Using Graphics to Represent Data Series

Excel is great at creating all sorts of charts from your data. You can even customize the charts to your heart's content. One of the customizations you can make is to replace the regular bars (in a bar chart) with your own graphics. For instance, you might have a small graphic of a house that you want to use for the bars. This could be great if you wanted to used "stacked" houses to represent, for instance, housing starts in an area.

To use your own graphics in place of Excel's built-in bars, follow these steps if you are using a version of Excel prior to Excel 2007:

1. Create your bar chart as usual.
2. Right click on one of the data series bars in the chart. Excel displays a Context menu.
3. Choose Format Data Series from the Context menu. Excel displays the Format Data Series dialog box.
4. Make sure the Patterns tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
5. Click on Fill Effects. Excel displays the Fill Effects dialog box.
6. Make sure the Picture tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
7. Click on Select Picture. Excel displays the Select Picture dialog box, which is very similar to a standard Open dialog box.
8. Use the controls in the dialog box to locate and select the picture you want to use.
9. Click on Insert. Excel closes the Select Picture dialog box and redisplays the Fill Effects dialog box.
10. In the Format section of the Picture tab, choose how you want the graphic to be applied to the bar. (I like to choose Stack And Scale To and then specify how to many units each picture represents.)
11. Click on OK in each open dialog box to close them.

If you are using Excel 2007, then the steps are different:

1. Create your bar chart as usual.
2. Right click on one of the data series bars in the chart. Excel displays a Context menu.
3. Choose Format Data Series from the Context menu. Excel displays the Format Data Series dialog box.
4. Make sure the Fill option is selected at the left of the dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
5. Click Picture or Texture Fill. The options in the dialog box are expanded to reflect your choice.
6. Under Insert From, click File. Excel displays the Insert Picture dialog box, which is very similar to a standard Open dialog box.
7. Use the controls in the dialog box to locate and select the picture you want to use.
8. Click on Insert. Excel closes the Insert Picture dialog box and redisplays the Format Data Series dialog box.
9. Choose how you want the graphic to be applied to the bar. (I like to choose Stack And Scale With and then specify how to many units each picture represents.)
10. Click on OK in each open dialog box to close them.