How to Change Series Color in Excel Chart

Tired of your Excel charts always showing up in the same default blue, orange, and gray? While functional, those standard colors don't do much to make your data pop, match your brand's identity, or tell a compelling story. Customizing your chart colors is one of the easiest ways to transform a generic report into a professional-looking, insightful dashboard. This guide will walk you through several methods for changing series colors in Excel, from quick-and-easy tweaks to creating fully branded chart templates.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

The Simplest Method: Changing a Single Data Series Manually

This is the go-to method when you just need to change the color of one specific series in your chart - like making your "Total Sales" line a bold green or a competitor's bar a cautionary red. It offers precise control over individual elements without affecting the rest of your chart.

Let's say you have a basic column chart showing monthly sales for two different products, "Product A" and "Product B." By default, Excel has probably colored them blue and orange. Here's how to change the color for Product A:

1. Select the Data Series: First, click once on any of the columns that represent "Product A." You'll know you've done it correctly when all the columns for that series have small circles or squares at their corners, indicating they are all selected. Be careful not to double-click, as that might select just a single column instead of the whole series.
2. Open the Formatting Pane: Right-click on one of the selected columns. In the context menu that appears, choose Format Data Series... This will open a formatting pane on the right side of your Excel window.
3. Navigate to Color Options: In the "Format Data Series" pane, click on the icon that looks like a paint bucket spilling paint. This is the Fill & Line tab.
4. Choose Your New Color:
5. Adjust the Border (Optional): Below the "Fill" options, you'll see a "Border" section. Here, you can change the color and thickness of the outline of your columns. For a modern, clean look, many people choose "No line" to remove the border completely.

Repeat this process for any other data series you want to change. It's a direct and straightforward way to get full control over your chart's appearance.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

For a Consistent Look: Using Pre-Built Chart Color Palettes

Manually coloring every series works, but it can be tedious if you have many charts or data series. If you're looking for a quick and aesthetically pleasing makeover, Excel's built-in color palettes are your best friend. These palettes apply a professionally designed, cohesive color scheme to your entire chart in just two clicks.

How to Apply a New Color Palette:

1. Select Your Chart: Click anywhere on your chart to select it. When selected, you'll see two new contextual tabs appear in the Excel ribbon at the top of the screen: Chart Design and Format.
2. Go to Chart Design: Click on the "Chart Design" tab.
3. Change Colors: Look for the "Change Colors" button in the "Chart Styles" group. Click it, and a dropdown menu will appear with a grid of different color palettes.

These palettes are typically grouped into two categories:

• Colorful: These palettes use a variety of different hues that are designed to work well together. Each data series in your chart will be assigned a distinct color from the chosen palette.
• Monochromatic: These palettes use different shades and tints of a single color (e.g., various shades of blue). This is great for creating a sophisticated, subtle look or showing a progression of data.

Simply hover your mouse over any of the palettes in the grid, and you'll see a live preview of how your chart will look. Once you find one you like, just click on it to apply it. This method ensures your chart looks visually consistent without you having to be a design expert.

The Pro Move: Creating Custom Color Palettes for Your Brand

Using built-in palettes is fast, but what if your company has a strict branding guide with specific HEX or RGB color codes? You don't want to be entering them manually for every chart. The most efficient and professional solution is to create a custom color theme for your Excel workbook. Once you set this up, your brand colors will be available in the "Change Colors" menu for any chart you create in that file (or any new file based on that template).

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

How to Create a Custom Workbook Theme:

1. Navigate to the Page Layout Tab: In the main Excel ribbon, click on the "Page Layout" tab.
2. Open the Colors Menu: In the "Themes" section, click the "Colors" dropdown. You'll see the same theme colors that were available in the chart formatting pane.
3. Customize Colors: At the very bottom of this dropdown list, click Customize Colors.... A new window will pop up.
4. Define Your Brand Colors: In this window, you can define colors for "Accent 1," "Accent 2," "Accent 3," and so on. These "Accent" slots are what Excel uses to color your chart series in order.
5. Click the color swatch next to "Accent 1" and choose "More Colors." Here, you can go to the "Custom" tab and enter the exact RGB or Hex code for your primary brand color.
6. Repeat this for "Accent 2" with your secondary brand color, and so on for as many colors as you need for your charts.
7. Name and Save Your Theme: Give your new color set a memorable name, like "My Company's Brand Colors," and click "Save."

Now, when you select any chart and go to "Chart Design" > "Change Colors," your custom-named palette will appear at the top of the list under a "Custom" heading. With this one-time setup, you can brand any Excel chart perfectly in seconds.

How to Highlight a Single Data Point in a Series

Sometimes you don't want to change a whole series, but just one part of it. For example, maybe you want to highlight the bar for your highest sales month or draw attention to a single slice in a pie chart representing a key segment. Excel makes this easy.

1. Select the Entire Series First: Just like before, click once on the series (e.g., the bars) to select all of them.
2. Select the Specific Data Point: Now, without clicking anywhere else, click a second time only on the individual bar, pie slice, or data point you want to isolate. You'll see that the selection markers disappear from the other points in the series, and only the one you clicked remains selected.
3. Format the Single Point: Right-click on that selected point and choose Format Data Point....
4. Change the Color: The process is now identical to changing a full series. Use the "Fill & Line" options in the right-hand pane to give this single point a new fill color, a thicker border, or any other formatting to make it stand out.

This technique is fantastic for storytelling with your data, as it lets you guide your audience's focus directly to the most important piece of information on the chart.

Graphed

Still Building Reports Manually?

Watch how growth teams are getting answers in seconds — not days.

Watch the Demo

Time-Saving Tip: Save Your Customized Chart as a Template

Once you've perfectly formatted a chart with your custom colors, font sizes, and value labels, you don't want to have to repeat that process every time. You can save your work as a chart template.

1. Finalize Your Chart: Get one chart looking exactly the way you want it.
2. Save as Template: Right-click on the chart's border and select "Save as Template..." from the context menu.
3. Name Your Template: Give it a descriptive name (e.g., "Branded Bar Chart") and click "Save."

The next time you need to create a similar chart, follow these steps:

1. Highlight your new data and go to the "Insert" tab.
2. Click "Recommended Charts," and then go to the "All Charts" tab.
3. In the list on the left, click on the "Templates" category.
4. Select your saved chart template and click "OK."

Excel will instantly apply all your custom colors and formatting to the new data, saving you a tremendous amount of time and ensuring absolute consistency across your reports.

Final Thoughts

Mastering chart colors in Excel is about taking control of your data's narrative. Whether you're doing a quick manual color change, applying a pre-built theme, creating a custom brand palette, or highlighting key data points, each method helps transform standard spreadsheets into clear, professional, and persuasive reports.

Spending hours manually formatting charts in Excel can get repetitive, especially when you need reports updated daily or weekly. To eliminate this friction, we built Graphed to connect directly to platforms like Google Analytics, Shopify, and Salesforce. Simply describe the dashboard you want in plain English - like "create a line chart of monthly revenue from Shopify" - and our AI builds a live, interactive chart for you in seconds, no formatting required.