Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

Help! My Excel Chart Columns are too Skinny

Excel columns too narrow Help! My Excel Chart Columns are too Skinny

It’s probably happened to you, you’ve created an Excel chart and the columns are so narrow they are almost unreadable. The chart is ugly and it appears as if there’s nothing that you can do because nothing that should work does work.

The problem typically happens when you have a chart with an X axis that is has date data and where you aren’t plotting every day but, instead, for example, one day a week.

The solution is to click the X axis of the chart so that you have it selected, right click and choose Format Axis. From the Axis Options panel, select Text Axis. This turns your skinny bars into something a lot more attractive.

Excel columns too narrow1 Help! My Excel Chart Columns are too Skinny

If the bars still not thick enough – and typically, for me, they aren’t – click on one bar to select the series, right click and choose Format Data Series. From the  Series options, decrease the Gap Width value to around 35 percent. This option won’t work unless you first set the X axis to a Text axis although you and I both wish it would!

Excel columns too narrow2 Help! My Excel Chart Columns are too Skinny

Friday, June 10th, 2011

Excel multi color column charts

Set Excel bars and columns to different colors Excel multi color column charts

When you have a great big Excel column chart with heaps of delicious data but all in one series, it makes sense for the chart to be plotted in wonderful technicolor. However that’s an option Excel 2010 doesn’t make it very easy to find. If you try the Chart Tools > Design tab you can choose a multi-color chart but that only colors each series a different color so it won’t work when all your data is in one series.

The solution is to click on one column to select it then right click and choose Format Data Series > Fill group. Locate and check the Vary Colors by Point option and you’ll have a wonderful multi-colored series – much more enlightening than a plain old single color chart don’t you think?

If the colors aren’t to your liking (you are getting just a little bit fussy but I do know exactly what you mean) select the Page Layout tab and check out the Themes – there’s sure to be one which will make your chart perfect.

Set Excel bars and columns to different colors 2 Excel multi color column charts

Friday, June 19th, 2009

Cool excel printing options

Excel offers some cool options for printing worksheets. Here are six of my favorite techniques:

1 Printing grid lines (or not)

Print step1 772639 Cool excel printing options

To print grid lines on your final printout, choose File, Page Setup, Sheet tab and enable the Gridlines checkbox. This prints horizontal and vertical lines much like you see on the screen in editing view.

2 Printing row and column headings

Print step2 740892 Cool excel printing options
To print the letters A, B, C etc above the columns on your worksheet and the row numbers choose File, Page Setup, Sheet tab and enable the Row and column headings checkbox. This works particularly well when combined with printing Gridlines but can be used without gridlines too.

3 Setting your own page margins

Print step3 741112 Cool excel printing options
You can configure the margins around the page by choosing File, Page Setup, Margins tab. Set the margin values and use the Horizontal and/or Vertical checkboxes to centre a small worksheet on a larger page.

4 Drag a margin into place

Print step4 789452 Cool excel printing options
You can also control margins from the Print Preview screen. Click Margins to turn the margin indicators on. You can now move these into new positions by simply dragging on them.

5 Select an area to print

Print step5 789673 Cool excel printing options
When a print area is set, this will print by default regardless of how big the worksheet is. Drag over the area to use and choose File, Print Area, Set Print Area to configure it. To clear the print area, so you can print the entire worksheet, choose File, Print Area, Clear Print Area.

6 Print a chart

Print step6 719009 Cool excel printing options
When you click a chart on a worksheet to select it and choose File, Page Setup, the page setup dialog shows no longer contains the Sheet tab and, instead, contains a Chart tab. This shows options for sizing and printing charts. When you click Print, only the chart will print.

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

Multi colored Excel charts

series 719628 Multi colored Excel charts
It isn’t always the case that you want to chart multiple series of data on a single chart. Sometimes you only have a single series and Excel, by default, plots all the bars or columns so they are colored identically. Boring!

Luckily, in Excel 2007 a solution is at hand. Simply select and right click the series and choose Format Data Series > Fill > Vary Colors by Point. Excel colors each bar a different color. Best of all, the colors are linked to themes so you can change the colors by changing the Theme – the theme tools are on the Page Layout tab.

So, no more boring single color charts – ever – please!

