How to Customize Chart Elements in Excel 2013
The Chart Elements button (with the plus sign icon) that appears when your chart is selected in Excel 2013 contains a list of the major chart elements that you can add to your chart. To add an element to your chart, click the Chart Elements button to display an alphabetical list of all the elements, Axes through Trendline.
To add a particular element missing from the chart, select the element’s check box in the list to put a check mark in it. To remove a particular element currently displayed in the chart, select the element’s check box to remove its check mark.
To add or remove just part of a particular chart element or, in some cases as with the Chart Title, Data Labels, Data Table, Error Bars, Legend, and Trendline, to also specify its layout, you select the desired option on the element’s continuation menu.
So, for example, to reposition a chart’s title, you click the continuation button attached to Chart Title on the Chart Elements menu to display and select from among the following options on its continuation menu:
Above Chart to add or reposition the chart title so that it appears centered above the plot area
Centered Overlay Title to add or reposition the chart title so that it appears centered at the top of the plot area
More Options to open the Format Chart Title task pane on the right side of the Excel window where you can use the options when you select the Fill & Line, Effects, and Size and Properties buttons under Title Options and the Text Fill & Outline, Text Effects, and the Textbox buttons under Text Options in this task pane to modify almost any aspect of the title’s formatting
How to add data labels in Excel 2013
Data labels identify the data points in your chart by displaying values from the cells of the worksheet represented next to them. To add data labels to your selected chart and position them, click the Chart Elements button next to the chart and then select the Data Labels check box before you select one of the following options on its continuation menu:
Center to position the data labels in the middle of each data point
Inside End to position the data labels inside each data point near the end
Inside Base to position the data labels at the base of each data point
Outside End to position the data labels outside of the end of each data point
Data Callout to add text labels and values that appear within text boxes that point to each data point
More Options to open the Format Data Labels task pane where you can use the options that appear when you select the Fill & Line, Effects, Size & Properties, and Label Options buttons under Label Options and the Text Fill & Outline, Text Effects, and Textbox buttons under Text Options in the task pane to customize any aspect of the appearance and position of the data labels.
How to add data tables in Excel 2013
Sometimes, instead of data labels that can easily obscure the data points in the chart, you’ll want Excel to draw a data table beneath the chart showing the worksheet data it represents in graphic form.
To add a data table to your selected chart and position and format it, click the Chart Elements button next to the chart and then select the Data Table check box before you select one of the following options on its continuation menu:
With Legend Keys to have Excel draw the table at the bottom of the chart, including the color keys used in the legend to differentiate the data series in the first column
No Legend Keys to have Excel draw the table at the bottom of the chart without any legend
More Options to open the Format Data Table task pane on the right side where you can use the options that appear when you select the Fill & Line, Effects, Size & Properties, and Table Options buttons under Table Options and the Text Fill & Outline, Text Effects, and Textbox buttons under Text Options in the task pane to customize almost any aspect of the data table
This data table includes the legend keys as its first column.
If you decide that displaying the worksheet data in a table at the bottom of the chart is no longer necessary, simply click the None option on the Data Table button’s drop-down menu on the Layout tab of the Chart Tools contextual tab.
Excel Glossary
active cell
The worksheet cell that contains the cell cursor. Each worksheet can have only one active cell.
Excel Glossary
AutoComplete
A feature that looks at the entries that you make in a worksheet column and automatically duplicates them in subsequent rows whenever you start a new entry that begins with the same letter or letters as an existing entry in that column.
Excel Glossary
AutoCorrect
A feature that alerts Excel 2007 to common typing errors and your own typing errors (that you specify) and tells the program how it should automatically fix them for you.
Excel Glossary
AutoFill
An Excel 2007 feature that quickly creates a series of entries based on the data you enter in one or two cells. AutoFill works with days of the week, months of the year, yearly quarters; consecutive series of numbers; and formulas. You also can add your own custom AutoFill series.
Excel Glossary
AutoFilter
A feature in Excel 2010 that enables you to temporarily hide everything in a table except the records you specifically want to view, based on criteria you specify.
Excel Glossary
Backstage view
A new feature in Excel 2010 — accessible from the green File tab — that enables you to manage files and to view the properties and stats about the workbook file you're editing.
Excel Glossary
cell
The intersection of a column and row in the worksheet.
Excel Glossary
cell address
The cell identifier, determined by its column letter(s) followed by the row number, as in cell A1, the very first cell of each worksheet at the intersection of column A and row 1.
Excel Glossary
cell cursor
The black border that surrounds the active cell in a worksheet.
