Page 137 - Excel Timesaving Techniques for Dummies

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Technique 22: Charting Data in a Snap
by enclosing them within a green rectangle with siz- the chart title, legend, and so on) and then drag
ing handles at its corners. Excel also identifies the it to its new position. (The mouse pointer changes
text entries that contain the various clusters along from the white cross arrowhead to a four-headed
the Category (X) Axis by enclosing them within a arrow as you drag the dashed outline of the
cyan-colored rectangle with its own sizing handles. chart.)
Most of the time you’ll find that you need to do both
You can directly manipulate the contents of
the embedded chart simply by dragging the some chart resizing and repositioning. Excel has a
sizing handles for these different chart compo- tendency to draw embedded charts rather small in
nents. For example, to include an extra row or relation to its identifying elements — the chart title,
column of data in the chart, all you have to do legend, and Category Axis and Value Axis titles.
is to drag the sizing handles attached to the Often, the chart area is so small that not all of the
blue rectangle to include the new row or col- data elements represented in the chart are even visi-
umn within its boundaries. ble. (This is the case in Figure 22-10, where only
three of the nine months that have been charted are
You should note that whenever an embedded chart visible.) The program also tends to place the new
is selected in a worksheet, the program displays the embedded chart below the table of supporting data
floating Chart toolbar and adds the Chart menu to but not directly below so that even if you want the
the Excel menu bar. You can use the buttons on the chart beneath the table of data, you often still need
Chart toolbar or menu items on the Chart menu to to nudge it in slightly to the left.
make any needed modifications to the chart itself.
The only problem with increasing the size
While the embedded chart is selected in the work-
of the embedded chart to make the data
sheet, you can resize it and reposition it as needed:
elements read better is that Excel makes the
text elements proportionately bigger. To deal
To resize the chart area, drag the appropriate with this, you need to modify the formatting
sizing handle. for these text elements. See Technique 23 for
ideas on how to make these modifications
To move the chart, position the mouse pointer
within the confines of the chart area (just not most efficiently.
directly over a particular component such as