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

Excel – print charts in black and white

bandw 786330 Excel   print charts in black and white
Although your Excel chart might look great in color on the screen, if you’re printing to black and white or printing in color and planning to reproduce the charts in black and white you might be disappointed with the final result. Light green, light blue and light orange all look very different on the screen but are indistinguishable in black and white.

So, when your chart is destined for reproduction in black and white, set it up so it is guaranteed to be readible. To do this, select each series or data point by clicking on it, right click and choose Format Data Series (or Format Data Point)> Patterns tab > Fill Effects > Pattern and use a grey or a black and white pattern. Repeat for all the series and save before printing. The chart is guaranteed to look good when printed.

Thursday, July 17th, 2008

Widening chart columns in Excel 2007

Colour me stupid. I am reeling from having single handedly wiped out all the images from my blogs – yep! 2 of them decimated by my stupidity. I’m now resorting to begging friends, family, neighbours and anyone I meet (ok I’m exaggerating, but I am desperate), to spend time helping me put it all back together. I have the images, they just aren’t on my server any more and my computers and Blogger have this love hate relationship, the more frustrated I get with how slow the connection is the slower they go – see! they say, if you think that was slow, try this.. seriously it is hours of work to get this all back. Hence no delicious new posts.

This happened over two weeks ago so I’m slowly resigning myself to putting it back over time, so here’s today’s tip – no image – sheesh – don’t talk to me about images!

To make the column widths on an Excel 2007 chart wider – or narrower if you think they aren’t awful enough when you have long X-axis values, right click a column choose Format Data Series. From the Series Options selection drag the Gap Width value close to the No Gap end of the slider for a larger column and the other direction for a smaller one. This increases the column width by decreasing the gap between the columns. Click Close and you’re done.

Now, back to uploading images one by one .. hell, even Noah got them in two by two!

Friday, October 26th, 2007

Plotting little and big data

2ndaxis 726144 Plotting little and big data

Disaster will strike your Excel charts if you try to plot very large data values and very small values on the one chart. You’ll see the big values but the little ones will blend into the x-axis of the chart so you won’t even see them.

To include both sets of data on the one chart, add a second axis and plot the smaller values against it. Now you’ll be able to see them alongside the very large values.

To add your second axis, select the chart, select the series you can’t see (click on one you can see and use the tab key to move until you have it selected). Right click and choose Format Data Series. Select Series Options, Secondary Y Axis. With the data series that should be plotted against the secondary axis still selected, right click and choose Change Series Chart Type and select a different chart type such as Line.

Tuesday, May 8th, 2007

Text on a chart, Excel

textonchart 734660 Text on a chart, Excel

It’s easy enought to place a title or Y and X axis titles on a chart but what about a note or comment?

The secret is in the Drawing tools. Display the Drawing toolbar and click on the Text Box button. Now you can drag a text box on your chart and add text inside it. Size it, format it and you’re off.

Friday, May 4th, 2007

Reuse a Chart’s "Look"

charttemplate 718716 Reuse a Charts "Look"

Sometimes you’ll create a chart that just looks so good you want to save the ‘look’ so you can use it again. You can do this by turning your chart into a template. This would be a technique you could use if you were creating a report and you need to use multiple charts that are all formatted in a similar way.

To save a chart as a template, first display or create the chart and select it. On the Chart Tools, Design tab, choose Save As Template in the Type group. In the Save In box check you’re using the Charts folder and type a name for your template and click Save. Later, to apply the template, to a chart you’re about to create, select your data the Insert tab, click the Other Charts button to open the list and choose All Chart Types. Choose Templates and then the template you just saved. If you already have a chart created, click the chart and click the Design tab, then Change Chart Type. Click Templates, then click the template to use from the My Templates area.

You can store lots of templates to meet any need you might have and change from one to the other as required.

Saturday, March 31st, 2007

Data labels on Excel charts

chart 777552 Data labels on Excel charts

Data labels on your charts show your viewer the values they’re looking at and after all – isn’t that the purpose of the chart?

To add Data Labels to a chart, click the chart and choose Chart, Chart Options. Click the Data Labels tab and choose a style that will look good on your chart. Typically values is a good choice but, for pie charts, for example, a different type might work better.

Page 1 of 212