Excel Glossary
clip art
Readymade drawings, illustrations, and photos offered by Microsoft for use in Microsoft Office applications.
Excel Glossary
Compatibility Checker
A utility in Excel 2007 and 2010 that you use to find potential compatibility issues if you plan to save an Excel workbook file in the older Excel 97–2003 file format.
Excel Glossary
current cell
The worksheet cell that contains the cell cursor. Each worksheet can have only one current cell.
Excel Glossary
data table
A range of cells in a worksheet in which you enter a series of possible values that Excel plugs into a formula so you can perform what-if analysis on the data.
Excel Glossary
dialog box
A rectangular window with settings and commands that appears when you click a dialog box launcher or certain other commands on the Ribbon.
Excel Glossary
dialog box launcher
A small icon in the lower-right corner of a group of command buttons on the Ribbon that you click to access a dialog box with additional related settings and commands.
Excel Glossary
function
A part of a formula that takes a number of specific arguments and then returns a single value based on those arguments.
Excel Glossary
gallery
A drop-down list of thumbnail selections that appears when you click certain command buttons on the Ribbon.
Excel Glossary
group
A section of a tab on the Excel 2007 Ribbon that organizes related command buttons into subtasks normally performed as part of the tab's larger core task. The name of a group appears at the bottom of the group, such as the Font group on the Home tab.
Excel Glossary
hyperlink
Specially formatted text that anyone can click to jump to Web sites, move to other cells or workbooks, or create an e-mail message.
Excel Glossary
keyboard shortcuts
A combination of keys that you can press to execute certain commands, as opposed to finding and clicking the commands' buttons on the Ribbon or elsewhere.
Excel Glossary
Live Preview
A feature in Excel 2007 that enables you to point to thumbnails on a drop-down gallery to see how a new font, font size, table style, or cell style would look on your selected data before you actually apply it.
Excel Glossary
macro
A series of commands or actions in Excel that are recorded and saved together in a file. You can run the macro whenever you need to perform the task.
Excel Glossary
Name box
The left-most section of the Formula bar that displays the address or name of the current cell.
Excel Glossary
pivot table
A special type of table unique to Excel 2007 that enables you to summarize large amounts of data and pivot or rearrange the table's data to display different summaries of the information it contains.
Excel Glossary
Ribbon
A new feature of the Excel 2007 interface that replaces the menus and toolbars of previous versions; appears at the top of the Excel window, just below the title bar.
Excel Glossary
ScreenTip
A small window that displays descriptive text when you point to but don't click a command on the Ribbon or other objects in a worksheet.
Excel Glossary
sheet tabs
Small tabs near the bottom of a worksheet that you click to move between the worksheets in a workbook. You can assign descriptive names to sheet tabs.
Excel Glossary
slicers
New graphic objects in Excel 2010 that enable you to quickly filter the contents of a PivotTable on more than one field.
Excel Glossary
SmartArt
A type of graphic object in Excel 2007 that gives you the ability to quickly and easily construct graphical lists and diagrams in the worksheet.
Excel Glossary
sparklines
Tiny graphs (miniature charts) that fit within a single cell in the worksheet, used to show basic trends in data.
Excel Glossary
Status bar
A horizontal bar that appears at the bottom of the Excel 2007 window and keeps you informed of Excel's current mode. In addition, you can use the Status bar to select a new worksheet view and to zoom in and out on the worksheet.
Excel Glossary
tabs
The various "pages" of Excel 2007's Ribbon interface that you click to display command buttons relating to the tab's name, such as Page Layout and Formulas.
Excel Glossary
template
A pre-designed worksheet that can be used as a basis for creating new worksheets.
Excel Glossary
WordArt
Stylized text objects that you use to add pizzazz and emphasis to headings and other text in Excel 2007 worksheets.
Excel Glossary
workbook
The basic file type that you create when you use Excel 2007. A new workbook consists of three worksheets by default.
Excel Glossary
worksheet
The main document that you work in when you enter data into cells within Excel 2007. A worksheet is stored in a workbook file.
Excel Glossary
worksheet area
The portion of an Excel 2007 worksheet in which you enter cell data and add objects such as charts and graphics.
Excel Glossary
XPS XML Paper Specification
A file format developed by Microsoft that enables people to open and print documents in XPS Reader without access to the original programs with which the documents were created (such as Excel).
Excel Glossary
Zoom slider
An object on the Status bar in Excel 2007 that enables you to increase the magnification in a worksheet or shrink it down to get an overall picture of the worksheet data.
