How can I keep the colour format in pivot charts for a particular data item the same as selection changes are made (also asked in class).

Hi Chris

Thank you for your question, and apologies for the delay in response.

I think what you are asking, is that if you are creating pivot charts, can you change the colours used in the chart then use these colours you have selected as the default formatting for all pivot charts so you don't need to make the same formatting changes every time a pivot chart is created.

If that is the case, what you can do is apply the colours you want to use to a pivot chart, then right-click in the Plot or Chart Area and select Chart type. Go to the Custom Types tab, click the Set as Default Chart button at the bottom of the dialogue box, give your chart a name and click OK.

Now each pivot chart you create should have the same colour applied automatically. I'm not sure if this works across different Excel files, I haven't tried it but works in one Excel file if you are making more than one chart.

I hope this helps.
Amanda

Thanks, I knew how to reset the default colours on charts. The issue I have with pivot charts is that it seems that the 'sequence' of colour selections for data ranges remains the same rather than colours being assigned to specific data so that when you change the pivot data selection (in the pull down lists on a pivot chart) a specific selction of data may change colour format in the display because it moves with in the new 'sequence' of data (eg. apple sales were displayed as purple bars but are now displayed as blue bars). This is confusing and I would like to assign the colour format to specific data so that even when the 'sequence' changes, as the pivot chart changes, a specific data item retains a specific colour format. Any way I can do this?

Hi Chris

Sorry for the delay in response, I've been away for the past couple of weeks and this is my first day back.

This could not be done without writing a very complicated bit of VBA code, so unfortunately I don't have a solution for you on this one.

Amanda