Excel Contours - too small and stupid choice of colours

Hi,

I've started trying to use Excel's contour charts but the results are
very poor and I'm not too sure how to improve them.

a) There is always a massive gap around my chart. All I get is a
narrow rectangle in the middle of the screen with loads of empty white
space above and below it. How do I make it take up the whole screen?

b) The choice of colours is not great. How do I make it do something
more sensible, such as increasing the intensity as the values increase?
Thanks,

Anon.

a) When making a surface or contour chart, Excel makes the grid square. So if you
have ten X values and three Y values, your chart will be comprised of a 9 x 2 grid
of squares. To spread out the chart, insert extra rows or columns into your data to
add more X or Y values, then interpolate the Z values in between. Not perfect, but
an improvement.

b) Double click on the legend, and you will get the dialog to edit the colors and Z
levels in your chart.

For more information, you could look at my recent article on surface and contour
charting in Excel:

http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/P...cle.asp?ID=447

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Peltier Technical Services
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
http://PeltierTech.com/
_______

wrote:

Hi,

I've started trying to use Excel's contour charts but the results are
very poor and I'm not too sure how to improve them.

a) There is always a massive gap around my chart. All I get is a
narrow rectangle in the middle of the screen with loads of empty white
space above and below it. How do I make it take up the whole screen?

b) The choice of colours is not great. How do I make it do something
more sensible, such as increasing the intensity as the values increase?
Thanks,

Anon.

In oups.com,
scrive:
Hi,

I've started trying to use Excel's contour charts but the results are
very poor and I'm not too sure how to improve them.

try grids.xla in
http://www.prodomosua.it/ppage02.html
(recently updated)
onto the userform select 'campiture' (fill)
.f