Hiding a Chart's Legend

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated January 30, 2014)

A chart's legend is used to explain the various colors or patterns used in a chart. By default, Sheets displays a legend with charts you create. You, however, may not want to include a chart. For instance, it may not make sense to include a chart if there are so few data series in your chart that it is self-explanatory.

To get rid of the chart legend, follow these steps:

  1. Insert your chart as you normally would.
  2. Click once on the legend area of the chart. Sheets displays a control area for the legend. (See Figure 1.)

    3. Figure 1. Modifying the legend location.

  3. Click the positioning control, which defaults to Right. Sheets displays a variety of locations where it can place the legend.
  4. Click once on the None option. (Yes, Sheets apparently considers "None" a location.) Sheets immediately hides the legend.
  5. Click elsewhere in your spreadsheet to accept your changes.

If you later want to display a legend you previously hid, right-click anywhere in the chart and choose Legend from the resulting Context menu. The legend is immediately displayed and you can make changes to its appearance, as desired.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Cut and Paste Formatting

What happens when you copy information from one document and paste it into another? It is possible for what you paste to ...

Discover More

Find and Replace in Headers

Using Find and Replace is something quite routine in Excel, as it easily allows you to find and replace information in ...

Discover More

Checking for Words and Phrases

You may want to determine if a document contains a certain set of words or phrases. There are a couple of ways you can ...

Discover More
More DriveTips

Adding a Comment to a Cell

Comments can help document what is going on in a spreadsheet. Here's how to easily add comments to individual cells.

Discover More

Renaming a Spreadsheet

Need to change the name of an existing spreadsheet? There are two ways you can do it, using either Sheets or Drive.

Discover More

Inserting Rows

As you are developing a spreadsheet, you'll often have the need to insert additional rows into your data. Sheets makes ...

Discover More
Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 8 + 6?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR AUTHORS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2019 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.