking about creating a chart-- creating your first chart-- in Excel.
So far, we set up the data-- that was on Monday-- then we created the chart on Tuesday, Wednesday we learned how to fix this scale, earlier.
Now, today, three last adjustments I want to make to this chart.
So we're going to select the chart to get our chart tools under the Ribbon.
Once we have the chart, we go to layout and, okay, these legends are taking up a lot of space.
They're really helpful because they allow us to see the two populations, but, if we move the legend to the top-- first of all people say that the legend should always be on the left or the top.
That way you get to the legend before you see the chart-- but having it at the top really allows those long, long series titles to stretch out-- first thing.
Next, Chart Title; they offer us two different places for a chart-- Above Chart and Centered Overlay chart.
Back in the old days, Chart Titles were always Above the Chart.
Centered Overlay-- that only works if you lost most of your employees, right?
If the numbers were down here in the 50s and 40s and 60s, then you might have room up here at the top for an Overlay title, but not in this case.
Alright, so, click Above Chart, and we get the world's worst chart title-- "Chart Title"-- you're going to have to change this every single time.
My advice is to, at least, double click-- click-- in here or triple click, to select the whole title.
If you only single click, then you're typing up here in the formula bar and not seeing the changes here.
So, this is, "% of Employees Retained One Year".
One year, all right, so, great, we have that.
Now, last thing: With the blue-- I don't have any problem with the blue; red-- red, to me, is negative, and in the default office theme, office red is the color that we get for the second series over time.
So, maybe just come here and choose a different theme, although that's going to change your fonts and all kinds of other things.
I really just want to fix the red; and to fix the red, I'm going to single click.
You'll see that we have-- now have-- handles around every red column.
Good.
Go to the Format tab.
Under Shape Fill, I'm going to choose some other color.
Maybe I'll go with that green.
So, Data Labels-- if you're a fan of Data Labels, we definitely want to add Data Labels to both series.
I'm going to click away-- that way, there's no series selected-- and, then, Layout, Data Labels, I'll go to what's called the Outside End, that means, in this case, the top.
Alright, so, hey, this was a four-part series, started on Monday.
Just setting up the data, taking the data from Word and setting it up in Excel. Tuesday, creating the chart.
Wednesday, fixing the scale, that really important thing, and then; today, just fixing up a few basic formatting options.
There you have it, the four-part series.
I want to thank you for stopping by, and we'll see you next time for another netcast from MrExcel.
