Excel 2007 For Dummies
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After you create a new chart in an Excel 2007 worksheet, you can easily move or resize the embedded chart. Whenever an embedded chart is selected (as it is automatically immediately after creating it or after clicking any part of it), the Chart Tools contextual tab with its Design, Layout, and Format tabs appears on the Ribbon, and Excel outlines each group of cells represented in the selected chart in a different color in the worksheet.

You can always tell when a graphic object, such as a chart, is selected because you see selection handles — those tiny dots around the edges of the object.

When an embedded chart is selected in a worksheet, you can move or resize it as follows:

  • To move the chart, position the mouse pointer somewhere inside the chart and drag the chart to a new location.

  • To resize the chart, position the mouse pointer on one of the selection handles. When the pointer changes from the arrowhead to a double-headed arrow, click and drag the side or corner (depending on which handle you select) to enlarge or reduce the chart.

    Drag a side or corner handle of a selected chart to resize it.
    Drag a side or corner handle of a selected chart to resize it.

When the chart is properly sized and positioned in the worksheet, set the chart in place by deselecting it (simply click the mouse pointer in any cell outside the chart). As soon as you deselect the chart, the selection handles disappear, as does the Chart Tools contextual tab on the Ribbon.

To re-select the chart later on to edit, size, or move it again, just click anywhere on the chart. The moment you do, the sizing handles return to the embedded chart and the Chart Tools contextual tab reappears on the Ribbon.

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About the book author:

Greg Harvey has authored tons of computer books, the most recent being Excel Workbook For Dummies and Roxio Easy Media Creator 8 For Dummies, and the most popular being Excel 2003 For Dummies and Excel 2003 All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies. He started out training business users on how to use IBM personal computers and their attendant computer software in the rough and tumble days of DOS, WordStar, and Lotus 1-2-3 in the mid-80s of the last century. After working for a number of independent training firms, Greg went on to teach semester-long courses in spreadsheet and database management software at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.
His love of teaching has translated into an equal love of writing. For Dummies books are, of course, his all-time favorites to write because they enable him to write to his favorite audience: the beginner. They also enable him to use humor (a key element to success in the training room) and, most delightful of all, to express an opinion or two about the subject matter at hand.
Greg received his doctorate degree in Humanities in Philosophy and Religion with a concentration in Asian Studies and Comparative Religion last May. Everyone is glad that Greg was finally able to get out of school before he retired.

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