Advanced Chart Customiza tion

Transcription

1 Lesson 16 - Advanced Chart Customization 193 Lesson 16 Advanced Chart Customiza tion Les s on Topics Creating a Combination Chart Creating an AutoFormat Viewing Angle for 3-D Charts Les s on Objectives At the end of the lesson, you will be able to: Create a combination chart consisting of a column and line chart with two different Y-axes; Select chart items using the keyboard; Create and delete a user-defined AutoFormat; Make a user-defined AutoFormat the default chart format; Change the perspective, elevation, and rotation of a 3-D chart. Student Files Us ed You will use the following files from your student folder: Sales Chart 8 Custom Chart Copyright , Finney Learning Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

2 194 Microsoft Excel Intermediate Creating a Combination Chart You saw a pre-defined combination chart when using the Custom Types tab on the Chart Types dialog box. You are going to use the Chart Type dialog box to create a combination column and line chart. You will also use a secondary Y-axis. 1. Open Sales Chart Click the SALES sheet tab. In row 8, notice the percentages. These will be separate data series, which will be charted with a line. 3. Click the Chart1 sheet tab. This chart is similar to the one you used in the previous lesson. 4. You are going to insert the new data series by using the Add Data command on the Chart menu. On the Chart menu, choose Add Data. The Add Data dialog box appears. You can either type in the range, use a range name, or select the series by using the mouse. 5. You will use the mouse to select the new series range. Click the SALES sheet tab. 6. Select A8:E8. (Move the Add Data dialog box out of the way, if necessary.) Notice =SALES!$A$8:$E$8 in the Range text box. 7. Click OK to continue. In the Legend box, notice Percentage of sales over last year. Although the series has been inserted, you cannot see the series on the chart because the Y-axis is scaled in increments of 1,000, and percentages are values that are less than one.

3 Lesson 16 - Advanced Chart Customization 195 Tip: You can also insert new data with any of the cut, copy, and paste methods. 8. So that you may see the percentages, you are going to add a secondary Y-axis for the percentage series. It will be along the right side of the chart. To add the axis, you first have to select the new data series. Normally, you would select it by clicking it. Because you cannot see it, however, you are going to use the keyboard command for selecting chart items. The DOWN ARROW key cycles through chart items. Tap the DOWN ARROW key once. The bottom of the chart should look like the following. If something else is selected, keep tapping the DOWN ARROW key. The items that look like handles on the X-axis line are actually the data points of the new data series. The new series has been selected. 9. With the series selected, choose Selected Data Series on the Format menu. 10. Click the Axis tab. Notice the options on the Axis tab. 11. Choose Secondary Axis. 12. Click OK.

4 196 Microsoft Excel Intermediate Notice the Y-axis on the right side of the screen. Also notice that the new data series is a fourth column on the chart. 13. You are going to change the chart type for the new data series to a line. With the data series still selected, choose Chart Type on the Chart menu. 14. On the Chart Type dialog box, verify that the Standard Types tab is selected. 15. Choose the Line type in the Chart type box. Accept the default subtype. 16. Click OK. Notice the line. Also notice that the line is indicated in the Legend box. Your chart should look like the one on the next page.

5 Lesson 16 - Advanced Chart Customization 197 You can selectively format the different chart types in a combination chart. You are going to choose a format for the Line type in the chart. 1. Click anywhere on the line to select it (i.e., the percentage data series). 2. On the Format menu, choose Selected Data Series. 3. Click the Options tab. 4. You are going to add drop lines to the percentage data series.

