Customizing a chart

In some ways, this is the easiest to accomplish.  Double-click the plotted series.

In the Format Data Series dialog box, click the Patterns tab.

Select the Fill Effects... button.

In the Fill Effects dialog box, experiment with the various possibilities in the tabs:

Gradient,
Texture, and
Pattern.

The effect on the right is the result of a Gradient setting of Preset and the preset selection of Early Sunset.

Select a chart type with a 3-D effect (with the chart selected, select the menu item Chart | Chart Type...  In the resulting dialog box, select an appropriate sub-type (see below)

Experiment with the final effect by changing the 3-D perspective (Chart | 3-D View...)  Also, customize the floor and wall formats by double-clicking on each and choosing an appealing setting for each.  The horizontal lines in the chart on the right are gridlines.  Delete them with Chart | Chart Options... | Gridlines tab or customize them by double-clicking on one and adjusting the color and type settings.

There are two ways to add a custom image to the chart

One is to select the graphic from a a file:

• Double-click the plotted series, and in the Format Data Series dialog box, select the Patterns tab
• Click the Fill Effects... button
• In the Fill Effects dialog box, select the Picture tab, and click the Select Picture... button.
• Browse to the appropriate folder and select the desired image file.

The other method is sometimes more convenient, especially when dealing with clip art images.  It relies on an undocumented capability of Excel.

• Copy the image of interest (either in Excel, in the Clip Art Manager, or in some other program).
• Select the plotted series in the chart.  Paste with CTRL+v.

Either of the custom graphics techniques illustrated above works here too.  Using the Copy + Paste method to add images:

• Put all the desired images in your XL worksheet (with Insert | Picture > Clip Art... or Insert | Picture > From File...) or by pasting from another application.  [If these images look like they are cluttering up the workbook, delete them once the formatting is complete.]

Repeat the steps below for each column.

• Select and copy the image of interest.
• Select the chart, click on the plotted series. This will select all the columns.
• Pause and click on the column that corresponds to the copied image. This will select just the one column.
• Paste the copied picture with CTRL+v.

Once done with all the columns, experiment with how the image is shown within the individual bars.

• Double-click the bar (just the one bar, not the entire series).
• In the Format Data Point dialog box, select the Patterns tab, then click the Fill Effects... button.
• In the Fill Effects dialog box, then the Picture tab.  Towards the left bottom are three Format options: Stretch, Stack, or Stack and scale to X units/picture.  Try them out.

On the right, the US flag is Stretched, the Canadian flag is Stacked and the Mexican flag is Scaled to 0.5 units / picture.

Also note that the legend that read Series1 in each of the above examples, now identifies each data point uniquely.  This duplicates the contents of the x-axis labels.  The example on the right deletes the axis labels (Double-click the x-axis.  In the Format Axis dialog box, select the Patterns tab, then set the Tick Mark Labels to None.
 

The example to the right combines the 3-D effect with a customized image for each data point.  Each image was stacked and the gridlines were removed.

• Double-click the chartarea (or plot area), then the Patterns tab
• Click the Fill Effects... button
• In the Fill Effects dialog box, select the Picture tab, and click the Select Picture... button.
• Browse to the appropriate folder and select the desired image file.

It is possible to set both an image for the chart area and for the plot area as shown on the right.  Of course, since the plot area is enclosed in the chart area, its smaller image is embedded in the larger image of the chartarea.

Note that the axis have been reformatted to use a white color font rather than the default black.

In addition, the use of combination charts requires Excel to further constrain the formatting options.

This tutorial demonstrated how one can custom format a chart.  Try the ideas and techniques on your own chart.  If Excel can support what you want to do, it will.  If not, try something else.