circle distortion on graph printing

[AndreJRenard]

(Excel 2000) I overlapped a sheet embedded radar plot with a drawe
circle (centered on the radar plot). On printing the radar plot is o
but the circle is horizontally elongated (becoming an oval). I trie
several computers and several printers to no avail.

What can I do to avoid this effect?

Another question:

Do you know if it is possible to overlap a graphic object with a char
as a new sheet, with the object *behind* the chart

 

[Jon Peltier]

Andre -

This is a common problem, which I usually resolve by measuring the printed circle, and changing
the worksheet's circle size in effect making it wrong so it prints out right.

I heard an explanation recently, and I thought Microsoft had a knowledge base article, but I
cannot find a link. Anyway, Excel is designed to print the text it contains accurately, so a
cell which is 7.5 characters wide on screen will be 7.5 characters wide on paper. Of course,
screen representations of most fonts don't really come close to the nice fonts you get at 300+
dpi. Excel preferentially distorts the cells to account for this, while any drawing objects
scale with the cells.

To answer your second question: objects which are added to a chart can only float in front of
all of the chart elements. You could experiment with the transparency setting of your circle,
and probably become somewhat frustrated. But you can use an image file as the plot area
background. I assume you're still interested in this for a radar chart. In a drawing program,
create a square image, and draw a circle in it. Make the background transparent, then save the
image file. Select the plot area of the chart, press Ctrl+1 to open the Format Plot Area dialog,
select Fill Effects, Picture tab, and click on Select Picture. Browse to the image file you just
saved. There's your circular background image for your radar chart.

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