Souped-up Charts

[SamuelT]

Hi there,

I've got a whole bunch of charts that I really want to make look good. However, Excel is somewhat limited in its formatting options.

Can anyone suggest a plugin I might use to give the graphs a bit of extra 'oomph'?

Thanks in advance,

SamuelT

[Jon Peltier]

What kind of oomph are you looking for? Remember there's a fine line
between embellishing a chart and obscuring the data, or at least
distracting the viewer's attention.

You might consider at least replacing the dull gray background with
plain white, and using more interesting (primary) colors for the data
series. Data labels in the chart itself, rather than a legend. Faint
gray gridlines, rather than black.

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


SamuelT wrote:

> Hi there,
>
> I've got a whole bunch of charts that I really want to make look good.
> However, Excel is somewhat limited in its formatting options.
>
> Can anyone suggest a plugin I might use to give the graphs a bit of
> extra 'oomph'?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> SamuelT
>
>

[SamuelT]

Hi,

Yeah, I've snazzed the graphs up pretty well. There's gradients and the colours are bold: the data is very easy to read. I'm really looking for something that might give a rendered look - something similar to what Illustrator can do with graphs (unfortunately, I don't have this at work and the company won't buy me a copy )

Thanks for those suggestions though!

SamuelT