Changing the chart background in Excel 2003. Episode 918 shows you how.
This video is the podcast companion to the book, Learn Excel 97-2007 from MrExcel. Download a new two minute video every workday to learn one of the 377 tips from the book!
This video is the podcast companion to the book, Learn Excel 97-2007 from MrExcel. Download a new two minute video every workday to learn one of the 377 tips from the book!
Transcript of the video:
Hey, alright, welcome back to the MrExcel netcast, I'm Bill Jelen.
Still down here in Southern Brazil, beautiful beach of Kioba.
Yesterday, I talked about how, in Excel 2007, we could add a picture to the background.
And I had charted something called a Cheese Salada.
Let's talk about a Cheese Salada, in case you've never been here.
Basically, it's a cheeseburger, but when you get it, you're kind of upset because it doesn't look like a cheeseburger.
Yeah there's a bun, and the salada part must be the lettuce and tomato that are there, but...
And this thing in the middle, there's...
Doesn't look like a burger; looks like a piece of ham.
And actually, when you bite into it, what they've done is they've taken the burger, they've completely wrapped it in a piece of cheese, they've completely wrapped that in a piece of ham; so it looks like you have a ham sandwich.
Now, it can't be good for you but, you know, you're on vacation, so what the heck.
So I have a chart here, where we take a look at the components of a Cheese Salada, and I'd like to kind of dress this up.
Now, we're in Excel 2003, so it's not quite as obvious.
What we have to do if we want to change the picture in the plot area, is first click on the platter, and then we have to get into the dialog box to change that.
A couple of ways to do that: You can right-click and choose Format Plot Area; you can come here to the Charting toolbar and click the second icon-- Format Plot Area-- or you can just press Ctrl+1-- Ctrl+1 being the shortcut key to get you to the format dialog box.
You know that works in a regular cell or in a chart; either way.
Okay, so here we seem to have far less options than in Excel 2007, but what we have to do is click the Fill Effects button.
Fill Effects now gets us to where we have Gradient, Texture, Pattern-- by the way, the Patterns are gone in 2007-- and Picture.
And so now we're here at the Picture, I'll select Picture-- let's just choose one of these-- click Insert, and then two more OKs-- OK, OK.
And we've effectively changed the picture in the background of the chart.
Now, as I look at this picture, there's a very annoying telephone pole or something here on the right side of the picture.
Boy, it'd be nice if I could, outside of Excel, to Photoshop or something like that, to crop that out.
They're not going to allow me to format that picture with... like we would normally be able to do with the picture tools, next tp where the picture is cropped appropriately.
Alright, well, hey I want to thank you for stopping by, we'll see you next time for another netcast from MrExcel.
Still down here in Southern Brazil, beautiful beach of Kioba.
Yesterday, I talked about how, in Excel 2007, we could add a picture to the background.
And I had charted something called a Cheese Salada.
Let's talk about a Cheese Salada, in case you've never been here.
Basically, it's a cheeseburger, but when you get it, you're kind of upset because it doesn't look like a cheeseburger.
Yeah there's a bun, and the salada part must be the lettuce and tomato that are there, but...
And this thing in the middle, there's...
Doesn't look like a burger; looks like a piece of ham.
And actually, when you bite into it, what they've done is they've taken the burger, they've completely wrapped it in a piece of cheese, they've completely wrapped that in a piece of ham; so it looks like you have a ham sandwich.
Now, it can't be good for you but, you know, you're on vacation, so what the heck.
So I have a chart here, where we take a look at the components of a Cheese Salada, and I'd like to kind of dress this up.
Now, we're in Excel 2003, so it's not quite as obvious.
What we have to do if we want to change the picture in the plot area, is first click on the platter, and then we have to get into the dialog box to change that.
A couple of ways to do that: You can right-click and choose Format Plot Area; you can come here to the Charting toolbar and click the second icon-- Format Plot Area-- or you can just press Ctrl+1-- Ctrl+1 being the shortcut key to get you to the format dialog box.
You know that works in a regular cell or in a chart; either way.
Okay, so here we seem to have far less options than in Excel 2007, but what we have to do is click the Fill Effects button.
Fill Effects now gets us to where we have Gradient, Texture, Pattern-- by the way, the Patterns are gone in 2007-- and Picture.
And so now we're here at the Picture, I'll select Picture-- let's just choose one of these-- click Insert, and then two more OKs-- OK, OK.
And we've effectively changed the picture in the background of the chart.
Now, as I look at this picture, there's a very annoying telephone pole or something here on the right side of the picture.
Boy, it'd be nice if I could, outside of Excel, to Photoshop or something like that, to crop that out.
They're not going to allow me to format that picture with... like we would normally be able to do with the picture tools, next tp where the picture is cropped appropriately.
Alright, well, hey I want to thank you for stopping by, we'll see you next time for another netcast from MrExcel.
