# Another MS Excel Question (Shrinking Charts)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-ms-excel-question-shrinking-charts/301879>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 30, 2005, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-ms-excel-question-shrinking-charts/301879 "2005-04-30T19:44:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-ms-excel-question-shrinking-charts/301879/1 "2005-04-30T19:44:03Z")

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Hey all. I’m attempting to shrink charts made in Excel so they will fit on a poster, but nothing is working. I got it to shrink in MS Paint, but it looked awful (disappearing lines, words, etc.). Any suggestions?

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**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-ms-excel-question-shrinking-charts/301879/2 "2005-04-30T20:15:46Z")

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Can you double-click on the chart and adjust the size there? When I need to make a chart smaller, I will usually double-click to edit the chart itself - then I will actually enlarge the size so that it fills up nearly the entire chart area. Then, I will click off of it and re-size the chart area. Since you enlarged the chart itself, the size adjustment will be better.

Does that make sense?

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**Author:** ![Jpeg\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@Jpeg\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jpeg_Jones)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-ms-excel-question-shrinking-charts/301879/3 "2005-04-30T21:18:04Z")

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Have you tried using File|Page Setup to adjust scaling when you print?

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**Author:** ![AZCowboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/97f17d/32.png) [@AZCowboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AZCowboy)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-ms-excel-question-shrinking-charts/301879/4 "2005-04-30T21:28:24Z")

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I’m not sure I even understand your challenge, however, when you talk about disappearing lines or words, it leads me to this suggestion:

In Excel, when editing the chart, increase the size of all the lines and the fonts. This will actually make the chart/graph itself a bit smaller, to make room for the larger fonts. Then select the chart, and when you paste, paste it into the application you are using to create the poster as a picture (Picture - Enhanced Metafile) instead of an Excel Chart Object. When you then shrink it, it will keep everything relative to each other, and the fonts and lines will still be visible.

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**Author:** ![nivlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3bc359/32.png) [@nivlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nivlac)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/another-ms-excel-question-shrinking-charts/301879/5 "2005-04-30T23:31:21Z")

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> [@Wolfian](#):
>
> Hey all. I’m attempting to shrink charts made in Excel so they will fit on a poster, but nothing is working. I got it to shrink in MS Paint, but it looked awful (disappearing lines, words, etc.). Any suggestions?

Are you copying the chart into your poster as a bit-map object? Then you can change the size to your satisfaction any way you like. That’s the way I’ve always done it without any problems. I don’t know why you’re trying to shrink it in MS Paint; that’s probably why you’re losing resolution in your picture.