Changing a Chart from One Type to Another
You can change a chart’s type anytime you like. Some chart types, however, use the
row and column data differently, as described below.
To change a chart from one type to another:
1
Select the chart.
2
Click Inspector in the toolbar, click the Chart inspector button, and then choose a
different chart type from the pop-up menu that appears when you click the chart icon
in the upper left.
If you switch to a pie chart, the first data point in each series is represented as a wedge.
If you switch to a scatter chart, each point in the chart requires two values. If the chart
is based on an odd number of rows or columns, the last row or column isn’t plotted.
If you switch to a bar, column, area, or line chart, each series in the new chart
corresponds to a row or column in the Chart Data Editor.
If you switch to a 3D version of a chart, the Chart inspector provides controls for
managing object depth, lighting style, and more.
Formatting you’ve applied to the chart you’re changing may not be applied to the new
chart. For example, the color fill attribute of data point elements (bars, wedges, and so
on) has a different default value for each type of chart. If you’ve changed a column fill
color and then change the chart to be a bar chart, the fill color change isn’t retained.
Depending on the type of chart, the attributes that may revert to the default styling
are value labels and position, text style, series stroke, series shadow, series fill, data
point symbols, and data point fills.
When you change a chart’s type and the new type has some of the same attributes,
those attributes don’t change. Shared attributes include axes, gridlines, tick marks,
axis labels, show minimum value, number format, borders, rotation, shadows, and 3D
lighting style. See “Formatting Charts” on page 141 for more information.
Bar or column charts, and stacked bar or column charts, share attributes except for
value label position. Also, bar and column charts have separate fills.
3D chart shadows are shared across chart types.