Chart Editor Fundamentals

The Chart Editor provides various methods for manipulating charts.

Menus

Many actions that you can perform in the Chart Editor are done with the menus, especially when you are adding an item to the chart. For example, you use the menus to add a fit line to a scatterplot. After adding an item to the chart, you often use the Properties dialog box to specify options for the added item.

Properties Dialog Box

Options for the chart and its chart elements can be found in the Properties dialog box.

To view the Properties dialog box, you can:

1. Double-click a chart element.

   or

2. Select a chart element, and then from the menus choose:

   Edit > Properties

Additionally, the Properties dialog box automatically appears when you add an item to the chart.

The Properties dialog box has tabs that allow you to set the options and make other changes to a chart. The tabs that you see in the Properties dialog box are based on your current selection.

Some tabs include a preview to give you an idea of how the changes will affect the selection when you apply them. However, the chart itself does not reflect your changes until you click Apply. You can make changes on more than one tab before you click Apply. If you have to change the selection to modify a different element on the chart, click Apply before changing the selection. If you do not click Apply before changing the selection, clicking Apply at a later point will apply changes only to the element or elements currently selected.

Depending on your selection, only certain settings will be available. The help for the individual tabs specifies what you need to select to view the tabs. If multiple elements are selected, you can change only those settings that are common to all the elements.

Toolbars

The toolbars provide a shortcut for some of the functionality in the Properties dialog box. For example, instead of using the Text tab in the Properties dialog box, you can use the Edit toolbar to change the font and style of the text.

Saving the Changes

Chart modifications are saved when you close the Chart Editor. The modified chart is subsequently displayed in the Viewer.