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73 Free Designer Quality Excel Chart Templates - Grab now and become a charting superman
28 Mar
Posted by Chandoo as excel, hacks, ideas, technology, visualization
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How many times you created a chart in Microsoft excel and formatted it for minutes (and sometimes hours) to reduce the eye-sore?
Well, I will tell you my answer, its 293049430493 times 
Worry not! for you can become a charting superman (or elastigirl) by using these 73 free designer quality chart templates in literally no time (well, almost)
These templates will take care of typical formatting activities like,
- Remove that ugly Grey color background from the chart
- Change the default grid line format from intrusive solid black to a duller shade of dotted Grey
- Adjust the fonts (to verdana in this case), remove annoying chart auto-font-scaling
- Move the legend to a meaningful location and adjust its size
- And, ofcouse, fix the colors
so that you, the user can focus on your data and not on “why in the world anyone would design a default format like this…”, so go ahead and unleash the charting pro in you.
Download the free MS Excel chart / graph templates
(I have put them in 3 separate excel sheets):
or, since you are so good, download one zip file, quick and easy!
If you are wondering how to use these templates, scroll all the way down the post 
1. Bar / Column Chart Templates:
(29 of them)
2. Stacked Bar / Column Chart Templates:
(22 of them)
3. Pie Chart Templates:
(22 of them)
Even though I seldom use pie-charts (since they hide more than they show and all that) I know a lot of people do use them and hence here they are,
How to use these templates?
- Method 1 - Easy and Quick:
- Download the chart templates (download links at top and bottom of this post)
- Copy both the chart you wanted and the “data used” portion
- Paste in your workbook
- Change the values, remove columns (or add them if you wish)
- Modify formatting if needed
- Be careful now, as your boss may feel zealous for your charting skills
- Method 2: Slightly geeky but works like a charm!
- Download the chart templates (download links at top and bottom of this post)
- Select the chart you want, right click and select “Chart type” from the context menu
[note: for more detailed steps & how-to, look in the excel worksheets you have downloaded - In the dailog, go to “custom types” tab and select “User-defined” radio button (towards bottom left)
- Click on “Add…” button, and give your chart-template a name that you can remember
- When you are done, click ok, and the chart is now added to your user-defined-charts library
- In future, when you want to use the chart, simply click on charts icon on tool bar, and select the chart type as custom -> user defined ->your chart name
- Now, watch out as your charts start stealing eyeballs in the boardroom!
Finally we can say good bye to default chart formats and all the associated eyesore
Download the free MS Excel chart / graph templates
(I have put them in 3 separate excel sheets):
or, since you are so good, download one zip file, quick and easy!
Thats all, feel free to share this content with your friends by bookmarking it on del.icio.us | Stumble upon
- Tags: charts, designer, download, excel, excel chart templates, free, graphs, hacks, how to, ideas, interesting, IT, microsoft, MS, productivity, spreadsheet, technology, templates, tips, tricks, visualization, workbook
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24 Responses
Monte Bel
March 29th, 2008 at 4:03 am
1There’s nothing worse than the default MS chart formats. Thank you for working to rid the world of these eyesores.
Kapil
March 29th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
2Man, you sure do have a fetish for Excel.
Cristobal
April 1st, 2008 at 2:42 pm
3What about line charts? These are great but not feeling the love for the lines. -C
links for 2008-04-03 at molgar.net
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:44 am
4[...] 73 Free Designer Quality Excel Chart Templates - Grab now and become a charting superman Plantillas para gráficos de excel (tags: charts excel grafico) [...]
Chandoo
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:21 am
5@Monte Bel - thank you for visiting PHD and commenting
Hope you liked the templates
@ Kapil : thanks
@Cristobal: Thanks for visiting PHD, btw, the line charts are there, just load the template and convert the chart type from bar chart to line chart, the colors would adjust automatically (they should
), let me know if this doesn’t work.
