Know thy chart

Before we get down to customizing the charts, you need to know your charts a little better. We will look at the important elements of the chart to start with, and dive into the finer aspects as we go along.

The following screenshot shows how the chart background and canvas look in a 3D Column chart:

The following screenshot shows how it looks in a 2D Column chart:

As you can see, the chart background refers to the entire background of the chart and the canvas refers to the area the chart is plotted in. The columns in a column chart, the lines in a line chart and the wedges (slices) in a pie chart are called data plots.

Now that we have got the basics in place, let's get started. Shall we?