About formatting a PivotTable or PivotChart view

You can format row, column, total, or detail fields, and drop area captions in the following ways:

• Setting text formats    You can set the font, font size, and color for text, and make text bold, underlined, or italic.

• Aligning text in a cell    You can display values so that they are left-aligned, right-aligned, or centered horizontally in the cells. You cannot change the values' vertical alignment.

• Setting background colors    You can change the background color for cells.

• Changing number formats    You can change the formats in which numbers, dates, and times in a field are displayed to any of several predefined number formats. For example, you can display a number as currency or as a percentage, and you can display a date in long format, with the day and month spelled out, or in abbreviated format. Changes to the number format do not change the actual values, only how the values are displayed.

Formats that you apply to one element might affect similar elements. For example, if you change the text color for an item, all other items in the same field are formatted with the new text color.

Following are some of the ways you can format items in a PivotChart view.

Setting text formats    You can set the font, font size, and color for text in titles, labels, and in the legend, and make text bold, underlined, or italic.

Changing number formats    You can change the formats in which numbers, dates, and times in a field are displayed to any of several predefined number formats. For example, you can display a number as currency or as a percentage, and you can display a date in long format, with the day and month spelled out, or in abbreviated format. Changes to the number format do not change the actual values, only how the values are displayed.

Changing colors    You can change background and border colors for the entire chart, the plot area, a data series or individual data markers, or for the legend in the chart.

Changing line color, weight, and style    You can change formats of gridlines, axis lines, border lines, and more.

Adding pictures, textures, and fills    You can add pictures or fills such as gradients to items in the chart such as the plot area, data markers, and more.

Viewing 3-D charts    You can view 3-D charts in a variety of different perspectives and projections, and change the lighting source for different effects.

Mapping chart colors to data    You can format data markers so that graduated or solid colors represent values or ranges of data. For example, you can show sales amounts for each salesperson in data markers that are distinguished by graduated colors, where higher sales amounts are represented by lighter or darker colors.

Adding trendlines or error bars    You can add trendlines to data series to show trends in data or to forecast future values. You can add error bars to data series to show potential error amounts for data.

Changing axes    You can format axes in charts to measure data based on different scales, including timescale axes. You can add and modify formatting for axis titles, labels, and more.