The VBA Coding Guide For Excel Charts & Graphs The Spreadsheet Guru

Page 2 of 12

creating graphs, it is more valuable than

ever to understand how to automate them.
What if you have 20 graphs on a
spreadsheet and they all need to have their
legends in the exact same spot? What if
you create a bunch of charts and your
manager needs the series colors changed
at the last minute? Do you want to do this
all manually?
Below will be your cheat sheet for
manipulating Excel charts & graphs with
VBA code. Please let me know via the
comments section if there are areas
missing from this guide so I can expand on
them. Enjoy!

Inserting A Chart
Method 1:

Sub CreateChart()
'PURPOSE: Create a chart (chart
dimensions are not required)
Dim rng As Range
Dim cht As Object
'Your data range for the chart
Set rng = ActiveSheet.Range
("A24:M27")
'Create a chart
Set cht =
ActiveSheet.Shapes.AddChart2
'Give chart some data
cht.Chart.SetSourceData Source:=rng
'Determine the chart type
cht.Chart.ChartType =
xlXYScatterLines

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End Sub

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The VBA Coding Guide For Excel Charts & Graphs The Spreadsheet Guru

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Method 2:

Sub CreateChart()
'PURPOSE: Create a chart (chart
dimensions are required)
Dim rng As Range
Dim cht As ChartObject
'Your data range for the chart
Set rng = ActiveSheet.Range
("A24:M27")
'Create a chart
Set cht =
ActiveSheet.ChartObjects.Add( _
Left:=ActiveCell.Left, _
Width:=450, _
Top:=ActiveCell.Top, _
Height:=250)
'Give chart some data
cht.Chart.SetSourceData Source:=rng
'Determine the chart type
cht.Chart.ChartType =
xlXYScatterLines
End Sub

Looping Through Charts &

Series

Sub LoopThroughCharts()
'PURPOSE: How to cycle through charts
and chart series
Dim cht As ChartObject
Dim ser As Series
'Loop Through all charts on ActiveSheet
For Each cht In
ActiveSheet.ChartObjects
Next cht
'Loop through all series in a chart
For Each ser In
grph.Chart.SeriesCollection

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The VBA Coding Guide For Excel Charts & Graphs The Spreadsheet Guru

'Loop Through all series on Activesheet

For Each cht In
ActiveSheet.ChartObjects
For Each ser In
grph.Chart.SeriesCollection
Next ser
Next cht
End Sub

Adding & M odifying A Chart

Title

Sub AddChartTitle()
'PURPOSE: Add a title to a specific
chart

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Dim cht As ChartObject

Set cht = ActiveSheet.ChartObjects
("Chart 1")
'Ensure chart has a title
cht.Chart.HasTitle = True
'Change chart's title
cht.Chart.ChartTitle.Text = "My
Graph"

Follow @ChrisMacro

End Sub

Sub RepositionChartTitle()
'PURPOSE: Reposition a chart's title
Dim cht As ChartObject
Set cht = ActiveSheet.ChartObjects
("Chart 1")
'Reposition title
With cht.Chart.ChartTitle
.Left = 100
.Top = 50
End With
End Sub

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The VBA Coding Guide For Excel Charts & Graphs The Spreadsheet Guru

Page 5 of 12

Adding & M odifying A

G raphLegend

Sub InsertChartLegend()
Dim cht As Chart
Set cht = ActiveSheet.ChartObjects
("Chart 1").Chart
'Add Legend to the Right
cht.SetElement
(msoElementLegendRight)
'Add Legend to the Left
cht.SetElement (msoElementLegendLeft)
'Add Legend to the Bottom
cht.SetElement
(msoElementLegendBottom)
'Add Legend to the Top
cht.SetElement (msoElementLegendTop)
'Add Overlaying Legend to the Left
cht.SetElement
(msoElementLegendLeftOverlay)
'Add Overlaying Legend to the Right
cht.SetElement
(msoElementLegendRightOverlay)
End Sub

Sub DimensionChartLegend()
Dim lgd As Legend
Set lgd = ActiveSheet.ChartObjects
("Chart 1").Chart.Legend
lgd.Left = 240.23
lgd.Top = 6.962
lgd.Width = 103.769
lgd.Height = 25.165
End Sub

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The VBA Coding Guide For Excel Charts & Graphs The Spreadsheet Guru

