Sams Teach Yourself StarOffice® 5 for Linux in 24 Hours

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Hour 17: Adding Charts and Graphics to Spreadsheets

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Modifying and Formatting a Chart


After you have a chart inserted into your spreadsheet, you're ready to edit it to make it fit your needs precisely. StarOffice charts are easy to edit.

The following sections describe the main editing options that you'll want to use. Not all the editing options are described in detail, but the same methods are used to access editing for all parts of a chart.

To explain the editing tasks, we'll build on the chart that was created in the previous section.

Selecting a Chart to Modify

When you click on a chart, it becomes a selected object. (It has green handles around it.)

When a chart is selected, you can use the handles to resize the chart, or click and drag in the middle of the chart to move it anywhere in the spreadsheet.

To modify the chart itself, you must have the chart in edit mode. To do this, double-click on a chart. You can tell that a chart is ready to edit because it has a heavy line around it (see Figure 17.12), and the toolbar on the left of the screen contains icons to edit the chart (those are described in a moment).

Figure 17.12
A chart that's ready to edit has a heavy line around it and a chart editing toolbar visible to the left of the spreadsheet (depending on the toolbar options you've selected).

Reviewing the Edit Options on a Chart

After you've created a new chart, you can edit any part of it, and even make it look completely different if you choose to.

You can access a piece of the chart to format it in one of three ways:

Tip - At first glance, all the buttons on the chart editing version of the Main toolbar look alike. Leave the mouse pointer over an icon for a couple of seconds to see a pop-up description of what it does.


The following items can all be edited by double-clicking on the chart or using a toolbar button. You can tell exactly what you're editing by the title of the dialog box that opens:

Just a couple of the editing options are used in the following sections to show you how to set some features of the sample chart.

Changing a Color in the Chart

The first edit you'll make on your chart is to alter the colors used for a data set.

With the chart selected for editing, follow these steps:

1. Double-click in the top color box within the legend (see Figure 17.13).

Figure 17.13
Double-clicking on an item in the legend enables you to edit a data row or column, depending on how the data series are arranged.

2. The Data Row dialog box appears. Choose the Area tab (see Figure 17.14).

Figure 17.14
The color for the area within a bar is set from the Data Row or Data Column dialog box, in the Area tab.

3. From the transparence drop-down list, choose 75 percent. The Preview area shows the changes in color.

Tip - If you are going to print this chart, choose the Hatching button and select a hatching pattern from the list.


4. Choose OK to apply your changes. The data set (each of the corresponding columns) on the chart is updated as shown in Figure 17.15 (notice that the item you double-clicked on is still selected).

Figure 17.15
The color for the data set is updated based on the selections you made in the Data Row dialog box.

Changing the Numbers on an Axis

As an additional example, make the numbers on the Y axis of this chart into dollar amounts instead of plain numbers:

1. Double-click on the vertical axis in the chart, right on the line, between two numbers.

Caution - Sometimes it's hard to double-click in just the right spot. If you single click and use the right mouse button to select Object Properties, it can be more precise.


2. The Y Axis dialog box appears (check the Title Bar). Choose the Numbers tab (see Figure 17.16).

3. Choose Currency from the Category list.

4. Choose a format from the Format list (the default is probably fine).

5. Choose OK to apply your changes. The numbers on the Y axis are all shown as dollar amounts.

With so many editing possibilities, you are now left to experiment with others to see how you can arrange your chart for the best visual presentation.

Figure 17.16
You can edit the style of the numbers used on the axis within the Numbers tab of the Y Axis dialog box.

Tip - Both graphics and charts in a spreadsheet can be hidden or displayed as placeholders. Select the setting you want from the Contents tab of the Spreadsheet Options dialog box in the Charts field.


Sams Teach Yourself StarOffice® 5 for Linux in 24 Hours

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Hour 17: Adding Charts and Graphics to Spreadsheets

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