Section 18.3. Selecting Chart Elements


18.3. Selecting Chart Elements

Some chart elements, like titles and axes, are obvious. Others are a little more subtle. But it's important to realize that everything you add to a chart is its own distinct ingredient, and you can tweak each ingredient independentlyeven the data labels that identify important values (Section 18.2.3). That means you can select them, move them, delete them, and so on. Understanding this principle is the secret to creating charts that stand out from the crowd .

So far, you've covered how to add the most popular elements to your chart, using either a readymade layout or the lists in the Chart Tools Layout tab. But you haven't learned about everything you can do with a chart element once you've created it. In this section (and those that follow), you'll learn how to grab hold of the element you want and further fine-tune it.

If you want to manipulate your chart components , you have to first learn how to select them. The easiest way to do so is to click directly on the element you want to change, as shown in Figure 18-11.

Figure 18-11. When you select a part of a chart, a rectangle appears around the item, with a circle (known as a handle) in each corner. In this example, the chart title is selected.


Some elementslike titles and legendsare easy to select this way. Others, like gridlines and axes, are a little trickier because you need to click in exactly the right place. If you end up selecting the wrong element, it's sometimes easiest to just use the arrow keys to select another one. Each time you press an arrow key, Excel selects the next chart element. So, if you keep pressing an arrow key, you'll eventually cycle through all the elements that you can select in the current chart.

You can also select chart elements with the ribbon's Chart Tools Format Current Selection section, as shown in Figure 18-12. Using this list, you can select any of the chart elements described earlier (Section 18.1.2), except individual data points.

Figure 18-12. Click the drop-down arrow in the box at the top of this section (Chart Tools Format Current Selection) to show a list of all the elements in the current chart. When you choose an item from the list, Excel automatically highlights the corresponding part of the chart.



Tip: To check which element you've selected, just right-click it. The last item in the shortcut menu makes everything clear. If the context menu starts with Format Axis, you know that you've selected a chart axis. If it says Format Gridlines, you've got yourself a gridline. Or, you can check the Chart Tools Format Current Selection section of the ribbon.


Excel 2007[c] The Missing Manual
Excel 2007[c] The Missing Manual
ISBN: 596527594
EAN: N/A
Year: 2007
Pages: 173

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net