Formatting Charts and Graphs - Part 1

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About this lesson

We explore the extensive formatting options available on the Chart Options contextual ribbon. Change the color scheme, switch the data around, add data labels, axis labels, chart titles and a legend.

Quick reference

Formatting Graphs and Charts - Part 1

There are so many ways to format charts in PowerPoint. Every element of a chart can be edited and customised using the contextual menu, pop-out buttons and the chart contextual ribbons. 

In Part 1 of this lesson, we are going to start to format the clustered column chart we created in the previous lesson. We will make minor edits to the data and change the chart title and the position of the legend. We will add axis labels, data labels and format the chart gridlines and overall color scheme. 

When to use

Always apply formatting when using charts in PowerPoint to make them relevent to the data they represent. 

Instructions

When formatting charts, it's important to make sure you have the correct part of the chart selected first. Formatting changes will apply to the selection only. 

Select Chart Elements

We can click on different parts of the chart to make a selection. Sometimes, it's easier to use the selection pane to isloate a particular part of the chart. 

  1. Click on the chart. 
  2. From the Chart Design tab, in the Current Selection group, click the Selection box drop-down. 
  3. Select the part of the chart to be formatted from the list. 

Edit and Format Text

Change the default chart title and format other text elements on the chart. 

  1. Click on the Chart Title.
  2. Change the chart title to 'Total Sales (Jan - Jun 2020)'.
  3. From the Home tab, in the Font group, change the font to White, Background 1. 
  4. Select the other text elements. 
  5. From the Home tab, in the Font group, change the font to White, Background 1. 

Change the Position of the Legend

  1. Click on the chart. 
  2. Click the + button to the right of the chart. 
  3. Select Legend and then Top. 

Add Axis Titles

Axis titles help readers understand the data. 

  1. Click on the chart. 
  2. Click the + button to the right of the chart. 
  3. Select Axis Titles.
  4. Change the Vertical Axis Title to 'Sales'. 
  5. Change the Horizontal Axis Title to 'Months'

Format Gridlines

  1. Click on the gridlines to select. 
  2. Or, from the Chart Design tab, in the Current Selection group, select Gridlines from the Selection box. 
  3. From the Format tab, in the Shape Styles group, select Shape Outline. 
  4. Change the color to a lighter grey. 

Edit the Data

The data represented in the chart can be changed. For example, instead of displaying the sales totals for Jan - Jun, we might decide to only display data for Jan - Mar. 

  1. Click on the chart.
  2. From the Chart Design tab, in the Data group, select Edit Data. 
  3. Select Edit Data.
  4. Adjust the range by dragging the blue handle. 
  5. The chart will update automatically based on the new selection. 

Add Data Labels

Data Labels allow us to display the actual value on the chart. 

  1. Click on the chart. 
  2. Click the + button to the right of the chart. 
  3. Select Data Label and Inside End. 

Format Data Series

The width of the bars on the chart can be changed by formatting the data series. 

  1. Click on one of the bars. 
  2. Right-click and select Format Data Series. 
  3. From the Series Options tab, decrease the Gap Width. 

Change Chart Colors

The chart colors are very much determined by the theme being used. 

