The following is the list of queries addressed in this article:
- How to customize the formatting options in the chart?
- How to save the chart as a template and re-use it in any other Excel file?
- How to rename the performance context (poor average, good)?
- How to modify the colors of each series?
- How to modify the actual series color and size?
- How to increase or decrease the number of context ranges?
How to customize the formatting options in the chart?
How to save the chart as a template and re-use it in any other Excel file?
1. Right-click on the chart and select "Save as Template"
This opens a dialog box, assign a name to your chart template, and click "Save". This saves the chart in a .crtx format
2. From our Instant Chart Maker file, Copy the data table (CTRL+C) and paste it (CTRL+V) into your chosen Excel file.
3. Enter your information in the data table. Add or remove rows as needed. Please note that green-colored columns are calculated columns - do not enter any data, they are automatically calculated based on the input columns (Blue colored)
4. Select the columns required to build the chart, for this one, choose - all columns along with headers
5. Go to Insert and choose to see All Recommended Charts
This opens up a dialog box, go to All Charts and click on the Templates folder. Here, you'll find all the charts you have saved in step 1, choose the one that is relevant to the data and click "OK".
6. That's it, your chart gets populated with the data from your Excel file and is fully independent of the Instant Chart Maker template file.
- Chart title and Axis titles: Using a saved template to build your chart does not usually bring the Chart title and axis titles. Read this article to add these elements to your chart.
Your chart is now ready for further analysis.
How to rename the performance context (poor, average, and good)?
To change the context from good, average, and poor, you just need to change the corresponding column headers.
With this, the chart gets updated automatically.
How to modify the colors of each series?
1. Click on the chart, and press CTRL+1 to open the format pane
2. From the drop-down, choose the series you want to modify
3. In fill & line, change the fill color as per your requirement
With this, you can modify the series's color is:
How to modify the actual series color and size?
1. Click on the chart, and press CTRL+1 to open the format pane
2. From the drop-down, choose the Actual series
3. From fill & line, change the fill color as needed:
You can also change the border color or width.
With this, your chart with the modified Actual slider is:
How do I increase or decrease the number of context ranges?
To decrease:
1. Say, you want to delete the "Poor" series, right-click on any cell inside the Poor series, go to Delete, Table Column as shown:
2. This throws an error since we have deleted a column that is being referred by the chart.
3. To resolve this quickly, right-click on the chart and go to Select Data.
4. Click on the #REF! error and remove it, as shown:
5. Use the format pane and go to the "Label" series. Under the fill & line, choose NO Line option.
That is it, the chart with just 2 series is ready!
To increase:
1. Right-click on any cell inside the last column, i.e the "Actual" column and go to insert, then click on "Table Columns to the left"
2. Add the necessary data as required:
3. Now, to add this new series to the chart, right-click on chart and go to select data
4. Click on "Add" to add a new series, as shown:
5. Now, click on the "OK" series and move it above the "Label" series.
It is important to note that the order of appearance here has to be same as the order of appearance in the columns that is if the columns (or series) are ordered as Good, Average, Poor and OK, the order inside the dialog-box when you go to Select Data should also be the same, as shown here:
6. Now right-click on the chart again and go to Change Chart Type.
7. In the dialog box, under combo, change the chart type of the "OK" series to the clustered column in the primary axis.
8. In the format pane drop-down, choose the OK" series, and under the series option, increase series overlap to 100%
9. And in fill& line, change the fill color as needed to suit the chart
Repeat the same steps for any number of series, and your chart is ready!