6 198 Microsoft Excel Intermediate Choose Drop lines. 5. Click OK. Notice the drop lines. If they are difficult to see, it is because the BURTON series is dark. You might want to change the color of the series. 6. You are going to turn off the drop lines. Verify that the line is still selected. 7. On the Format menu, choose Selected Data Series. 8. Click the Options tab. 9. Click Drop lines to de-select it. 10. Click OK. The lines are removed. 11. Close the document without saving changes. Creating an AutoFormat After making a number of formatting changes to a chart, you may want to save these settings as a custom format. You are going to do this with a combination chart that is identical to the one you just selected. 1. Open Custom Chart. 2. Click the Chart1 sheet tab. Notice the combination chart. 3. On the Chart menu, choose Chart Type. 4. On the Chart Type dialog box, click the Custom Types tab.

7 Lesson 16 - Advanced Chart Customization 199 Notice the two items in the Select from group at the bottom. Up to now, you have used only Built-in formats. 5. In the Select from group, choose User-Defined. Notice the items in the Chart type list. There may be only one type listed, Default. You can add the formats of the active chart to this list, or you can delete a user-defined format. 6. Click the Add button to add your format to the list. The Add Custom Chart Type dialog box appears. 7. With the insertion point in the Name text box, type: Sales & Percent 8. Click an insertion point in the Description text box and type: Combination Chart 9. Click OK. Notice Sales & Percent in the Chart type list box and the description beneath the Sample box. Also notice your chart in the Sample box.

8 200 Microsoft Excel Intermediate 10. Click OK. The format is now saved as a custom chart type. It will be available whenever Excel is being used. 11. You are going to return the chart to the default format and then use your custom type. On the Chart menu, choose Chart Type. 12. Verify that the Custom Types tab is selected. 13. Click User-defined. Once again, notice Sales & Percent in the Chart type list box. 14. Click Default and click OK. Notice that the default chart type is applied to the chart. 15. You are going to apply your custom type to the chart. On the Chart menu, choose Chart Type. 16. Verify that the Custom Types tab is selected. 17. Click User-defined. 18. In the Chart type box, choose Sales & Percent and click OK. Notice the custom format.

9 Lesson 16 - Advanced Chart Customization 201 Changing the Default Chart As we mentioned in an earlier lesson, Excel s default chart type is a column chart. This means that whenever you use the INSERT CHART key (F11) Excel will format the chart as a columnar chart. Excel allows you to change this default, however. You are going to see how you could make your custom type the default chart type. 1. On the Chart menu, choose Chart Type. 2. Verify that the Custom Types tab is selected. 3. Click User-defined at the bottom of the dialog box. 4. In the Chart type box, choose Sales & Percent. At this point, you would merely click the Set as default chart button at the bottom of the dialog box and your custom chart would be used when you tapped the F11 key. 5. You are not going to change the default. Click Cancel to return to the chart. Deleting an AutoFormat Excel allows you to delete user-defined chart types. You are going to delete the user-defined type you just created. 1. On the Chart menu, choose Chart Type. 2. On the Custom Types tab, click User-defined. 3. In the Chart type box, choose Sales & Percent. 4. Click the Delete button. 5. Click OK. An alert box appears. In the Chart type box, notice that your type is no longer listed. 6. Click OK to return to the chart. Notice that the combination type has been removed, because this chart type was deleted.

10 202 Microsoft Excel Intermediate Viewing Angle for 3-D Charts You can rotate 3-D charts to view them from other angles. You can do this manually or by using the 3-D View command on the Format menu. 1. Open a fresh copy of Sales Chart The Chart1 sheet should be active. 3. On the Chart menu, choose Chart Type. 4. Verify that the Standard Types tab is chosen. 5. In the Chart type box, verify that Column is chosen. 6. At the right, in the Chart sub-type box, select the last type (3-D Column). 7. Click OK to return to the chart. Notice the 3-D chart type you have chosen. 8. In order to change the viewing angle of the chart manually, you need to select the corners of the chart. To do this, you must first select one of the surfaces (i.e., the walls or the floor) of the chart. Point to either the walls or the floor of the chart. Be careful not to point to a gridline. A ToolTip should appear with either Walls or Floor on it. In the example below, we pointed to the floor. 9. Click to select it. You have selected a surface. A number of handles appear. Either Walls or Floor is in the Name Box, depending on what you selected. If neither are displayed in the Name Box, try again. 10. You are going to select a corner. When you do this, all corners will be selected. Point to one of the handles. A ToolTip should appear with Corners on it. Again, you can point to any handle.

