In a recent class I had the students create a pie chart. I had them create a legend that showed both the number of units and the percentage of the total. For some reason one student’s legend showed dollar signs next to the number of units. I tried to show the students that this could be easily changed, and was a bit chagrined that I couldn’t find a way to change the legend’s numeric format. So we all started looking and after 10 minutes one of the students had stumbled on the solution. The confusion was because the legend format is tied to the “show values” format, even when the “show values” option is not active. So to change the format of the legend value we had to:
1) Go into the Chart Expert and go to the Options tab.
2) Check the “show value” option.
3) Select the appropriate format.
4 ) Click OK to preview the chart.
5) Go back into the Chart Expert and go to the Options tab.
6) Uncheck the “show value” option.
7 ) Click OK to preview the chart.
The change will still apply to the legend even though the “show values” option is no longer active.
Sadly, it appears that it is not possible to control the legend’s format if you also want show values to be active. In my case I wanted the pie to show % values and the legend to show currency. Was able to get % format of pie to display properly via show values, but this left the legend amount with a default format.
Lousen,
That is a surprise. I will have to experiment with that when I get a chance.