Controlling Chart Gridlines

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 14, 2014)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

Microsoft Graph is a simple graphing program provided with Word. It includes the ability to view your graph data in both spreadsheet and graph formats. The graphs you create can include gridlines, if desired. Gridlines are used in a chart to help the reader better understand the data being presented. This is particularly true with three-dimensional presentation, where it can be harder to see how chart elements precisely relate to each other. You can control the display and appearance of gridlines in this way:

Select Chart Options from the Chart menu. Microsoft Graph displays the Chart Options dialog box.
Make sure the Gridlines tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Gridlines tab of the Chart Options dialog box.

Use the check boxes to select which gridlines are hidden or displayed. You can see the effects of your choices in the sample displayed in the dialog box.
Click on OK.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (702) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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