How to Change Charts in Excel

You've created a chart in Excel, but something isn't quite right. Maybe a bar chart doesn't show the trend you wanted to highlight, or the colors are bland and don't match your presentation. This article will walk you through exactly how to change your charts in Excel, moving beyond the defaults to create visualizations that perfectly tell your data's story. We will cover everything from switching the fundamental chart type to fine-tuning the design and updating the data it displays.

Changing the Chart Type: The Foundation

The most dramatic change you can make is to switch the chart type itself. Different chart types are suited for different purposes, and choosing the right one is critical for clear communication.

For example:

Column/Bar Charts are best for comparing values across different categories (e.g., sales per product).
Line Charts are ideal for displaying trends over time (e.g., website traffic per month).
Pie Charts are used to show the proportion of parts to a whole (e.g., marketing budget allocation).
Scatter Plots are great for showing the relationship between two different variables (e.g., ad spend vs. revenue).

How to Change Your Chart Type

Switching is simple once you know where to look. Follow these steps:

Click on your existing chart to select it. This will make the contextual "Chart Design" and "Format" tabs appear in the Excel ribbon at the top.
Navigate to the Chart Design tab.
On the far right of the ribbon, click the Change Chart Type button.
A dialog box will appear, showing all available chart types on the left panel. You can browse through categories like Column, Line, Pie, Bar, etc.
Select the new chart type you want. Excel will often show you a preview of how your data will look in that new format.
Once you've made your choice, click OK. Your chart will instantly transform.

Pro-Tip: Sometimes, when you switch types (e.g., from a column chart to a pie chart), you might need to adjust your data selection. A pie chart can typically only display a single data series effectively.

Customizing Your Chart's Data

Changing a chart isn't just about its appearance, it's often about what data it's showing. You don't need to delete your chart and start from scratch to modify the data.

Switching Rows and Columns

One of the most common and powerful adjustments is flipping the X and Y axes. Imagine you have a chart showing product sales by month, with products along the bottom (X-axis) and colored bars representing months. This is great for comparing products within a specific month. But what if you wanted to see the sales trend for each product over time? You need to flip the axes.

Select your chart.
Go to the Chart Design tab.
Click the Switch Row/Column button.

With one click, your months will now be on the X-axis, and the colored bars will represent your products. It's the same data, just a different perspective.

Adding or Removing Data

Let's say you've added a new month of sales data to your spreadsheet, or you want to remove a specific product from your chart without deleting the source data. You have a couple of easy ways to do this.

Method 1: The Chart Filters Icon

This is the quickest way for simple additions or removals.

Click on your chart. You'll see three small icons appear on the upper-right side of the chart border: Chart Elements, Chart Styles, and Chart Filters.
Click the Chart Filters icon (it looks like a funnel).
You'll see a panel with checkboxes for all the series and categories currently in your chart.
To remove data, simply uncheck the box next to the category or series you want to hide.
Click Apply to see your changes.

Method 2: Using the Select Data Source Window

This method gives you more control, especially when adding new data that's not adjacent to your original source data.

Select your chart and go to the Chart Design tab.
Click Select Data.
A dialog box will appear. On the left ("Legend Entries (Series)"), you can add, edit, or remove the data series. On the right ("Horizontal (Category) Axis Labels"), you can edit the labels.
To add a new data series (like a new product line), click the Add button. You can then click the small spreadsheet icon to go back to your sheet and manually select the cells for the "Series name" and "Series values."
To update a chart with new rows (like a new month), you can adjust the entire Chart data range at the very top of the window, dragging your mouse over the updated table in your spreadsheet.
Click OK to confirm your changes.

Fine-Tuning the Visuals for Clarity and Impact

A good chart doesn't just display data, it's easy to read and understand at a glance. Excel gives you granular control over almost every visual element.

Changing Colors and Styles

Don't settle for the default blue. A well-chosen color scheme can improve readability and align the chart with your brand.

For quick changes: Select the chart, go to the Chart Design tab, and use the Chart Styles gallery for pre-built design combinations. You can also click the Change Colors button to apply different color palettes.
For specific changes: To change a single element's color (like one specific bar in a bar chart), you need to double-click on that single element. First, one click will select the entire series (all bars). Wait a second, then a second single click will select just the one bar. Once it's selected, right-click it, go to Fill, and choose your color.

Modifying Titles, Labels, and Legends

Context is everything. Unlabeled charts are confusing. You can easily add and edit these essential components.

Select your chart and click the plus-sign icon (Chart Elements) on the upper-right.
A checklist will appear with options like Axis Titles, Chart Title, Data Labels, and Legend.
Check the box for any element you want to add. It will immediately appear on your chart.
To edit the text of a title or label, simply click on the text box on the chart itself and start typing.
For more options (like moving the legend to the top or adding data labels inside the bars), hover over an element in the checklist and click the small arrow that appears to see a sub-menu of placement options.

Formatting the Axes

Sometimes, Excel's default axes aren't quite right. The scale on your vertical (value) axis might go too high, minimizing the visual difference between your data points. You can easily fix this.

Right-click on the axis you want to change (e.g., the vertical axis with the numbers).
Select Format Axis.
A "Format Axis" pane will open on the right side of your screen. Under Axis Options, you'll find the settings for Bounds.
Here you can manually set the Minimum and Maximum values for your axis. For instance, if your data ranges from 4,000 to 5,000, setting the Minimum bound to 3,500 will make the variations far more apparent than the default, which might start at 0.

Pro Tip: Use Excel Tables for Auto-Updating Charts

One of the best ways to manage chart data efficiently is to base your chart on an Excel Table. If you format your source data range as an official Table, your chart becomes dynamic. When you add a new row or column of data to the Table, the chart automatically expands to include it. No more manually adjusting the data source!

How to do it:

Click anywhere inside your raw data.
Go to the Insert tab and click Table (or press Ctrl+T).
Ensure Excel has correctly identified your data range and check the box if "My table has headers." Click OK.
Now, create your chart based on this table.

From now on, when you type new data in the row directly below your table, it will be absorbed, and your chart will update instantly.

Final Thoughts

Mastering how to change charts in Excel elevates your reports from simple data dumps to compelling visual stories. By learning to swap chart types, refine your data selection, and customize visual elements, you gain precise control over your narrative, ensuring your insights are both seen and understood.

While mastering these clicks and menus in Excel is a valuable skill, we know it can be a time-consuming, manual process. At Graphed we built our platform because we believe you should be able to get the right visualization just by asking for it. Instead of searching for the "Switch Row/Column" button, you can simply ask, "show me website traffic by country as a bar chart," connect your Google Analytics, and see the dashboard instantly. We connect directly to your marketing and sales platforms, so your dashboards and reports are always live and update automatically, saving you from the weekly grind of exporting data and rebuilding reports.