Formatting individual graph objects

You can change the colors and overall look and feel of specific objects, such as series, on your graph. For example, you can format individual bars in your bar graph or pie slices in your Pie chart, as well as other objects such as the graph legend or axes.

You can format these objects by adjusting colors, and applying a variety of graphical effects, including gradients, transparency, patterns, pictures, textures, and bevel effects.

You can also apply a set of color and shading schemes to all the objects on a graph report. For more information, see Changing the colors, shading and other effects on a graph report.

To format individual graph objects

1. If the report is not already displayed as a graph, from the View menu, select GraphView to display the report as a graph.

2. Right-click a graph object such as a riser, marker, graph frame, legend, and so on, and select Format from the right-click menu.

   • This option is named based on the object you select. For example, for a line in a line graph, this option is named Format Data Marker.

   • The Preferences dialog box opens.

     The formatting categories that are available depend on the graph object you are formatting. For example, you cannot modify the font of a graph object which does not have any text.

3. To modify the text of a graph object, click the Font category. For information on the different options on this category and how you can modify the text of an object, see Font formatting for graph objects.

4. To format the colors of the lines of the graph (the outline of a bar in a bar graph, for example), click the Line or Border category. Other lines that can be displayed on a graph use these same formatting options, but may be accessed using a different category name such as Major Gridlines, Minor Gridlines, Trendlines, and so on.

   You can specify the style, thickness, color, and transparency of the lines. For information on the different options on this category and how you can modify the line of an object, see Line and border formatting for graph objects.

5. To modify the background effects of a graph object, click the Fill category. You can define colors, textures, patterns, gradients, and other background effects to apply to graph objects. To apply a background effect to the object, do the following, depending on the type of effect you want to apply:

   • Apply a gradient

   • Apply a transparency effect

   • Apply a bevel effect

   • Apply a pattern

   • Apply a picture

   • Apply a texture

   • For information on these background effects, see Fill formatting for graph objects.

6. Click Apply to apply any formatting changes to the object.

7. Click OK to close the Preferences dialog box and return to the report.