Page 6 of 12

Adding Various Chart

Attributes

Sub AddStuffToChart()
Dim cht As Chart
Set cht = ActiveSheet.ChartObjects
("Chart 1").Chart
'Add X-axis
cht.HasAxis(xlCategory, xlPrimary) =
True '[Method #1]
cht.SetElement
(msoElementPrimaryCategoryAxisShow)
'[Method #2]
'Add X-axis title
cht.Axes(xlCategory,
xlPrimary).HasTitle = True '[Method #1]
cht.SetElement
(msoElementPrimaryCategoryAxisTitleAdjacentToAxis)
'[Method #2]
'Add y-axis
cht.HasAxis(xlValue, xlPrimary) =
True '[Method #1]
cht.SetElement
(msoElementPrimaryValueAxisShow)
'[Method #2]
'Add y-axis title
cht.Axes(xlValue, xlPrimary).HasTitle
= True '[Method #1]
cht.SetElement
(msoElementPrimaryValueAxisTitleAdjacentToAxis)
'[Method #2]
'Add Data Labels (Centered)
cht.SetElement
(msoElementDataLabelCenter)
'Add Major Gridlines
cht.SetElement
(msoElementPrimaryValueGridLinesMajor)
'Add Linear Trend Line
cht.SeriesCollection
(1).Trendlines.Add Type:=xlLinear
End Sub

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The VBA Coding Guide For Excel Charts & Graphs The Spreadsheet Guru

Page 7 of 12

M odifying Various Chart

Attributes

Sub ChangeChartFormatting()
Dim cht As Chart
Set cht = ActiveSheet.ChartObjects
("Chart 1").Chart
'Adjust y-axis Scale
cht.Axes(xlValue).MinimumScale = 40
cht.Axes(xlValue).MaximumScale = 100
'Adjust x-axis Scale
cht.Axes(xlCategory).MinimumScale = 1
cht.Axes(xlCategory).MaximumScale =
10
'Adjust Bar Gap
cht.ChartGroups(1).GapWidth = 60
'Format Font Size
cht.ChartArea.Format.TextFrame2.TextRange.Font.Size
= 12
'Format Font Type
cht.ChartArea.Format.TextFrame2.TextRange.Font.Name
= "Arial"
'Make Font Bold
cht.ChartArea.Format.TextFrame2.TextRange.Font.Bold
= msoTrue
'Make Font Italicized
cht.ChartArea.Format.TextFrame2.TextRange.Font.Italic
= msoTrue
End Sub

Rem oving Various Chart

Attributes

Sub RemoveChartFormatting()
Dim cht As Chart
Set cht = ActiveSheet.ChartObjects
("Chart 1").Chart

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The VBA Coding Guide For Excel Charts & Graphs The Spreadsheet Guru

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'Remove Chart Series

cht.SeriesCollection(2).Delete
'Remove Gridlines
cht.Axes
(xlValue).MajorGridlines.Delete
cht.Axes
(xlValue).MinorGridlines.Delete
'Remove X-axis
cht.Axes(xlCategory).Delete
'Remove Y-axis
cht.Axes(xlValue).Delete
'Remove Legend
cht.Legend.Delete
'Remove Title
cht.ChartTitle.Delete
'Remove ChartArea border
cht.ChartArea.Border.LineStyle =
xlNone
'No background color fill
cht.ChartArea.Format.Fill.Visible =
msoFalse
cht.PlotArea.Format.Fill.Visible =
msoFalse
End Sub

Change Your Colors

Sub ChangeChartColors()
Dim cht As Chart
Set cht = ActiveSheet.ChartObjects
("Chart 1").Chart
'Change first bar chart series fill
color
cht.SeriesCollection
(1).Format.Fill.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(91,
155, 213)
'Change X-axis label color
cht.Axes
(xlCategory).TickLabels.Font.Color =
RGB(91, 155, 213)
'Change Y-axis label color
cht.Axes
(xlValue).TickLabels.Font.Color = RGB

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The VBA Coding Guide For Excel Charts & Graphs The Spreadsheet Guru

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(91, 155, 213)

'Change Plot Area border color
cht.PlotArea.Format.Line.ForeColor.RGB
= RGB(91, 155, 213)
'Change Major gridline color
cht.Axes
(xlValue).MajorGridlines.Format.Line.ForeColor.RGB
= RGB(91, 155, 213)
'Change Chart Title font color
cht.ChartTitle.Format.TextFrame2.TextRange.Font.Fill.ForeColor.RGB
= RGB(91, 155, 213)
'No background color fill
cht.ChartArea.Format.Fill.Visible =
msoFalse
cht.PlotArea.Format.Fill.Visible =
msoFalse
End Sub

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Anything You W ould Like To

See?
There are a ton of things you can do with
VBA and Excel charts. I attempted through
this guide to tackle the most general ones,
but please don't hesitate to leave a
comment if there is something that you
would like to see added to the code in this
VBA guide. Hopefully, you were able to
find what you were looking for!

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