Background Color

[Rita Palazzi]

Windows 2000
Office 2000

I have line graphs that are values per month. I want to change the background
color based on month (e.g. favorable trends are in jul - aug, so I want the
background green). I've actually drawn semi-transparent filled boxes over the
graph area, but these are still too dark to see the plots well. Sending boxes to
back does no good. Does anyone have any ideas??

Thanks in advance for any help!
Rita Palazzi
Senior Engineer / FedEx Express

 

[Andy Pope]

Hi Rita,

Take a look at Jon's examples for colouring area of a chart.

<http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/ColoredQuadrantBackground.html>
<http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/ColoredVerticalBand.html>

Cheers
Andy

 

[Jon Peltier]

Actually, I'd use the conditional column chart as a basis for this:

http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/ConditionalChart1.html

Use the full Y axis scale as the Y values for these columns. Change the
column colors based on the monthly values. Remove the borders around the
columns, and change the gap width to zero. Add the data as line chart
series, and they will have the colored columns in the background.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Peltier Technical Services
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
http://PeltierTech.com/
_______

 

[Rita Palazzi]

That's perfect. Wondering if you know how to hide the data for the colored
columns in the data table below... Let me know if you have any ideas.
Thanks so much. You RULE!!!

Rita

 

[Jon Peltier]

Rita -

I generally avoid data tables in the charts. I make a table in the cells
below the chart, and use formatting magic to make it look like it's
really in the chart. Or I don't even pretend, and let it be okay for the
data to be adjacent to the chart.

In direct response, if it's charted, it appears in the data table. If
it's in the data table, it's charted, but at least you can format it so
it's invisible.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Peltier Technical Services
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
http://PeltierTech.com/
_______