Using the Options Tab

The Options tab, shown in Figure 12-8, has various miscellaneous properties for customizing the chart layout.

Figure 12-8. The Options tab of the Chart Expert.

There are four main areas on the Options tab. The Chart Color frame lets you set the chart to be in color or black and white. Black and white can be helpful when you are sending the report to the printer and you want set the shading of different areas. The Data Points frame is used to toggle displaying the data points on or off. A data point is an identifier on a chart’s element telling what the element represents. This can be its text value or its coordinate on the chart. It’s helpful to display the coordinates when precision is important and you can’t determine exactly where the data points fall on the y-axis. Figure 12-9 shows a chart with the data points turned on.

Figure 12-9. Displaying the data points on a chart.

The Customize Settings frame sets whether the chart background has a transparent background, how large the markers are and what shape the markers are. The Legend frame sets whether the legend is displayed, and where it is displayed. It can be displayed to the right or left of the chart or at the bottom.