  1. Select the chart.
  2. From the Chart Design tab, select Change Colors. 
  3. Choose Colorful Palette 2. 

Hints & tips

  • The colors available to select are determined by theme. However, we can change any chart element to whatever color we like by applying a shape fill from the Format tab. 
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  • 00:04 So now that we've inserted these three different charts,
  • 00:07 let's take a look at how we can format them.
  • 00:09 And there are so many different options that we have.
  • 00:12 I'm definitely not going to have time to go through absolutely every single option.
  • 00:17 But hopefully, we'll be able to highlight some of the key changes that you can make
  • 00:21 to really make your charts have a wow factor.
  • 00:23 Now, the first thing to know is that when you click on a chart,
  • 00:26 you're going to see two contextual ribbons.
  • 00:28 Chart Design, which basically allows you to change the look and
  • 00:32 feel of your charts.
  • 00:33 So things like changing the color, changing the style, and
  • 00:37 adding different chart elements.
  • 00:39 So things like chart titles, axis labels, and things like that.
  • 00:44 And all the way over on the right-hand side of this ribbon, we have a Data group,
  • 00:49 where you can go in and make changes to the source data.
  • 00:52 And you can also change chart type from here as well.
  • 00:55 And then we also have a Format tab,
  • 00:57 which allows you to be a little bit more granular in your formatting of this chart.
  • 01:02 So you can select different elements and control things like the shape fill,
  • 01:06 the shape outline, the shape effects, so on and so forth.
  • 01:09 Now, a really important group on this ribbon is this first group right here,
  • 01:13 called Current Selection.
  • 01:15 Now in this drop-down, this allows you to quickly select different parts of your
  • 01:20 chart, because the chart is made up of different chart elements.
  • 01:24 So currently, I'm clicked on the chart area.
  • 01:27 If I want to select the chart title, I can select it from the drop-down.
  • 01:30 And you can see, I now get that little placeholder box along the outside.
  • 01:35 If I want to select the legend, if I want to select the vertical value axis,
  • 01:40 it's going to select it in my chart.
  • 01:43 Now, you can also just click on the chart to select some of these different areas.
  • 01:47 But whichever way you choose to do it, it is super important, because
  • 01:51 whichever area you have selected, that's where your formatting is going to apply.
  • 01:56 And it's also worth noting that you have various different formatting options
  • 02:00 in the right-click menu as well.
  • 02:02 So you'll always have something like Format Data Series, or
  • 02:05 depending on where you're clicked, format Plot Area, things like that.
  • 02:09 So so many different options,
  • 02:11 let's start using some of them to make this chart a little bit better.
  • 02:16 Now, the first thing I'm going to do here is deal with this chart title, and
  • 02:20 this is basically just a text box.
  • 02:21 So let's give this chart a more meaningful title.
  • 02:34 Now currently, it's quite hard to see all of the text that I have on this chart,
  • 02:39 so I'm going to want to deal with that first.
  • 02:42 Let's go to the Home tab, and we're just going to change the font to white.
  • 02:45 Now, I'm probably going to want to do exactly the same thing for
  • 02:48 the rest of the text on this slide.
  • 02:50 Now unfortunately, you can't make multiple selections here, so
  • 02:53 I need to do this individually.
  • 02:55 Let's click on the vertical value axis, and change these to whites.
  • 02:59 Let's do the legend at the bottom, and also the horizontal axis as well.
  • 03:05 So that's immediately looking a lot clearer and easier to read.
  • 03:09 Now, something else you have when you click on your chart is that shooting off
  • 03:12 to the right-hand side, you have these three little buttons.
  • 03:15 So this plus just here is a quick way of adding different chart elements.
  • 03:20 So whichever ones you want to appear on your chart,
  • 03:22 just make sure you have a tick in the box.
  • 03:24 Now, if I go down to Legend, I have my legend,
  • 03:27 currently it's showing at the bottom.
  • 03:29 Notice I have a little arrow shooting off to the side,
  • 03:32 which allows me to control the position of that particular legend.
  • 03:36 So I'm going to move mine to the top, so that it appears underneath that title.
  • 03:41 What I might also want to do is add some axis titles by putting a tick in the box.
