Parts of a chart

Exams often show a chart and ask you to name its parts. Learn them from the outside in:

• Chart area: the whole chart, with all its elements.
• Plot area: the part bounded by the axes, X and Y in a 2-D chart; X, Y and Z in a 3-D chart. In a 3-D chart, the floor is the base on which the data sits.
• Chart title (and sometimes a subtitle): the heading that says what the chart is about. Axis titles name each axis.

• Horizontal (category) axis, usually X: holds the categories, the independent values (products, months).
• Vertical (value) axis, usually Y: holds the data, the dependent values.
• Gridlines: the horizontal or vertical lines across the plot area that help you read values.

• Data points: the individual values plotted. Each is drawn by a data marker: a bar, a column, a point on a line or a slice of a pie.
• Data series: markers of the same colour (or pattern) belong to one series, such as all of Quarter 1.
• Legend: the key that tells you which colour stands for which series or category.
• Data label: extra information on a marker, such as its value.

Some of these elements appear by default; others you add yourself.