How to Insert Chart Title in Excel? 2 Easy Ways!

A chart or graph provides a great way to visually present data.

It lets a viewer get the gist of the data at a glance and is, therefore, a frequently used business tool.

However, without a proper title that summarizes what the Excel chart depicts, it would be difficult for a viewer to understand the chart.

In this tutorial we will show you two ways in which you can insert the chart title in Excel:

Using the Chart Elements button
Using the Chart Tools menu

We will also show you how you can change or remove an existing chart title if you need to.

Table of Contents

Two Ways to Insert and Format the Chart Title in Excel

Let’s say you have the following chart:

Notice that without proper labeling it’s hard to tell what the chart is about.

So we need to insert a good and descriptive chart title.

The chart title is usually placed at the top-center of the chart, but in some cases can also be placed elsewhere on the chart.

Let us now see two ways to insert this chart title in Excel.

Method 1: Using the Chart Elements Button to Insert and Format Chart Title

The Chart Elements button can be seen on the right side of your chart when you click on it.

This button lets you add, change or remove chart elements like the title, legend, gridlines, and labels.

The chart elements button appears along with two other buttons – chart styles and chart filters – as shown in the image below:

Chart Options that appear when you select the chart

Inserting the Chart Title

To insert a chart title here are the steps that you need to follow:

Click anywhere on the chart
Three buttons should appear to the right of your chart. Click on the Chart Elements button (the one with ‘+’ icon).

This will display a checklist of chart elements. Make sure the checkbox next to ‘Chart Title’ is checked.

The chart title should now appear on your chart. You can double click it and change the contents of the title as required. For example, we changed the title to “Employee-wise Total Sales”.

Positioning the Chart Title

When you hover over the Chart title checkbox, you will notice a small arrow to the right, as shown in the image below:

Small arrow to show additional chart title options

Clicking on this arrow shows additional options for the Chart Title.

These additional options include the following:

Above Chart – Select this if you want the title placed on top of the chart. This is the position of the title by default. Since the title is placed above the chart, the size of the chart is reduced to accommodate the title.

Centered Overlay – Select this option if you want to overlay the chart title on top of the chart, without having the size of the chart adjusted to accommodate the title.

More Options – Select this option if you want to format the chart title or the text inside it.

Formatting the Chart Title

Select ‘More Options’ if you want to format the title.

This will open the ‘Format Chart Title’ sidebar to the right of the Excel window. Format the chart title as you see fit.

In the ‘Format Chart Title’ sidebar, you will find two tabs:

Title Options: Select this option if you want to format the whole title block. This option is further divided into options to format the Fill and Line, Effects and Size / Properties of the title block.

The Fill and line option lets you set the outline and fill color/pattern of the title block.

The Effects and Size option lets you set effects like Glow, Bevel, Shadow, etc. There’s also an option for 3-D rotation of the title block.

The Size/ Properties option, lets you fix a set size and other properties for the title block.

Text Options – Select this option if you want to format the text part of the title. This option is further divided into options to format the Text Fill and Outline, Text Effects and Textbox.

Play around with the different formatting options to see what looks best on your chart.

Once you’re done formatting, you can close the sidebar.

The next time you need to edit the chart title, simply double click on it, and change what you need to.

Also read: How to Add Axis Titles in Excel?

Method 2: Using the Chart Tools Menu to Insert and Format Chart Title

The Chart Tools ribbon appears in the main menu when your chart is selected. This menu consists of two tabs – Design and Format.

To insert and format the chart title, we can use the Design tab from the Chart Tools. Here’s how:

Click anywhere on the chart
This will cause the Chart Tools menu to appear in the main menu.
Select the Design tab from the Chart Tools menu.

Click on the ‘Add Chart Element’ button, which is in the ‘Chart Layouts’ group.

This will display a dropdown menu with different Chart element options.

Additional chart element options show up

Hover over ‘Chart Title’.

This will display a submenu consisting of different options relating to the chart title. Select ‘Above Chart’ if you want the title placed on top of the chart, or ‘Centered Overlay’, if you want to overlay the chart title on top of the chart, without resizing the actual chart. Select ‘More Options’ if you want to format the Chart title. This will open the Format Chart Title sidebar from where you can provide your required format settings.

The chart title should now appear on your chart. You can double click it and change the contents of the title as required. For example, we changed the title to “Employee-wise Total Sales”.

Also read: How to Create Dynamic Chart Titles in Excel

Removing a Chart Title in Excel

To remove the chart title, simply select ‘None’ in step 7 of Method 2.

Click on None to Remove the Chart Title from the graph

Alternatively, you can just select the chart title in your chart and press the Delete key on the keyboard.

In this tutorial, we showed you two ways to insert and format the chart Title in Excel.

We also showed you two ways to quickly remove the chart title and what to do if you want to edit the chart title’s text or format. We hope you found this tutorial helpful.

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