Make a Transparent Chart in Excel

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Author: | Edits: don

How to make a Chart transparent so that it blends in with its background and surroundings in Excel.

  1. Hover your mouse over the chart and it will tell you if you are over the Chart Area or the Plot Area etc. Right-click the background of the chart when you are over the Chart Area and click Format Chart Area...
    95522be77d9d6f81d9b71e14f126ebb9.jpg
  2. A window will open.  In the Fill section, select No fill
    c0f3e1dc37c9651253bd821714eb3761.jpg
  3. Go to the Border Color section and click No line
    90e2b50784aa2ebafc1422705025daea.jpg
  4. Hit the Close button to go back to the chart.  It should now look like this:
    8db65341d122d82e648260f448758877.jpg
  5. Hover your mouse over the remaining white part of the chart.  It should say Plot Area.  Right-click and click Format Plot Area...
    0b86aa5ceaa1e88d406d216e36e36239.jpg
  6. Another window will open.  Go to the Fill section and select No fill
    671040abb5877c302124b3153b5c4d21.jpg
  7. Hit Close at the bottom of the window and then click any cell in the worksheet to deselect the chart and see the final result. That's it!
    27f59dbc87cce7361a7b4a1e8282309d.jpg

Now we have a nice lovely chart that blends-in with the rest of the worksheet.

Notes

Make sure to download the spreadsheet that accompanies this tutorial so you can see the example in Excel.


Downloadable Files: Excel File

Question? Ask it in our Excel Forum


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Tutorial Details
Downloadable Files: Excel File
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