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Excel 2007 Practice: Change Color & Explode a Pie Chart

This lesson continues from Excel 2007 Practice: Create a Quick & Easy Pie Chart and Excel 2007 Practice: Adding Data Labels to a Pie Chart.

There are two ways to change the color in a chart: by changing the theme in Excel or changing the color of the individual slices of the pie.

Change the Color by Changing the Theme

From anywhere in the sheet with the pie chart, click the Page Layout tab, and in the Themes group, click Colors and choose another theme color set from the list. If you drag the chart out from behind the list, you’ll be able to see the chart change as you choose different colors.

Change the Colors Slice by Slice

This isn’t hard, but is definitely more time consuming. If you are working with a specific set of colors that you keep reusing, you may want to create your own custom Theme.

1. Click two times on the slice you want to change: two clicks is slower than a double-click, it’s more of a click, look away, then click again. You should see three dots around the slice.
2. Right-click on the slice and choose Format Data Point. (If it says Format Data Series, you didn’t get just the slice selected.)
3. In the Format Data Point box, click Fill in the left pane.
4. In the Fill area, choose Solid fill, and in the Color: list click to choose a different color. If you want to see the color, move the Format Data Point box away from the chart.
5. You can change more slice colors by leaving the Format Data Point box open and single clicking on the slice to change, choosing Solid fill and then changing the color.
6. Close to finish.

If you’re inclined, play with the Gradient and Picture or Texture fill options for more variety in each slice.

Explode a Slice

A way to draw attention to a slice of the pie chart is to explode it, or pull it slightly out of the pie circle.

1. Click two times on the slice to select it.
2. Click and hold and drag the slice out from the center. An exploded slice is just moved out of the pie enough to make it stand out.

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