Improving The Appearance Of Charts In Excel

By Author: Ed Bolton
Total Articles: 17
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There are lots of reasons that people use Microsoft Excel. However, these reasons fall into three basic categories; storing data, analysing data and displaying data. Often a single spreadsheet will be used for all three, and it is the display of data that forms the basis for this article.


If you’ve ever prepared a presentation of figures in Powerpoint, you will certainly have found yourself borrowing charts from Excel. It is often thought these charts don’t have to be as visually appealing as the rest of the presentation. That’s simply an excuse used by people who don’t understand the full range of charting options in Excel.


First things first though. If you’ve got a bar chart that makes your point, don’t turn it into a bubble chart just to be different. Personally, I can say I’ve never used Excel’s bubble chart option and will unashamedly say that I’m not entirely sure what a bubble chart is. It does look nice, but it detracts from the graphic’s underlying meaning. So the lesson is that improving the appearance of a chart does not mean changing its form.


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... he second question is what you are trying to achieve in re-formatting a chart. Generally you wish to draw a viewer’s attention to a trend, and remove anything that may distract them. That means your chart’s formatting should be consistent with its surroundings. That means matching fonts, and it means matching colors. The key fonts to match are on the axes, the legend and, if present, the chart title. Colors will mainly feature in the chart area itself though, unless it is being inserted on a dark background, I would always recommend making your Excel charts transparent.


Unfortunately every feature of a chart needs selecting separately. This can normally be achieved by right-clicking on the label you want and selecting the relevant Format option. If you cannot work out how to change an item’s properties, you can always consult Excel help by pressing F1.


The other way to draw people’s attention to your data is to make your data big. As long as your chart fits into its allotted space, the bigger the better. The first step then is to re-size the chart by selecting and dragging the corner until it fills the space available. However, that is not the only step.


Earlier I referred to your chart title. Take another look. Does it need to be there? If your axes are “Month” and “Payroll Expenditure” then what is your title adding? Probably very little. So you can delete it. What about the legend? You’ve only got one line. That can go as well.


Once you’ve removed unnecessary peripherals, you have to get a bit smarter. This may involve reducing font sizes or the room taken up by axes labels. If your y-axis is recording millions, does it need all the 0s on the end? If not, you should change your source data to a new column that quotes figures in millions. Not only does this allow you to expand the main chart area, it also simplifies the labels. That means less distraction for the reader and gives them a much higher chance of interpreting the data correctly.


It will only take you a few minutes to improve your Excel charts and, in the context of all the other work you will do, it is well worth doing. The only reason people don’t is that they do not know what they are setting out to achieve. As long as you remember you are trying to be one of your audience, and not an Excel expert, you won’t go far wrong.


About the author: Ed Bolton is the founder of Excel4Business, and expert in providing Excel help.