Formatting the Elements in a Chart’s Data Series

To make changes to series elements, first select an element in the series you want to change. Most changes are made using the controls in the Series pane of the Chart inspector.

To fill selected series elements with specially designed colors or textures:

Click Inspector in the toolbar, click the Chart inspector button, and then click Chart Colors.
Choose a fill type (for example, 3D Texture Fills) from the first pop-up menu.
Choose a fill collection (for example, Marble or Wood) from the second pop-up menu.
Do one of the following:
- To fill all the elements in all the data series, click Apply All. The first fill is applied 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 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 and Using Scatter Charts.

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 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 affect 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 and Filling an Object with a Solid Color.

To learn about using one of your own images as a fill, see Filling an Object with an Image.

To learn about changing the look of the line around an element, see Changing the Style of Borders.

To learn about changing shadows, see Adding Shadows.

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

Click Series in the Chart inspector, and then select Value Labels. Then do any of the following:

To position the labels, select a label location from the position buttons: (inside top, middle, inside bottom, or outside for stacked left, or right).

For bar and column charts, you can choose to place the labels inside the bar near the top, middle, or bottom, or beyond the end of the bar. For stacked bar and column charts, the last option isn’t possible.

For area charts, you can choose to place the labels inside the area shapes near the top, middle, or bottom, and align them to the left, center, or right.

For line charts, you can choose to place the labels above, directly on top of, or below the data point symbols, and align them to the left, center, or right.
To specify the display format for the data values, select an option from the Format pop-up menu:
- Number:
  
  Displays the data point value with no units. 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 separate the orders of magnitude on the left side of the decimal.
- Currency:
  
  Displays the data point value as a monetary amount. Select 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 separate the orders of magnitude 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 separate the orders of magnitude 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.
- Fraction:
  
  Displays data point values less than 1 as one integer over another. (If your values are greater than 1, you won’t see any fractional representation of your data.) Choose how accurately you want the fractions rounded off in the Accuracy pop-up menu. Choosing an option such as Halves or Quarters represents the values as a portion of the total pie, rounded to the nearest division you selected.
- Scientific:
  
  Displays data point values in scientific notation, where 10 raised to a power is represented as E+ an integer. In the Decimals field, specify how many decimal places you want to appear.
- Custom:
  
  Choose a custom number format you’ve already created, or create a new one. See Using Your Own Formats for Displaying Values in Table Cells for more information.
To show negative numbers preceded by a minus sign or in parentheses, choose -100 or (100) from the adjacent pop-up menu.
To specify the number of decimal places shown, type a number in the Decimals field.
To change the text attributes of the data point labels, see Creating Outlined Text.

You can use a variety of visual effects to enhance the appearance of data series elements, such as bars (in column and bar charts), data point shapes (in line and scatter charts), and area shapes.

Pie wedges also represent a data series, but these have special formatting considerations. See Customizing the Look of Pie Charts to learn more.

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. To learn about the Inspector window, see The Inspector Window.

Many series formatting options are also available in the format bar. When you select a series element in a chart, the items in the format bar change to provide appropriate options for formatting chart series elements. To learn about the format bar, see The Format Bar.

To change the color and texture of series elements, or format data point symbols and value labels, use the Series pane of the Chart inspector. See Formatting the Elements in a Chart’s Data Series.

For formatting options that are unique to a given chart type (for example, the spacing between bars, for bar charts, or the spacing between wedges for pie charts), see the sections specific to those chart types.

For mixed charts, which superimpose a line chart over a column chart, follow the instructions for formatting the elements you have selected. You can also show error bars and trend lines on most chart types. See Showing Error Bars in Charts and Showing Trendlines in Charts.