how do you make a line of a chart change color halfway through?

[Guest]

How could you change the color of a line in a line chart so that at some
point on the graph the line changes color?

Say like the line chart shows data over the months of a year but at month
July, the line on the chart changes from blue to green and is green the rest
of the months.

I am asking about 1 line being two colors.

 

[Andy Pope]

Hi,

You could format each segment of the line.
Select the series and then use the Right cursor to move through the
segments. Note if you only have 1 series changing a section of the series
will cause the legend to report each segment.

The other way is to use multiple series. But it does depend on where along
the line the colour change occurs.
Leave cells blank when you do not require the line for a particular colour.

This example uses an xy-scatter as the line changes colour between
categories.
http://www.andypope.info/charts/conditionalline.htm

Cheers
Andy

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply. I am still learning Excel so I may be missing
something. I can select the line on the chart and I can see all the data
points of the line highlighted. I do not know what you mean though by a
"right cursor". I can right click the line and I see an option to "format
the data series" but whenever I change a setting (such as line color), it
does it for the entire line. I don't know how to highlight only a portion of
the line. Am I doing this work you suggest to the chart or the data that the
chart is pulling from? I am not really familiar with "multiple series"
either.

 

[Guest]

I am using Excel 2007 btw.

Thanks for the reply. I am still learning Excel so I may be missing
something. I can select the line on the chart and I can see all the data
points of the line highlighted. I do not know what you mean though by a
"right cursor". I can right click the line and I see an option to "format
the data series" but whenever I change a setting (such as line color), it
does it for the entire line. I don't know how to highlight only a portion of
the line. Am I doing this work you suggest to the chart or the data that the
chart is pulling from? I am not really familiar with "multiple series"
either.

 

[Andy Pope]

By right cursor I mean the right arrow key. This will allow you to move
through minor charting elements.
http://www.andypope.info/tips/tip003.htm

Cheers
Andy

 

[Guest]

OK thanks for the reply. I do have Excel 2003 to use as well and I see that
you can use the right arrow key to move through the line. However, this is
not working in Excel 2007. In Excel 2007, I can click the line and it will
highlight but if I hit the right arrow key to move through the line I have
just highlighted, it will instead deselect the line completely.

Are you using Excel 2003?

 

[Andy Pope]

Hi,

Works fine for me in xl2007.

Left cursor will deselect the line and move to the previous major chart
item.

With the mouse you can select the line then click the line again on the
segment you want to format.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Guest]

Ok thanks. I think something is up with this particular chart I am working
with. If I create a new simple chart in Excel 2007, the steps you describe
work (a line segment is selectable).