CCNC/CCNC Module 4/Creating charts and graphs/Making changes to an existing chart or graph

Making changes to an existing chart or graph

Following are some changes that you can make to a chart or graph that you have already created.

Add / Remove a title, label to the chart/graph

The previous example illustrated how to add titles and labels to graphs during the creation process.

Suppose a graph had been created without labels and titles as shown in the following screen.

SCREENSHOT HERE

There are no labels or title on this chart. The processing of adding them is quite simple.

• Double click on the chart.

A thick grey border will appear round the chart.

• Insert->Title

SCREENSHOT HERE

• Make sure the Main title, X axis and Y axis check boxes are ticked and add appropriate text as shown in the screen above.
• Click OK.

The result is shown on the following screen.

SCREENSHOT

Remove labels and titles

• Double click on the chart.
• Insert->Title
• Uncheck the labels and / or titles check boxes.

Change labels and titles

• Double click on the chart.
• Insert->Title
• Edit the contents of the labels and titles.

Tip: If you delete the contents of the labels or titles this will also have the effect of removing them.

Add x-axis labels

As you will notice from the chart, the x-axis labels indicate the column of the data. What we would like is for the months to be displayed. These are indicated in row 3. The reason why our graph did not contain the x axis labels is that only the data in the rows was selected when creating the graph.

To add x axis labels:

• Single click on the chart.
• Right click on the chart to display a context sensitive menu.

(: Check the term 'context sensitive')

SCREENSHOT HERE

• Select Modify data range.
• Tick the First row as label check box.
• Select two rows of data – the x axis labels and the data itself.

The range in the Modify chart data range dialogue will change accordingly.

SCREENSHOT HERE

Tip: In setting up data for creating graphs, it is important that the data labels are in the row above the data.

• Click Create.

There are some further related actions that can be carried out using this method.

Change the gridlines

In the above example, only horizontal gridlines are displayed. This can be changed as follows:

• Double click on the chart.
• Insert->Grids ...

SCREENSHOT

• Edit the check boxes as desired.

Show the value of data

• Double click on the chart.
• Insert->Data labels ...

SCREENSHOT HERE

Change the background colour in a chart/graph

By default, there is no background colour to the chart. To add colour to or change the background colour of a chart:

• Double click on the chart.
• Right click on the chart.
• Select Chart area.
• Click the Area tab.

SCREENSHOT HERE

• Select the colour for the background background.
• Click OK.

Change the column, bar, line, pie slice colours in the chart/graph

When we create a line, bar or column chart, Calc assigns default colours to the different data series. It also applies default colours to the different segments of a pie chart. These default colours can be changed as follows:

• Tools->Options
• Expand Chart.
• Select Default colours.
• Select the data series you wish to change.
• Select the desired colour from the palette.
• Click OK.

The new colours will apply to future charts you create.

Change the colours of an existing chart

• Double click on the chart.

This will display a thick grey border around the chart.

• Double click on the data series or pie segment whose colour you wish to change.
• Click on the Area tab.
• Select the new colour.

SCREENSHOT HERE

• Click OK.

Change the chart/graph type

Once a chart has been created it can be changed to another type of chart quite simply as follows:

• Double click on the chart.
• Right click on the chart to display a context sensitive menu.
• Select Chart type.

SCREENSHOT HERE

• Select Chart type and Variant.
• Select 2D or 3D.
• Click OK.