  • 03:47 You can now see, I have a little text box appear,
  • 03:50 and I can go in and add in a vertical axis title.
  • 03:58 And once again, I'm probably going to want to change this, so
  • 04:01 that it stands out a little bit more to white font.
  • 04:04 Let's do the same for the horizontal axis, and there we go,
  • 04:09 starting to look a lot nicer.
  • 04:11 Something else I'm not much of a fan of here are these major grid lines.
  • 04:15 So to me, they're a little bit bright.
  • 04:17 I want them to blend in a bit more with the background, so essentially,
  • 04:21 I want to change the color.
  • 04:22 Now, when it comes to formatting something like grid lines, you have to make sure
  • 04:26 that you kind of click on the grid line so that they are all selected.
  • 04:29 Now, sometimes that can be a bit tricky.
  • 04:32 So it's in this kind of situation where I might go up to the Format tab and
  • 04:37 use this drop-down.
  • 04:39 Because sometimes, it's a little bit easier to do it that way.
  • 04:42 Now that I've got those grid lines selected,
  • 04:44 I'm going to go to Shape Outline, and I can then choose a different color.
  • 04:48 So I'm going to make these just a little bit paler, so that they're not so stark.
  • 04:53 So we're looking good, but
  • 04:55 what if I decide at this stage that I want to modify the data that I'm displaying?
  • 05:00 Well, that's simple, we can just use our Edit Data tools.
  • 05:04 So if I click on on my chart, and go back to my Chart Design tab,
  • 05:09 in the Data group, we have an Edit Data button.
  • 05:13 If I click the drop-down, I can choose to edit the data, which is going to open
  • 05:18 up that little window, and I can select a different range.
  • 05:21 So maybe I only want to display the sales data for January to March, as
  • 05:26 opposed to January to June, and only for voiceovers, webinars, and live training.
  • 05:33 What I can do is, where we have this blue area,
  • 05:35 I'm going to grab this little handle in the corner.
  • 05:37 And I'm going to drag up to March and drag across, and
  • 05:41 just select what I want to display.
  • 05:44 As soon as I let go,
  • 05:45 PowerPoint is going to adjust that chart to display my new data set.
  • 05:51 So super simple to edit your data.
  • 05:53 Now, something else I might want to add here are data labels.
  • 05:57 And I'm going to choose to display these on the inside end of the bar.
  • 06:01 And what this does, it will actually just
  • 06:04 display the value that that bar represents on the actual bar.
  • 06:07 So this is make your charts a little bit easier to read and interpret.
  • 06:11 And that doesn't look too bad.
  • 06:13 But I can see that for some of these,
  • 06:15 the kind of last character of that number is being cut off a little bit.
  • 06:19 So I'm going to do a little bit more formatting,
  • 06:21 just to make this look a little bit nicer.
  • 06:24 And there's a few different ways I could approach this.
  • 06:26 I could change the formatting of the actual number,
  • 06:29 maybe remove the dollar sign.
  • 06:31 Or I could change the width of the bar, and that's exactly what I'm going to do.
  • 06:35 So if I click on any of the bars, right-click my mouse and
  • 06:40 go into the contextual menu, Format Data Series.
  • 06:44 This is going to pop out a menu on the right-hand side where I can make even more
  • 06:49 changes to my chart.
  • 06:51 As I said, there are so many options in here.
  • 06:53 So what I'm going to do is, I'm going to bring the gap width down a little bit.
  • 06:57 And as soon as I do that, the bars get a little bit wider, and
  • 07:01 there we go, perfect.
  • 07:03 Now, the final couple of things I want to do here,
  • 07:06 I want to change the overall color scheme.
  • 07:08 So once again, select the chart, up to Chart Design,
  • 07:12 and I'm going to go to Change Colors.
  • 07:15 Now, the colors that you see in here are very much determined by the theme that
  • 07:19 you're using.
  • 07:20 So let me go through, I think I'm going to choose Colorful Palette 2.
  • 07:24 And I think I also want to change the font color of these data labels.
  • 07:29 Now you'll see, when I click on the first one on the gray bar,
  • 07:33 it highlights all of the others on that gray bar.
  • 07:36 So it means I can change the color of all of these at once, but
  • 07:41 I do need to go through and do it for the other bars as well.
  • 07:46 That's the end of Part 1, guys.
  • 07:47 Join me in Part 2, where this lesson continues.

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