Excel 2010 Bible

Part III: Creating Charts and Graphics

432

FIGURE 18.31

These radar charts depict the red, green, and blue contributions for each of four colors.

Surface

Surface charts display two or more data series on a surface. Surface charts are listed in the Other

Charts category.

As Figure 18.32 shows, these charts can be quite interesting. Unlike other charts, Excel uses color

to distinguish values, not to distinguish the data series. The number of colors used is determined

by the major unit scale setting for the value axis. Each color corresponds to one major unit.

On the CD
A workbook that contains the charts in this section is available on the companion CD-ROM. The file is named
surface charts.xlsx.

Note
A surface chart does not plot 3-D data points. The series axis for a surface chart, like with all other 3-D charts,
is a category axis — not a value axis. In other words, if you have data that is represented by x, y, and z coordi-
nates, it can’t be plotted accurately on a surface chart unless the x and y values are equally spaced. n