Changing Fonts and Other Text Options for Charts in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows

Even though charts are a visual medium, they still contain plenty of text in the form of data labels, titles, legend, axis labels, etc. Whenever, you insert a new chart in PowerPoint, colors and fonts based on the active Theme of the presentation are used.

In this tutorial, you are going to learn how you can change the font and use other text options for charts in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows:

1. Select the chart that you want to edit. If you don’t have a chart on your slide do insert a chart in PowerPoint 2010. The chart may look like what you can see in Figure 1, below.
2. 
   Figure 1: Chart selected in PowerPoint 2010
2. When you select the chart, you'll find that the entire chart area gets selected (refer to Figure 1, above). If you want to access options for a particular chart element, you have to select that element by clicking on it. Alternatively, you can select any chart element from the Chart Tools Layout or Format tab of the Ribbon. For now, click on the Horizontal Category Axis (the horizontal line at the bottom of the plot area) within your chart, as shown in Figure 2, below.
3. 
   Figure 2: Horizontal Category Axis selected

Contextual Tabs

The Chart Tools Design, Layout, and Format tabs are contextual tabs. Contextual tabs are special tabs in the Ribbon that are not visible all the time. They only make an appearance when you are working with a particular slide object which can be edited using special options.
3. Thereafter, choose any of these three options to change font and text formatting:
1. Access the Home tab of the Ribbon and choose any option in the Font group, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3, below.
2. 
   Figure 3: Font group within Home tab of the Ribbon
2. Right-click on the Horizontal Category Axis and select the Font option from the contextual menu that comes up as shown in Figure 4, below.
3. 
   Figure 4: Font option selected
4. Doing so will open the multi-tabbed Font dialog box that you can see in Figure 5, below. Make sure you activate the Font tab of this dialog. Some options in the Font group (refer to above Figure 3, above) are not included in the Font dialog box. Primarily, the option to add shadow to text is missing.
5. 
   Figure 5: Font dialog box
3. Finally, you can right-click on the Horizontal Category Axis to bring up the Mini Toolbar, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 4, above. Most options within the Mini Toolbar can be found in the Font group as well as in the Font dialog box.
4. After making required changes to text on the Horizontal Category Axis, click the OK button to get back to your slide. Save your presentation.