Google Sheets: Change Graph Colors

Google Sheets is a fantastic tool for keeping track of data, and for visualizing it as well. Graphs, Charts and more – thanks to Google’s free online program, it’s easier than ever. Or, at least, it should be. Not every function is always apparent, especially for new users, so here are some tips on how to change the colors of your graphs and charts, and a few other tips that will help you make the most of your spreadsheets.

1. Right-click on your chart and select Chart Style

Simply right-click on the chart you want to restyle and select the Chart Style option. A tab labelled Chart editor will open on the right-hand side of your worksheet, and you’ll be able to make some changes to your chart.

2. Locate the options you want to change

You can restyle a fair few things – in the Chart style section, you can change the background and border colours of your chart. The other sections will depend on what type of chart you are using. From pie to line charts to sparklines and other graph types, Google Sheets offers several options.

For a pie chart, you can change both the border of the pie and the colours of the slices. Simply click on the drop-down option to select the segment you want and use the colour picker to adjust it to what you need. In the title and legends options, you can edit text colours as well as font options.

3. Close the Chart editor

Once you’ve set all the options, you can close the editor – your changes save automatically. You can then continue working with your sheet!

Tips:

• Make sure you have the best chart for your purposes – Google sheets supports a lot of different chart types, including line, area, column, pie, bar, geo and map charts as well as a few others – don’t settle for a bar chart if a map would work better for you!

• Make full use of the options you have – don’t hesitate to play with the settings until you find what works for you. From picking more easily legible fonts to dragging and dropping the legend of a graph to somewhere more useful, experiment until everything is just right.
• Lock your graph when you are done – Use the Protect Cells & Ranges feature to make sure you don’t accidentally change something around on your graph!