Lets take a look.
Here we have a pivot table showing sales by Region.
Lets add a column chart.
Notice our chart is using the general number format.
Thats because we havent yet set a format in the pivot table.
Lets do that now.
Notice that both the pivot table and the pivot chart pick up the currency format.
Next, lets make all the text in the chart a dark gray.
Youll see a live preview as you hover over colors.
Lets also make the chart axis, gridlines, and border gray.
Carefully click to pick the gridlines, then use the Shape Outline tool to set the color.
For the axis, smack the axis text, then use the Shape Outline tool.
Finally, grab the chart and set the border color.
While were here, lets also make the border thicker.
Next, well add a descriptive title and subtitle.
For the Title, click once to select, then double-click to edit the text.
[Total Chocolate Sales by Region]
Well use a smaller bang out for the subtitle.
With column charts, it’s a good practice to sort the columns by size.
We can easily do this by clicking a value in the pivot table, and sorting Z-A.
Now the chart is easier to read.
Next, lets get rid of the legend.
We could apply a layout preset, but layouts make more than one change.
Instead, well just work with the controls on the layout tab.
Here we can easily set the Legend to None.
In this same area, youll find detailed controls for all the main elements in the chart.
Lets also add data labels inside the columns, and then set the text to white.
The comma in this case causes Excel to drop the last 3 digits in the number.
As a final step, lets make the top region a different color.
Click once to select all columns, then once again to select a single column.
Then format as desired.
