a) When making a surface or contour chart, Excel makes the grid square. So if you
have ten X values and three Y values, your chart will be comprised of a 9 x 2 grid
of squares. To spread out the chart, insert extra rows or columns into your data to
add more X or Y values, then interpolate the Z values in between. Not perfect, but
an improvement.

b) Double click on the legend, and you will get the dialog to edit the colors and Z
levels in your chart.

For more information, you could look at my recent article on surface and contour
charting in Excel:

http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/P...cle.asp?ID=447

- Jon
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Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Peltier Technical Services
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
http://PeltierTech.com/
_______

wrote:

Hi,

I've started trying to use Excel's contour charts but the results are
very poor and I'm not too sure how to improve them.

a) There is always a massive gap around my chart. All I get is a
narrow rectangle in the middle of the screen with loads of empty white
space above and below it. How do I make it take up the whole screen?

b) The choice of colours is not great. How do I make it do something
more sensible, such as increasing the intensity as the values increase?
Thanks,

Anon.