Excel 2019 Bible

Chapter 21: Using Advanced Charting Techniques

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a comprehensive set of tools for chart elements, you can modify the Shape Fill, Shape

Outline, and Shape Effects settings for most elements in a chart.

Here are a few formatting actions that you can take right from the Ribbon (after you have

selected your chart element):

Change the Fill Color: Choose Chart Tools ➪ Format ➪ Shape Styles ➪ Shape Fill, and

select a color.

Change the Border or Outline Color: Choose Chart Tools ➪ Format ➪ Shape Styles ➪

Shape Outline, and select a color.

Change the width and style of lines: Choose Chart Tools ➪ Format ➪ Shape Styles ➪

Shape Effects, and add one or more effects.

Change font color: Choose Home ➪ Font ➪ Font Color

Using the Mini toolbar

When you right-click an element in a chart, Excel displays a shortcut menu and the Mini

toolbar. The Mini toolbar contains icons (Style, Fill, Outline) that, when clicked, display

formatting options. For some chart elements, the Style icon isn’t relevant, so the Mini

toolbar displays the Chart Elements control (which you can use to select another chart

element).

Modifying the Chart Area

The Chart Area is an object that contains all other elements in the chart. You can think of it

as a chart’s master background or container.

The only modifications that you can make to the Chart Area are cosmetic. You can change

its fill color, outline, or effects such as shadows and soft edges.

If you set the Chart Area of an embedded chart to use No Fill, the chart becomes transparent and the underlying cells
are visible. Figure 21.5 shows a chart that uses No Fill and No Outline in its Chart Area. The Plot Area, Legend, and
Chart Title do use a fill color. Adding a shadow to these other elements makes them appear to be floating above the
worksheet.

The Chart Area element also controls all of the fonts used in the chart. For example, if you

want to change every font in the chart, you don’t need to format each text element sepa-

rately. Just select the Chart Area and then make the change from the options of the Home

➪ Font group or the Format Chart Area task pane.