This legend is in the least useful corner position. This is probably less effective than the top position, because the horizontal axis comes between the legend and the chart it describes. This legend is at the bottom of the chart. If the value axis were on the opposite side of the chart, this would not be so awkward. This chart has its legend in the awkward Left position.
Here is a chart with the legend in the default Right position. There are five predefined placements, and the default placement is Right. The Excel 2003 Format Legend dialog is shown below, with the Placement tab visible.
#ROUNDED CORNERS EXCEL FOR MAC TABLE SERIES#
The labels are a bit close together, but matching their text colors to the series colors improves the separation between adjacent labels. Identify the data instead with labels attached to the data series. Of course, the best legend at all is no legend. You could even tweak the colors in the legend, to make the legend blend in. Just click on the legend, and drag it by its edges to a new location. You can move the legend so it’s more integrated into the chart. The problem with a legend is that it’s somewhat removed from the data. Ah, now that’s why we made a graph, to show the data. Without any extraneous borders at all, the data stands out in the chart. In fact, that’s still too many visible lines, but I’ll use the light gray in this article so the outlines of the plot and legend are clear. This can be improved by removing the outermost border and using a light gray for the plot area and legend borders. That’s so many dark lines that I forget I’m supposed to look there for some data.
The plot area is also filled with a muddy gray color, but I’ve removed that already. The default formatting for the borders in a chart is black. Placing labels directly on or adjacent to the plotted data is more effective, but it can be more work, and for charts with a lot of data that’s entangled together, data labels may not be practical. A legend by its very nature is somewhat separated from the chart, so a reader must move his eyes back and forth to decode the chart. The best legend is actually no legend at all. Excel charts have legends by default, and these legends have a great deal of flexibility (as well as some frustrating constraints). Most charts use some kind of legend to help readers decode the charted data.
0 kommentar(er)
