Add & edit a chart or graph


               

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Make a chart or graph

  1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
  2. Select the cells you want to include in your chart.
  3. Click Insert and then Chart.
Change the chart type
  1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
  2. Double-click the chart you want to change.
  3. At the right, click Setup.
  4. Under "Chart type," click the Down arrow Down arrow.
  5. Choose a chart from the list.

Learn more about chart and graph types.

Change the data range

The "data range" is the set of cells you want to include in your chart.

  1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
  2. Double-click the chart you want to change.
  3. At the right, click Setup.
  4. Under "Data range," click Grid Grid.
  5. Select the cells you want to include in your chart.
  6. Optional: To add more data to the chart, click Add another range. Then, select the cells you want to add.
  7. Click OK.

Change the look of a chart

Change colors, lines, shapes, opacity & fonts

Add gridlines

You can add gridlines to your chart to make the data easier to read.

Before you edit: Gridlines can be added to line, area, column, bar, scatter, waterfall, histogram, radar, or candlestick charts.

  1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
  2. Double-click the chart you want to change.
  3. At the right, click Customize.
  4. Click Gridlines.
  5. Optional: If your chart has horizontal and vertical gridlines, next to "Apply to," choose the gridlines you want to change.
  6. Make changes to the gridlines.

Tips:

  • To hide gridlines but keep axis labels, use the same color for the gridlines and chart background.
  • To customize the number of gridlines, in the box under "Major gridline count" or "Minor gridline count," enter a number.
Edit individual points & bars

Before you edit: You can change the points and bars of bar, column, line, scatter, and certain types of combo charts.

  1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
  2. On the chart, right click the bar or point.
  3. Click Format Data Point.
  4. Make your changes.

Tip: You can add borders to bars and columns, but not to points or lines.

Change the background, font & other options

The options you can change depend on your chart type. Learn more about each chart.

  1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
  2. Double-click the chart you want to change.
  3. At the right, click Customize.
  4. Click Chart style.
  5. Make the changes you want.

Edit words

Edit titles

You can change titles, subtitles, or title fonts.

Before you edit: Titles and subtitles can be added to line, area, column, bar, scatter, pie, waterfall, histogram, radar, candlestick, or treemap charts.

  1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
  2. Double-click the chart you want to change.
  3. At the right, click Customize.
  4. Click Chart & axis title.
  5. Next to "Type," choose which title you want to change.
  6. Under "Title text," enter a title.
  7. Make changes to the title and font.

Tip: To edit existing titles on the chart, double-click them. 

Edit legends

The legend describes the data in the chart. 

Before you edit: You can add a legend to line, area, column, bar, scatter, pie, waterfall, histogram, or radar charts.

  1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
  2. Double-click the chart you want to change.
  3. At the right, click Customize and then Legend.
  4. To customize your legend, you can change the position, font, style, and color.  
Tip: To customize an individual legend item, double-click the text.
Add or edit legend header
  1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
  2. Double-click the chart you want to change.
    • Tip: Make sure the text you want to appear in the legend is the first row or column of your data set.
  3. At the right, click Setup.
  4. Choose an option:
    • If headers are in rows: Click Use row N as headers.
    • If headers are in columns: Click Switch rows / columns and Use column N as headers

Tip: To customize an individual legend item, double-click the text.

Move, resize, or delete

Delete or move items on your chart

Delete items

You can delete some chart items like titles, legends, data labels, and error bars. To delete items:

  • To delete a specific item on the chart, double-click the item. Then, press delete or backspace.
  • To delete data labels or error bars, double-click one to select all. Then, click a third time to select the single data label/bar.

Tip: To remove other items on your chart, double-click the chart to open the side panel. 

Move items

You can move some chart labels like the legend, titles, and individual data labels. You can't move labels on a pie chart or any parts of a chart that show data, like an axis or a bar in a bar chart. To move items:

  • To move an item to a new position, double-click the item on the chart you want to move. Then, click and drag the item to a new position. You can also use the keyboard arrows to move items.
  • To reset the position of a single item, right click the item. Then, click Reset layout. 
  • To reset to position of all items, open the chart editor by double clicking on the chart, going to the “Customize” tab, and clicking Chart style Reset layout. 

Keyboard shortcuts

You can use your keyboard to navigate the chart quickly.

  • You can cycle through the layers of elements. To select different parts of a chart, press Enter. 
  • To switch amongst chart elements, press Tab.
  • To jump out one level, press Esc.
  • To go into another level, press Enter.
  • To cycle through various objects at that level, press Tab.
  • To move in the opposite direction of “Tab,” press Shift + Tab.
Move a chart
  1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
  2. Click the chart you want to move.
  3. Drag the chart where you want it.

Tip: To move more than one item at the same time, press CTRL or Command and click the items you want to move.

Resize a chart
  1. On your computer, open a spreadsheet in Google Sheets.
  2. Click the chart you want to change.
  3. Drag the blue markers to resize the chart.

Tip: To resize more than one item by the same amount, press CTRL or Command and click the items you want to resize.

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