Forum Discussion
Why do colors vary on a series of bar graphs that all use the same color style selection?
I have a series of bar graphs that chart sales related numbers, per month over the past 5 years. I chart from 1 workbook with 5 annual work pages Each bar graph chart is set to the same color style s...
Charts have a predefined order of colors. In the default Office 2013+ theme, the sequence is blue, orange, gray, gold, etc.
But this order can be disturbed if you delete series then add them. For example, if you have four series and delete the second, the colors go in order blue, gray, and gold, skipping orange. If you then add a series, even though it is the fourth series, the color will be orange.
But this order can be disturbed if you delete series then add them. For example, if you have four series and delete the second, the colors go in order blue, gray, and gold, skipping orange. If you then add a series, even though it is the fourth series, the color will be orange.
Jon, Thank you for your reply. This sounds like a very reasonable cause of my issue. The issue takes place in a complex workbook with many pages (years). I don't think I deleted an entire series, but did make many edits to a few pages in developing the workbook and graphing. So if I recreated the entire page of those that were effected, would they the order straighten itself out? Could I edit the colors of the bars in those sheets without creating ongoing issues? Or how would you suggest I might fix this? This seems to be a small issue to me, but has proven to confuse the managers for which I've created this report for (plotting 10 years of comparison).
I appreciate your help and value your suggestions, Thank you.
I appreciate your help and value your suggestions, Thank you.
- I don't think you need to recreate entire worksheets, especially if the data arrangement is okay. You might not need to totally recreate the charts, either, but it will take some detailed bookkeeping to make the changes properly. Do all this on a copy of the chart, because it would be so easy to get something wrong, even just a little bit wrong. Make a note of what data each series holds, what color it is, and what color you want it to be. Order the existing series according to color: Accent 1 (default blue) is series 1, Accent 2 (orange) is series 2, etc. Then change the data of each series to plot the appropriate data in each color.