How do I lock the Plot Area’s size so it doesn’t resize when I resize the Chart Area? (Excel/Office 365)

Posted on

QUESTION :

I have two pie charts side by side and I want them to be the same size.

However, in pie chart #2, I need to move the Data Labels away from the pie chart which means resizing the Chart Area.

The trouble is, when I resize the Chart Area, the Plot Area (containing the pie chart) also gets resized. I don’t want this to happen. I need to lock the size of the Plot Area so it doesn’t get resized when I resize the Chart Area.

Is this possible? If so, please can you let me know how?

I am using Excel in Office 365.

screenshot of chart

ANSWER :

However, in pie chart #2, I need to move the Data Labels away from the pie chart which means resizing the Chart Area.

I think moving the Date Labels away does not means resizing the Chart Area.

The trouble is, when I resize the Chart Area, the Plot Area (containing the pie chart) also gets resized. I don’t want this to happen. I need to lock the size of the Plot Area so it doesn’t get resized when I resize the Chart Area.

Yes, when resizing the Chart Area, the Plot Area also gets resized. But you can size Plot Area again after resizing the Chart Area.

enter image description here

I opted to create a bigger pie chart that would encapsulate the bigger data labels and used that as the base size for both charts. Well, that was my initial solution, in the end I settled for XX% inside the segments and used legends underneath for the descriptors.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *