Numbers - Formatting the Elements in a Chart’s Data Series

Chapter 7

Creating Charts from Data

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Many options are available using the Chart inspector. For example, for bar, column, and
area charts, you can make formatting selections to change the look and style of data
series shapes and symbols in the Series pane of the Chart inspector after selecting an
element in the series you want to change.

To fill selected series elements with specially designed colors or textures using the
Chart inspector:

1

Select a column, a bar, or another series element you want to format.

2

Click Inspector in the toolbar, click the Chart inspector button, and then click

Chart Colors.

3

Choose a fill type (for example, 3D Texture Fills) from the first pop-up menu.

4

Choose a fill collection (for example, Marble or Wood) from the second pop-up menu.

5

Do one of the following:

To fill all the elements in all the data series, click Apply All. The first fill is applied

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to elements in the first series, the second fill to elements in the second series, and
so on.
To fill elements in a single data series, drag the fill to an element (bar, column, and

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so on) in the series.

Note that these fills can’t be used for line and scatter charts. To learn about formatting
series elements in these chart types, see “Customizing Data Point Symbols and Lines in
Line Charts” on page 159 and “Using Scatter Charts” on page 160.

To adjust the opacity, stroke, shadow, or fill of selected series elements:
Select the element you want to change, click the Graphic inspector button, and then

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make the adjustments you want.

When adjusting the opacity and fill, note that dragging the Opacity slider at the
bottom of the Graphic inspector changes the opacity of the chart as a whole. To
format only a selected series, select it, and then adjust the opacity of the color fill,
gradient fill, or tinted image fill, as needed. For more details, see “Adjusting Opacity” on
page 224 and “Filling Objects with Colors or Images” on page 225.
To learn about using one of your own images as a fill, see “Filling an Object with an
Image” on page 228.
To learn about changing the look of the line around an element, see “Changing the
Style of Borders” on page 221.
To learn about changing shadows, see “Adding Shadows” on page 223.

To show and format data point labels for the selected series:

1

Click Series in the Chart inspector.

2

Select Value Labels.

3

To position the labels, click one of the Position buttons.

4

To format values differently from the way they’re formatted in the related table, select

an option from the Format pop-up menu under Value Axis.
Number: Displays the data point value with no units, unless you specify them. To
specify units, type them into the Suffix field. In the Decimals field, specify how many
decimal places you want to appear, and then choose –100 or (100) from the adjacent
pop-up menu to choose a style for displaying negative numbers. Select Separator if
you want to show a thousands separator on the left side of the decimal.
Currency: Displays the data point value as a monetary amount. Choose the currency
unit symbol from the Symbol pop-up menu. In the Decimals field, specify how many
decimal places you want to appear. To display negative values preceded by a minus
sign or in parentheses, choose –100 or (100) from the pop-up menu. Select Separator if
you want to show a thousands separator on the left side of the decimal.
Percentage: Displays the data point value as divided by 100. In the Decimals field,
specify how many decimal places you want to appear. To display negative values
preceded by a minus sign or in parentheses, choose –100 or (100) from the pop-up
menu. Select Separator if you want to show a thousands separator on the left side of
the decimal.
Date and Time: Displays data point values with a date and time format.
Duration: Displays data point values as a unit of time (for example, seconds, minutes,
or weeks).

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Chapter 7

Creating Charts from Data