Here is a simple to trick to beat the 56 color limitation in excel when you are designing a chart: use picture files (jpg, gif, png etc.) to fill the chart area.
You will no longer have to worry about limiting your project report / website / annual report etc. colors to the 56 that excel has.
1 + 3 steps to get more colors in excel charts:
- First create a 1*1 pixel sized image of the color you want to use in excel. You can use any software like MS Paintbrush to do this, all you need is the hex code or rgb of the color you want. Visit colour lovers if you are looking for cool color ideas.
- Right click on any of your chart data points and select format data point
- In the dialog select “fill effects”
- Finally, go to “Picture” tab in fill effects and specify your picture file path.
OK your changes. Thats all, now your charts have any color your want.
Also: Download 73 beautiful excel chart templates | Art of excel charting | Become a conditional formatting pro
3 Responses to “CP049: Don’t do data dumps!!!”
Your title got me nervous because I'm all about data dumps, but not for attaching graphics to data dumps. My reason for using data dumps is when someone is trying to do analysis and their starting point is a report that's formatted in a way for a human to read. I instruct them to stop with the report and go get a data dump: just rows and columns and rows and columns.
Agreed, nearly all of my reports start with 100+ lines of simple table data.
That way you can build your functionality around pulling information from that tabled information.
Yes yes!