Part III: Creating Charts and Other Visualizations
Moving and deleting chart elements
Some elements within a chart can be moved: titles, legend, and data labels. To move a chart
element, simply click it to select it and then drag its border.
The easiest way to delete a chart element is to select it and then press Delete. You can also
use the controls on the Chart Elements icon, which appears to the right of the chart, to
reposition chart elements.
A few chart elements consist of multiple objects. For example, the data labels element consists of one label for each
data point. To move or delete one data label, click once to select the entire element and then click a second time to
select the specific data label. You can then move or delete the single data label.
Formatting chart elements
Many users are content to stick with the predefined chart styles and layouts. For more
precise customizations, Excel allows you to work with individual chart elements and apply
additional formatting. You can use the Ribbon commands for some modifications, but
the easiest way to format chart elements is to right-click the element and choose Format
<Element> from the shortcut menu. The exact command depends on the element that you
select. For example, if you right-click the chart’s title, the shortcut menu command is
Format Chart Title.
The Format command displays a task pane with options for the selected element. Changes
that you make are displayed immediately in the chart. When you select a new chart ele-
ment, the task pane changes to display the properties for the newly selected element. You
can keep this task pane displayed while you work on the chart. It can be docked alongside
the left or right part of the window or made free-floating and sizable.
If the Format task pane isn’t displayed, you can double-click a chart element to display it.
Refer to the “Exploring the Format Task Pane” sidebar for an explanation of how the Format
task panes work.
If you apply formatting to a chart element and decide that it wasn’t such a good idea, you can revert to the original
formatting for the particular chart style. Right-click the chart element and choose Reset to Match Style from the
shortcut menu. To reset the entire chart, select the chart area when you issue the command.
