Use these tricks to add pizzazz to your 3-D Excel charts

by Mary Ann Richardson | Jun 30, 2006 7:00:00 AM

Tags: Microsoft Office, Mary Ann Richardson, 3D, Microsoft Excel, wizard, Microsoft Office Suite Excel Tips Newsletter

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Takeaway: Feel free to adjust the appearance of your 3-D charts in Excel. The Chart Wizard makes it easy to give your charts a little extra something.

While the Chart Wizard makes it easy to create a 3-D chart in Excel, sometimes the wizard's chart is not as attractive as you would like. The good news is, you don't have to settle for the wizard's default view. You can adjust the view visually with a few simple mouse clicks.

For example, you create a 3-D bar chart with the wizard, and you want to rotate it and adjust the angle to emphasize changes in the data. To do so, follow these steps:

Select the chart.
Go to Chart | 3-D View.
Click the up and down arrows to adjust the elevation view.
To rotate the chart view, click the left and/or right rotation buttons.
If you wish to adjust the perspective, clear the Right Angle axis check box, and click the up and down perspective arrows to adjust to the desired view.
Click Apply when you obtain the desired view in the preview box.

If the result still isn't what you want, you can always go back to the default view by selecting the Default button in the 3-D View dialog box and starting the process over again.

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