Editing Chart Data

 
To change the data from our chart is easy.
To do this select first the graph in your document.
Click the button “Edit Data” in the contextual tab “Design” under the Chart Tools.

This opens the spreadsheet that contains the data in our chart.
Change the data, and close the spreadsheet.
The changes are applied immediately in our graph.

Formatting and layout

We have a lot of possibilities to change the formatting and layout of our graph.
Some I will discuss here, but the rest you must try yourself.

To change the chart type you first select the “Chart Tools” contextual tab, and choose the tab “Designs”.
Click the leftmost button in the Ribbon “Change Chart Type”.
This opens the dialog “Change Chart Type”.
Choose a different chart type, and click the OK button.

To change the style we click the button “Scroll under” “Scroll up”, or “drop-down menu” in the ribbon, and choose a style by clicking on it.

Then I add a chart title.
I choose the contextual tab “Layout” in the ribbon.
This opens a drop-down menu with three options: None – Centered Overlay Title – Above graph.
I choose the latter “Above Chart”.
The first is obvious, the second one puts the title on the graph.
Once you’ve made your choice, you can start typing.
You do not need the text in the text box.
If the title is typed, click anywhere outside the title.

With the chart still selected, you can go and see how your title would look like if you had chosen the second option (centered overlay title) in the drop-down menu of the graph titles. You can change this at any time if you wish.

Then you can adjust the titles of the horizontal and vertical axis if this creates confusion in the graph.
Click on the button “Axis Titles” in the contextual tab “Layout”.
This opens a drop-down menu with two options.
One for the primary horizontal axis, and one for the primary vertical axis.
The first gives us two more options: None or below the Axis, both of which are clear I think.
And the second gives us four options that happen to be all clear.

Then I add the “Legend” by clicking this button in the contextual tab “Layout”.
When we click on it, we have eight options.
The first seven seem clear to me, the eighth “More options for legend”, opens a dialog where we have the settings to adjust: “legend options”, “Fill”, “Border Color”, “Border Style” and “Shadow”.
These seem to be quite clear.
Click the “Close” button in the dialog box when you have finished your settings in it.

Then we have the “Data Labels” in the contextual tab “Layout”.
With this button we can see the data from our table displayed in our graph.
Again we have a few options that seem clear to me. You can try each one out for better understanding.
In this example I choose the option “End outside.”

Then we have the “Data Table” in the contextual tab “Layout”.
When we click on this we have three options. This places the table from the spreadsheet below the chart.
Since I have chosen “Data Label” and “End outside,” I need to choose “None”.
I do this so that the data from my table does not repeat twice.

Then we have the button “Axes”.
Again, I have two choices, the horizontal axis with seven options.
And the vertical axis with five options.
These seem to be quite clear.
In this example I choose the horizontal for “None” because the data from the table are shown at the end of the rod.

Then we have the “Gridlines” which are quite clear.
And we also have the “Plot Area”.
When we click it we have three options, “None”, “Character Display Area”, and “More options for drawing area.” These seem to me clear.
I choose the option “More options for drawing area” and the tab “Padding” for “Gradient Fill”, and click the “Close” button.

And then we have the contextual tab “Format”.
Again we have a whole bunch of options to change the format of our chart.
Far too many to mention.
Remember this, if you wish to modify the layout of any part of your chart, first select the part you wish to modify and then select the option you wish to apply.
If you do not like the change, click the “Undo” button in the toolbar “Quick Access”, or click the Z button on your keyboard while holding the Ctrl key pressed.

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