How to Apply a Style to a Chart in Excel

Creating a chart in Excel is done in a few clicks, but making it look professional and presentable takes a little more effort. A well-styled chart can turn a confusing grid of numbers into a clear, persuasive story your audience can instantly grasp. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about applying and customizing chart styles in Excel, from simple presets to granular, element-by-element changes.

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Why Styling Your Excel Charts Matters

Before jumping into the "how," it's helpful to understand the "why." You're not just making a chart look pretty, you're improving communication. A strong visual design does three critical things:

• Enhances Readability: The right colors, fonts, and layout guide the viewer’s eye to the most important information, making complex data easier to digest. No one wants to squint to read tiny axis labels or try to differentiate between ten shades of gray.
• Builds Credibility: A clean, professional-looking chart suggests that the underlying data and analysis are equally professional. In contrast, a cluttered or default-looking chart can look lazy and undermine the very point you're trying to make.
• Tells a Story: Visual styling helps you emphasize a narrative. You can use a bold color to highlight your best-performing sales quarter, a thicker line to track a key growth metric, or data labels to pinpoint specific values that support your conclusion.

In short, styling turns your chart from a simple data container into a powerful communication tool.

Start with the "Chart Design" Tab

Your main control panel for chart styling resides in a special tab that only appears when you need it. Once you click on an existing chart in your worksheet, you'll see two new tabs pop up in the Excel ribbon: Chart Design and Format.

For high-level styling, the Chart Design tab is your first stop. Here, you'll find two key groups of tools that handle most of your styling needs with just one click:

• Chart Styles: A gallery of pre-built designs that combine different colors, effects, and layouts.
• Change Colors: A collection of color palettes that allow you to quickly change the entire color scheme of your chart.

Think of this tab as your shortcut to a great-looking chart. Let's look at how to use these features.

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How to Apply a Preset Chart Style (The Quickest Method)

If you're short on time or just want a reliably good design, Excel's preset styles are the way to go. They come with professionally designed combinations of backgrounds, fonts, outlines, and effects.

Follow these simple steps:

1. Select your chart: Click anywhere on the chart object to activate it. You'll know it's selected when you see a border appear around it.
2. Navigate to the Chart Design tab: Look at the top Excel ribbon. The "Chart Design" tab should now be visible. Click it.
3. Browse the Chart Styles gallery: You will see a horizontal gallery of different styles. This is just a preview. To see more options, click the small arrow with a line over it on the far right of the gallery.
4. Hover to preview: As you move your mouse cursor over each style in the gallery, your chart will temporarily update, giving you a live preview of how it will look.
5. Click to apply: When you find a style you like, simply click on it. The style will be instantly applied to your chart.

For example, if you have a bar chart with a default white background, you could instantly switch to "Style 7," which often features a dark background with high-contrast colored bars, making it ideal for slide presentations. It takes seconds but can dramatically improve the visual impact.

How to Change Your Chart's Color Scheme

Maybe you like the layout of your chart, but the default blue and orange color palette doesn't match your company's branding. The "Change Colors" feature is the perfect tool for this. It keeps your chart's structure intact while swapping out the color scheme.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Select your chart: to bring up the "Chart Design" tab.
2. Click the "Change Colors" button. This will open a dropdown menu with a variety of color palettes.
3. Choose a new palette: The palettes are divided into two main categories:
4. Hover and click: Just like with styles, you can hover over a palette to see a live preview. Click your favorite one to apply it.

Pro Tip: These colors are pulled from your workbook's overall "Theme." You can change your entire document's theme (colors, fonts, effects) by going to the Page Layout > Themes menu.

Customizing Individual Chart Elements for Ultimate Control

Preset styles are great, but sometimes you need more control. You might want to change the color of a single bar to highlight a specific result or make the gridlines less obtrusive. Excel allows you to format nearly every individual part of a chart.

The easiest way to start is by double-clicking the element you want to edit. This will open a "Format" pane on the right side of your screen with detailed options.

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Modifying the Chart Title or Axis Labels

Legible text is a non-negotiable part of a good chart. To edit a title or label, you don't need a special menu. Just click directly on the text box once, then click again to place your cursor inside and start typing.

To change the font, size, or color, you can either:

• Click the text element and use the basic font tools in the Home tab of the ribbon.
• Double-click the text element to open the Format pane and get access to more advanced options like text outlines, shadows, and alignment.

Adding or Removing Chart Elements with the Plus Icon

Next to the top-right corner of your selected chart, you'll see a green plus sign (+). This is the "Chart Elements" button, and it's a powerful shortcut for adding, removing, or tweaking elements like:

• Axis Titles: Add descriptive labels for your X and Y axes.
• Data Labels: Show the exact value for each data point directly on the chart.
• Legend: A key that explains what each color or pattern in your data series represents.
• Gridlines: Horizontal and vertical lines that help viewers gauge the value of data points.
• Trendline: A line that indicates the overall trend in your data.

Simply click the plus icon and check or uncheck the boxes for the elements you want. For more options, hover over an element name (e.g., "Gridlines") and click the small arrow that appears to its right to access detailed settings, like choosing between major or minor gridlines.

How to Change a Single Data Point (for instance, one bar)

This is an incredibly useful trick for drawing attention to a key piece of data - like an all-time high sales month or a campaign that failed to meet its goal.

1. Click once on any bar in the data series. You’ll see that all the bars in that series are now selected (indicated by small circles at their corners).
2. Click a second time only on the specific bar you want to change. Now, only that single data point will be selected.
3. Right-click and select "Format Data Point..." This will open the Format pane. Alternatively, you can use the "Fill" bucket icon that appears, which you can use directly.
4. Inside the Format pane, go to the "Fill & Line" tab (the paint bucket icon) and choose a new fill color for your selected bar.

This same "click once, then click again" method works for changing a single slice in a pie chart or a single point in a line chart. It's the most effective way to guide your audience's focus.

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Save Your Custom Style as a Chart Template

Once you’ve perfected a chart - complete with your company's branding, preferred fonts, and a clean layout - you don't have to start from scratch every time. You can save it as a reusable template.

Here’s how:

1. Create and style a chart exactly the way you want it for future use.
2. Right-click anywhere on the chart area (but not on a specific element).
3. From the context menu, select "Save as Template..."
4. Give your template a descriptive name (e.g., "Monthly Sales Chart - Brand Colors") and click "Save."

The next time you need to create a chart, go to Insert > Recommended Charts > All Charts and find the "Templates" folder. Your saved template will be there, ready to apply to your new data.

Final Thoughts

Mastering chart presentation in Excel is a fundamental skill for anyone working with data. From applying quick, one-click styles to fine-tuning individual elements and saving your designs as templates, you have a full suite of tools available to convert raw numbers into compelling visual narratives.

While mastering Excel's chart tools is a valuable skill, sometimes you need to create insightful, real-time dashboards without any manual setup. That's why we built Graphed. By connecting your data sources like Google Analytics, Shopify, or Salesforce, you can just ask it in plain English to build beautiful, live dashboards in seconds. It allows you to skip the manual styling process altogether and get straight to the insights that drive your business forward.