# Microsoft Office Application Help - Excel Help forum > Excel Charting & Pivots >  > [SOLVED] How to increase chart area without affecting plot area?

## joeu2004@hotmail.com

How can I increase the chart area without increasing or
reshaping the plot area itself?

Forgive me if my terminology is wrong and confusing.
By "chart area", I mean the white area around the plot
area.  By "plot area", I mean the area between the X
and Y axes.

My list of series is so large that it is clipped by the
current chart area.  When I drag the chart area handles,
that also resizes the plot area.  I want to avoid that.

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## Andy Pope

Hi,

As far as I know the plot area is sized relatively to the chart area.
If you increase the chart area the plot area will also grow. The only
way to get more space is to then reduce the plot area size.
Note that the plot area also has a bounding area within which the axis
labels are displayed. You can see this as a dotted line when use select
the plot area and mouse down over one of the sizing handles. You can not
control the size of this area.

Cheers
Andy


joeu2004@hotmail.com wrote:
> How can I increase the chart area without increasing or
> reshaping the plot area itself?
>
> Forgive me if my terminology is wrong and confusing.
> By "chart area", I mean the white area around the plot
> area.  By "plot area", I mean the area between the X
> and Y axes.
>
> My list of series is so large that it is clipped by the
> current chart area.  When I drag the chart area handles,
> that also resizes the plot area.  I want to avoid that.

--

Andy Pope, Microsoft MVP - Excel
http://www.andypope.info

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## HEK

When resizing the chart area the plot area resizes with it, just as Andy
mentioned.  But funny as it is, the plot area can be resized without
affecting the chart area.  I use this frequently to increase the data-to-ink
ratio.  Just select the plot area and drag it with any of its handles (if you
take the corners the height/width remains its aspect ratio).  It is limited
to the bounderies of the chart area, though, so you cannot increase it
unlimitedly.  Once you have increased the plot area you can select the chart
area and size it down to yr original plot area size, effectively reducing the
chart area relative to the plot area.
Of course, similarly you can increase the chart area first and reduce the
plot area thereafter to increase the chart area relative to plot area as you
require.
The final result may be a bit distorted in respect to your original though,
so you might have to fiddle a bit to get the desired result.


"Andy Pope" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> As far as I know the plot area is sized relatively to the chart area.
> If you increase the chart area the plot area will also grow. The only
> way to get more space is to then reduce the plot area size.
> Note that the plot area also has a bounding area within which the axis
> labels are displayed. You can see this as a dotted line when use select
> the plot area and mouse down over one of the sizing handles. You can not
> control the size of this area.
>
> Cheers
> Andy
>
>
> joeu2004@hotmail.com wrote:
> > How can I increase the chart area without increasing or
> > reshaping the plot area itself?
> >
> > Forgive me if my terminology is wrong and confusing.
> > By "chart area", I mean the white area around the plot
> > area.  By "plot area", I mean the area between the X
> > and Y axes.
> >
> > My list of series is so large that it is clipped by the
> > current chart area.  When I drag the chart area handles,
> > that also resizes the plot area.  I want to avoid that.
>
> --
>
> Andy Pope, Microsoft MVP - Excel
> http://www.andypope.info
>

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## eneuf

Dragging handles seems to work fine for resizing 2-D charts.  But it does not appear that this is possible for 3-D charts.

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## JosephP

why would you ever use 3d charts?

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