Format Trendlines in Excel Charts – Instructions

Format Trendlines in Excel Charts: Video Lesson

            This video lesson, titled “Formatting Trendlines,” shows you how to format trendlines in Excel charts. This video lesson is from our complete Excel tutorial, titled “Mastering Excel Made Easy v.2019 and 365.”

Format Trendlines in Excel Charts: Overview

            You can easily format trendlines in Excel charts if you applied them to one or more chart series. To format trendlines in Excel, click the “Format” tab within the “Chart Tools” contextual tab in the Ribbon. Then select a trendline to format from the “Chart Elements” drop-down in the “Current Selection” button group. Then click the “Format Selection” button that appears below the drop-down menu in the same area.

            Alternatively, to format trendlines in Excel charts, you can also right-click the trendline to format within the actual chart. Then select the “Format Trendline…” command from the pop-up menu that appears.

            Using either method then displays the “Format Trendline” task pane at the right side of the screen. This is where you set the formatting of the selected trendline. In the “Trendline Options” category, you can set the type of trendline to show for the selected series in the chart. You can also choose other formatting categories to display within the task pane by simply clicking the desired category icon to edit. The formatting options for the desired category then appear in collapsible and expandable lists at the bottom of the task pane.

Format Trendlines in Excel Charts – Instructions: A picture of a user formatting a trendline in an Excel chart using the “Trendline Options” section of the “Format Trendline” task pane.

            You can click the titles of each category list to expand and collapse the options in that category. Set any options you would like within the task pane to immediately apply those changes to the chart. When finished, click the “X” in the upper-right corner of the task pane to close it.

Format Trendlines in Excel Charts: Instructions

1. To format trendlines in Excel, click the “Format” tab within the “Chart Tools” contextual tab in the Ribbon.
2. Then select a trendline to format from the “Chart Elements” drop-down in the “Current Selection” button group.
3. Then click the “Format Selection” button that appears below the drop-down menu in the same area.
4. Alternatively, to format trendlines in Excel charts, right-click the trendline to format within the actual chart.
5. Then select the “Format Trendline…” command from the pop-up menu that appears.
6. Using either method then displays the “Format Trendline” task pane at the right side of the screen.
7. Use the settings in the “Trendline Options” category of the task pane to set the type of trendline for the selected chart series.
8. To choose other formatting categories to display within the task pane, click the desired category icon to edit.
9. The formatting options for the desired category then appear in collapsible and expandable lists at the bottom of the task pane.
10. You can click the titles of each category list to expand and collapse the options in that category.
11. Set any options you would like within the task pane to immediately apply those changes to the chart.
12. To close the task pane, when finished, click the “X” in its upper-right corner.