Make a Basic Line Graph
The steps below add a simple, unformatted graph that displays only the lines representing the selected series of data, a default chart title, a legend, and axes values to the current worksheet.
Add the Chart Title
When you insert a chart, its default title is “Chart Title.” It doesn’t carry over the title from your table, but you can easily edit the chart title.
Change the Chart’s Colors
You can change the chart’s colors including the background color, text color, and graph lines.
Fade out the Gridlines
Finally, you can also change the formatting of the gridlines that run horizontally across the graph. The line graph includes these gridlines by default to make it easier to read the values for specific points on the data lines. They do not, however, need to be quite so prominently displayed. One easy way to tone them down is to adjust their transparency using the Formatting Task pane. By default, their transparency level is 0%, but by increasing that, the gridlines will fade into the background where they belong.
Avoid Clicking on the Wrong Part of the Chart
There are many different parts to a chart in Excel – such as the chart title and labels, the plot area that contains the lines representing the selected data, the horizontal and vertical axes, and the horizontal gridlines. All of these parts are considered separate objects by the program so that you can format them separately. You tell Excel which part of the graph you want to format by clicking on it with the mouse pointer to select it. If your graph doesn’t look like those pictured in this article, it is likely that you did not have the right part of the chart selected when you applied the formatting option. The most common mistake is clicking on the plot area in the center of the graph when the intention is to select the entire chart. The easiest way to select the entire graph is to click in the top left or right corner away from the chart title. If you make a mistake, it can be quickly corrected using Excel’s undo feature. Then, click the correct part of the chart and try again.
