Adjusting Your View of 3-D Graphs

Summary: When you create a 3-D chart in Excel, you might want to rotate the chart so that you are examining it from a different perspective. Fortunately, Excel makes it easy to adjust this rotation, as described in this tip. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, Excel 2003, and Excel 2007.)

Excel allows you to create some great looking three-dimensional graphs based on the information in your worksheets. For many purposes, the default method in which the graphs are created will be sufficient for your needs. However, you may want to adjust the angle at which you view your graph. Excel makes this easy by following these steps:

Create and display your 3-D graph as you normally would.
Select the 3-D View option from the Chart menu. Excel displays the 3-D View dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.) (To display the dialog box in Excel 2007, display the Layout tab of the ribbon and then click 3-D Rotation in the Background group.)
Using the appropriate boxes, specify an elevation, rotation, and perspective that are desired. You can also use the buttons to adjust the values in the boxes. As you make changes, Excel displays a frame outline of how a 3-D graph appears. (There is no frame outline in Excel 2007; the actual graph is adjusted immediately as you make changes.)
When satisfied, click on OK. Your graph is updated with the adjusted view.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (1975) applies to Microsoft Excel versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

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Adjusting Your View of 3-D Graphs