Legend Lines

Hello,

I am preparing an Excel line graph that must be quite
small to fit into the space available on a report.
Everything works fine, except for the legend line which is
much too long. If I drag the legend box sideways to be
smaller, the text drops down to the next line and I have
to make the box longer. I have been searching for an hour
to figure out how to make the legend line itself smaller,
with no luck. Any ideas?

Thanks, John

John M wrote:
> I am preparing an Excel line graph that must be quite
> small to fit into the space available on a report.
> Everything works fine, except for the legend line which is
> much too long.... I have been searching for an hour
> to figure out how to make the legend line itself smaller,
> with no luck. Any ideas?

As you have already found out, I don't think Excel allows this change. It
may be possible via code, but I don't know how.

You could potentially delete the default legend and create your own using a
dummy series. For one of the series, create a dummy series with one data
point and use a dashed line formatted like your real series. One dash will
appear on the chart. Then use a chart labeler like the one on
www.appspro.com to label that data point with the text you want.

For more fun with dummy series, see
http://www.geocities.com/jonpeltier...ummySeries.html.

Dave
dvt at psu dot edu

John -

Another idea: does it help to use a smaller font, or a narrower one,
like Arial Narrow?

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
http://www.geocities.com/jonpeltier/Excel/index.html
_______

John M wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am preparing an Excel line graph that must be quite
> small to fit into the space available on a report.
> Everything works fine, except for the legend line which is
> much too long. If I drag the legend box sideways to be
> smaller, the text drops down to the next line and I have
> to make the box longer. I have been searching for an hour
> to figure out how to make the legend line itself smaller,
> with no luck. Any ideas?
>
> Thanks, John