Changing Properties of MS Chart

Changing The Way MS Graph Looks Lesson 4

In this lesson, I will show you some of the visual basic code required to manipulate MSgraph

The following picture shows some of the properties that you can manipulate in the Chart OLE object.

mschart1.gif (19934 bytes)

First we will look at a declaration that I made in the Form_Load event to make referencing easier

Private Sub Form_Load()
' Define an object so that reference can be used throughout the form

Set MyGrafObj = Me![chart1].object.Application.Chart

end sub

' Note I tried this again later and the object was called me![OLE1] so watch for the object name ED

To add a text string to the title of the graph, I have added a button at the bottom of the form.

Private Sub cmdAddTitle_Click()

' Toggle the title on and off

With MyGrafObj
    .HasTitle = Not .HasTitle

    If .HasTitle Then

'      Display the title
      .ChartTitle.Text = CStr(Me!MainTitle)
    End If
End With
End Sub

To change the styles of the graph, try the following to change the form to Cylinders as above or maybe stacked 3D bars.

Private Sub BarSt_Click()

MyGrafObj.ChartType = xlCylinderCol
End Sub

Private Sub BarSt3D_Click()
MyGrafObj.ChartType = xl3DBarStacked
End Sub

Some of the other constants that you can use for the graph are show in the table below

ChartType	97 Constant
Bar	xlBarClustered
Stacked Bar	xlBarStacked
Line	xlLine
3d Line	xl3DLine
Area	xlAreaStacked
3D Area	xl3DAreaStacked
Column	xColumnClustered
3D Column	xl3DColumn
Pie	xlPie
3D Pie	xl3DPie

To toggle the graphs legend on and off, try the following

Private Sub tglLegend_Click()

' Toggle the legend
With MyGrafObj

.HasLegend = Not .HasLegend
End With
End Sub

And to complete the lesson off, I have added horisontal and vertical slider bars to the form so that you can rotate and tilt 3D Graphs. The code for the horizontal rotation is as follows

Private Sub grafRotate_Click()

On Error GoTo grafRotate_error

With MyGrafObj
.Rotation = Me!grafRotate
End With

Exit Sub

grafRotate_error:

MsgBox "This graf does not support rotations ... " & Error, vbInformation, "Try Another Graph"
Exit Sub

End Sub

graphspin.gif (10776 bytes)

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