There are many other ways you can modify charts not based on table data. In this lesson, we’re only going to cover the basic methods. Remember that Microsoft Office Word 2003 is primarily a word processing program; if you need to create complicated charts Microsoft Office Excel (Office’s spreadsheet application) is the best program to use.

 

One of the easiest ways to drastically change your chart is to change its style. To do this, right-click the blank space around your chart (while in the Datasheet view) and click Chart Type, like this:

 

 

(You can also click the Chart menu and click Chart Type.) Once you click Chart Type, this dialog will appear:

 

 

First, you need to select a chart type from the list on the left. Then, choose a chart sub-type from the images on the right. You can also click and hold the button just above the OK and Cancel buttons to see a sample of your data in the chart sub-type you have selected.

 

You can also click the Custom Types tab to see more chart types:

 

 

This box is easier to use; just click a chart type on the left and a preview will appear. It’s important to choose a chart type that is appropriate for your data, so make sure you look at the preview before you select it.

 

You can also change the colour of the outside borders of your chart’s columns. One way to do so is by right-clicking on a chart column (while in datasheet view) and clicking Format Walls.

 

This is what the Format Walls dialog looks like:

 

 

You can use the options in this dialog to select custom styles, colours, and weights for each data item in your chart.

 

If you select a certain set of data in your table, you can also change the look of just that column. Here’s an example:

 

 

You can see that we’ve changed the data colour for Oatmeal from maroon to yellow. We’ve also added a border around the chocolate data, which is purple.

 

The last formatting option we’ll look at is customizing the background for your chart. To do this, first make sure you’re in datasheet view. Then, right-click in a blank part of the chart (for example, above the legend) and click Format Chart Area, like this:

 

 

Clicking this option will open the Format Chart dialog:

 

 

You can use this dialog to set a pattern or fill for your chart background. You can also click the Fonts tab to change the font used in your chart.

 

There are many more ways to customize charts, but those are the basic methods you will use.