Kialaya
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:41 am
6Really cool templates, many thanks, I downloaded them for future use. Bye
How to get more than 56 colors in excel chart - simple trick | Pointy Haired Dilbert - Chandoo.org
April 9th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
7[...] Download 73 beautiful excel chart templates | Art of excel charting | Become a conditional formatting [...]
color eye chart
April 13th, 2008 at 12:57 am
8[...] …http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/notebook/2008/03/24/080324gonb_GOAT_notebook_schjeldahl73 Free Designer Quality Excel Chart Templates - Grab now and become a charting superman add to del.icio.us add to Stumble How many times you created a chart in Microsoft excel and [...]
Vaibhav
April 14th, 2008 at 5:45 am
9Excellent prepared
www.enchilame.com
April 14th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
10Vuélvete un Superman de las Gráficas en Excel (Inglés)…
Si eres un Ingeniero sin la menor idea de como combinar colores y hacer mas atractivas tus gráficas, aquí podrás encontrar unas plantillas para que puedas volver tus gráficas en Excel mas atractivas y dejes con el ojo cuadrado a tu Jefazo. NOTA: Los co…
teknear.com
April 15th, 2008 at 4:00 am
11Vuélvete un Superman de las Gráficas en Excel (Inglés)…
Vota este post en teknear.com…
DRN
April 17th, 2008 at 9:56 am
12Hi, your chart templates are great. I did n’t understand how to create 1*1 pixel in paint brush with the colour of my choice.
Chandoo
April 17th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
13@DRN … thanks, you can create the color of your choice in mspaint by,
1. go to start > all programs > accessories > paint and click on it
2. double click on any of the color buttons at the bottom
3. select “Define custom colors >>”
4. enter RGB values for your color choice
5. click on “Add to custom colors”
6. click OK
7. select paint bucket tool (tool tip says “fill with color”)
8. click on the image area
9. go to menu > image > image attributes (or press ctrl+E)
10. enter 1 as width and height
11. save as bmp or jpg or gif
cool, now you have a 1*1 pixel in color of your choice.
Let me know if this helps you…
welcome to PHD…
DRN
April 19th, 2008 at 6:59 am
14Thanks a lot…I got it
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May 20th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
15[...] read: Learn how to create project plans / gantt charts using conditional formatting Create art grade excel charts with these 73 designer templates Other uber cool excel tricks to make your colleagues zealous and your boss happy Tags: charting, [...]
Dhondu
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:19 am
16Chandoo, You are a Freaking Genius, you saved me atleast 2 days of work.
Thanks Man for this, great to see some value been added to the Internet.
Please do post some more sample, this will be really helpful to alot of us.
Chandoo
May 22nd, 2008 at 2:53 pm
17@Dhondu … welcome to PHD, thanks alot for your comments..
Alpha Beta
May 28th, 2008 at 3:37 am
18thank you!!!
Balamurugan
June 5th, 2008 at 9:33 am
19you made my day..too much helpful
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June 9th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
20[...] Read: Become a conditional formatting rock star - learn these 5 cool tips 73 free excellent excel chart templates, save time, look smart! Tags: excel, howto, ideas, learn, microsoft, technology, tips, tricks Yo! rock star, mind [...]
Sadiq Ali
June 21st, 2008 at 3:34 pm
21Dear Chandoo,
Really you are great yar! I learned most of the Conditional Formatting by your tips. If you have any other tips and tricks in excell please send me a link.
Thank You
With regards.
Sadiq Ali
June 21st, 2008 at 3:37 pm
22Is it possible to display charts simply by selecting the data, and is it possible to change the chart by selecting another data.
Please reply.
Nikhil
June 22nd, 2008 at 4:16 am
23Dear Excel Master,
Hi Chandoo I have changed your name …You are really great..I have download all cool templates for future use.
If you have any other tips and tricks in excel please send me a link.
Have nice Weekend Bue.
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July 9th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
24[...] Art with charts, 73 FREE Downloadable Excel Chart templates Tags: charting, cool, excel, howto, ideas, microsoft, technology, tricks, visualization [...]
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I am Chandoo, when I started this blog in 2004, the purpose was to post snapshots from hell to share my b-school life with world.
Today this blog has over 600 articles in topics like Excel, Business, Advertising, Technology, Photography and Life in Indian B-schools.
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