11 Lesson 16 - Advanced Chart Customization Click once to select it. Notice that the pointer turns into a small crosshair. Also notice the extra handles that have been added. Notice Corners in the Name box. 12. You are going to rotate the chart. Position the crosshair over any handle (not necessarily the one you are currently pointing to), hold down the mouse button, and drag the mouse around the screen. Notice the outline of the chart area. It is a 3-D rectangle. The bars on the bottom represent the floor. Notice the different views. 13. Release at some point. Notice the new viewing angle for the chart. Note: Holding the CTRL key while you drag a corner will show the data series in the chart. You can then determine the best viewing angle. Tip: If the angle of a chart causes larger columns to cover smaller columns, changing the plot order might place the larger columns at the rear. You are going to use the 3-D View dialog box to rotate the chart. 1. The 3-D View command appears on the Chart menu, only when a 3-D chart is active. On the Chart menu, choose 3-D View. The 3-D View dialog box appears.

12 204 Microsoft Excel Intermediate 2. Because you were rotating the chart a moment ago, some of the settings on this dialog box will be different than ours. You are going to change to the default view, so that our screens look the same. Click the Default button. Your dialog box should look like the following: 3. You are going to rotate the chart. Click the Right Rotation button several times and notice the chart in the preview box rotate. 4. Click the Left Rotation button several times and notice the chart rotate in the other direction. Note: The Rotation text box shows you the current viewing angle. It has been increasing and decreasing in increments of 10 degrees each time you clicked a Rotation button. You can also type any degree measure from 0 to 360 in this text box. 5. The Apply button lets you view your changes to the chart in the document without leaving the dialog box. Click the Apply button. Notice how the chart has been rotated. You may have to move the 3-D View dialog a little out of way. 6. You are going to change the elevation of your view of the chart.

13 Lesson 16 - Advanced Chart Customization 205 Click the Up Elevation button several times and watch the elevation change. 7. Click the Down Elevation button several times and watch the elevation change. Note: The Elevation text box lets you type specific elevations. It changes in increments of 5 degrees each time you click an Elevation button. The maximum elevation is 90 and the minimum is Click the Apply button and take a look at the chart. 9. You are going to change the perspective. When you do this, the view of the chart appears to change in depth. It works like a zoom lens for a camera: a small perspective will flatten the look of the chart, while a large perspective will make the chart appear elongated. Click the Increase Perspective button until the perspective is 100. In the preview box, notice that the chart is distorted. However, it appears to have greater depth than usual. 10. Click the Decrease Perspective button until the perspective is 0. In the preview box, notice that the chart appears to have less depth than usual. Note: The Perspective text box lets you type specific perspective values. It changes in increments of 5 each time you click a Perspective button. The maximum perspective value is 100 and the minimum is Click the Apply button and take a look at the chart. 12. The Right angle axes option places the axes at right angles to the plotting area, regardless of the rotation angle or elevation. Choose Right angle axes. Notice the chart. 13. Click the Close button.

14 206 Microsoft Excel Intermediate Notes When the Right angle axes option is selected, you cannot change perspective. The Auto scaling option scales the proportions of the 3-D chart to the approximate size of the chart type s 2-D counterpart. This will change the height and the scale of the Y-axis. This option can be turned on or off only when Right angle axes is selected. If you have Right angle axes selected and Auto scaling de-selected, you can proportionally scale the height of the Y-axis. Normally, the Y-axis is the same height as the length of the X-axis. The Apply button is especially helpful when you are working with a chart that is not a column chart. This is because the chart in the preview box is always a column chart. (The exception to this is when your chart type is a 3-D pie chart.) End of Lesson 16