This past year I finally switched to Excel2013 from Lotus123. The only task I miss from Lotus (that I can't figure out how to do in Excel) is: when formatting charts and creating copies of charts it was easy in Lotus to turn 'on' or turn 'off' a chart series (when formatting for printing the chart). It seems in Excel I can only add or remove the series permanently. Is there an easier way to visually turn off and on a chart line series without removing it from the select data source menu?
3 Answers
In Excel 2013, when you select a chart, three icons appear floating to the right of the chart. The third of these is the filter icon.
Uncheck the box in front of a series and click Apply. The unchecked series will be hidden from the chart. Notice no formatting of other series takes place, because the series isn't removed by hiding any columns of the worksheet; the series is simply filtered out of the chart's view.
By default, hiding the data for that series (i.e. hiding the column or row) will hide the series in the chart.
If I want a series to be invisible, I just set its Marker Style to None and its Line Color to No Line. If I want to interact with it again, I select it in the 'chart elements' drop-down box in the Ribbon under Chart Tools > Layout > Current Selection.
