Microsoft® Excel® 2010 Inside Out

Saving Templates to Make Chart Formats Reusable

If you want to use a particular combination of chart formats repeatedly, it’s best to store the formatting information in a template. To do this, first set up a chart that exemplifies the formats you want to reuse. Then select the chart, click the Design tab under Chart Tools, and click Save As Template in the Type group. You are asked to supply a name. Excel stores your template under that file name in the folder %Appdata%\Microsoft\Templates\Charts, with the extension .crtx. But you don’t need to go looking for it there; if you ever need to delete, copy, or rename the template file, select a chart, click the Design tab under Chart Tools, and click Change Chart Type in the Type group. In the Change ...