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

Viewing More than Two Places in a Worksheet

If your worksheet gets big enough, it is easy to spend a lot of time navigating back and forth between different areas. ...

Discover More

Preventing Printing

Want to prevent your worksheet from being printed? You may be out of luck, as a determined person may be able to find a ...

Discover More

Clearing the Undo Stack in a Macro

When writing a macro, you may need a way to clear the undo stack. This can be done with a single command, as described in ...

Discover More
More DriveTips

Splitting Cells

Need to separate the contents of one cell into multiple cells? It's easy to do when you use the SPLIT function, as ...

Discover More

Keeping Row and Column Headings in Sight

When you create a spreadsheet, it is common to place headings at the top of each column and the left of each row so you ...

Discover More

Grading Assignments with Flubaroo

Flubaroo is a third-party extension for Sheets that can help make grading classroom papers fast and easy. Here's a quick ...

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 six minus 5?

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 © 2018 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.