Excel 2003 Line Graph Tutorial

By Ted French, About.com Guide

Formatting options for the line graph (continued)

Change the color/remove the border of the plot area

1. Right click once with the mouse pointer anywhere on the gray plot are of the graph to open the drop down menu.
2. Click with the mouse pointer on the first option in the menu: Format Plot Area to open the Format Plot Area dialog box.
3. Click on the Patterns tab to select it.
4. In the Border section on the left of the dialog box, click on the None option to remove the border.
5. In the Area section to the right, click on a colored square to select it.
6. For this tutorial, select the light yellow color at the bottom of the dialog box.
7. Click OK.

Remove the Y axis

1. Right click once with the mouse pointer on the Y axis (the vertical line next to the precipitation amounts) of the graph to open the drop down menu.
2. Click with the mouse pointer on the first option in the menu: Format Axis to open the Format Axis dialog box.
3. Click on the Patterns tab to select it.
4. In the Lines section on the left of the dialog box, click on the None option to remove the axis line.
5. Click OK.

At this point, your graph should match the line graph shown in Step 1 of this tutorial.