Conditional Formatting of Bar Charts

septimus · External Since: Nov 05, 2009 Posts: 2

I've got a bar chart in an Excel 2007 worksheet that needs to have
bars colored conditionally. I can do this manually -- by clicking on
the Chart Format ribbon, then clicking on the bar, and then clicking
the "Fill Color" icon on the ribbon.

But surely there's a way to automate this?! The Conditional Formatting
feature is not available for charts. When I try to use the Macro
Recorder, this step simply doesn't get recorded.

I've spent a great deal of time with VBA, trying to find a chart bar
object of some kind with a Fill.BackColor property. I can't find one.
There's no "Shape" object within the Chart object or the ChartObjects
collection or any other such thing.

The closest I've gotten is the ClearFormats method of the
SeriesCollection.Point object, which does make the chart bar
transparent. But the Point object's Fill property is read only!

Help! Has anybody found a way to automate conditional color formatting
for bar chart bars?

Jon Peltier · External Since: Feb 01, 2004 Posts: 179

Non-VBA:
Simple Conditional Charts
http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/ConditionalChart1.html

VBA:
VBA Conditional Formatting of Charts by Value
http://peltiertech.com/WordPress/vba-conditional-formatting-of-charts-by-value/

Try the non-VBA technique first.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier
Peltier Technical Services, Inc.
http://peltiertech.com/

septimus wrote:
> I've got a bar chart in an Excel 2007 worksheet that needs to have
> bars colored conditionally. I can do this manually -- by clicking on
> the Chart Format ribbon, then clicking on the bar, and then clicking
> the "Fill Color" icon on the ribbon.
>
> But surely there's a way to automate this?! The Conditional Formatting
> feature is not available for charts. When I try to use the Macro
> Recorder, this step simply doesn't get recorded.
>
> I've spent a great deal of time with VBA, trying to find a chart bar
> object of some kind with a Fill.BackColor property. I can't find one.
> There's no "Shape" object within the Chart object or the ChartObjects
> collection or any other such thing.
>
> The closest I've gotten is the ClearFormats method of the
> SeriesCollection.Point object, which does make the chart bar
> transparent. But the Point object's Fill property is read only!
>
> Help! Has anybody found a way to automate conditional color formatting
> for bar chart bars?

septimus · External Since: Nov 05, 2009 Posts: 2

Eureka! Thanks, Jon.

On Nov 5, 2:04 pm, Jon Peltier <jo....DeleteThis@SPAMpeltiertech.com> wrote:
> Non-VBA:
> Simple Conditional Chartshttp://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/ConditionalChart1.html
>
> VBA:
> VBA Conditional Formatting of Charts by Valuehttp://peltiertech.com/WordPress/vba-conditional-formatting-of-charts...
>
> Try the non-VBA technique first.
>
> - Jon
> -------
> Jon Peltier
> Peltier Technical Services, Inc.http://peltiertech.com/
>
> septimus wrote:
> > I've got a bar chart in an Excel 2007 worksheet that needs to have
> > bars colored conditionally. I can do this manually -- by clicking on
> > the Chart Format ribbon, then clicking on the bar, and then clicking
> > the "Fill Color" icon on the ribbon.
>
> > But surely there's a way to automate this?! The Conditional Formatting
> > feature is not available for charts. When I try to use the Macro
> > Recorder, this step simply doesn't get recorded.
>
> > I've spent a great deal of time with VBA, trying to find a chart bar
> > object of some kind with a Fill.BackColor property. I can't find one.
> > There's no "Shape" object within the Chart object or the ChartObjects
> > collection or any other such thing.
>
> > The closest I've gotten is the ClearFormats method of the
> > SeriesCollection.Point object, which does make the chart bar
> > transparent. But the Point object's Fill property is read only!
>
> > Help! Has anybody found a way to automate conditional color formatting
> > for bar chart bars?