HOw do I seperate a legend from its chart?

[Michael]

This question was also asked in 2006, but the answer was quite a bit of a
workaround and I am hoping someone might have worked it out by now, I have
Excel 2003.

Basically I have a chart with a large amount of data that I need to present
in a report. I want to show the chart and the legend, but as the legend is so
large it skews the image. Is there anyway to seperate these (without doing a
cut and paste job in paint), so that I can place them in a word document?
Would like to keep it somehow all linked.

Hope this makes sense, thanks Michael

 

[Ed Ferrero]

Hi Michael,

This might not be very elegant, but why not copy the chart so you have two
charts, then delete the legend from one and minimize the plot area of the
other whilst maximising the legend?

Ed Ferrero
www.edferrer.com

 

[Michael]

Thanks Ed but when I am deleting the legend from one, the chart is not
resizing itself - it was extra long as the legend was beneath with about 70
odd legend references. This is resulting in a large white space beneath the
chart and resizing it manually also changes the chart.

I am reluctant to start again as I had to manually add each series data
individually to ensure correct labelling and capture. I originally tried to
do in bulk but it kept failing.

 

[Shane Devenshire]

Hi,

1. you can't break the chart apart in Excel but you could do a screen shot,
and crop to the legend and put it into Word.
2. You can resize the legend to be multiple rows and multiple columns say
10x7 if that would help. You can resize the Font of the legend to make it
smaller.
3. Using Ed's suggestion you can turn off the legend in one chart and in the
second chart you can resize the legend to take up the entire chart, covering
the plot. If necessary you can change the legend fill so you can't see the
chart.

if any of this helps, please click the Yes button.

Cheers,
Shane Devenshire