Changing color order in an Excel chart

Question

I have a set of charts in a sheet. I discovered that one of the charts was missing some prior data so I added it in, but now the colors for that chart no longer line up with the other three charts on that page.

This is what the other charts look like with regards to the color. The years were all added in order so they line up in color

This is what the oddball looks like

Changing the color schemes doesn't affect the order they appear in. Is there no way to change the order?

Solution

Excel applies series colors in the order that the series were added to the chart. When you open the color picker, you can see the six accent colors of the theme. The first series that is added to the chart will get the Accent1 color, the second series the Accent2 color, etc.

Changing the order of the series in the legend will not affect the series color. Therefore, if the 2012 series was added after the 2016 series, it will not have the same color.

So, with the rogue chart, you need to edit each series and manually apply the theme colors in turn.

Comments

[Bandersnatch]

You can double-click on each bar and set it's color by choosing "Fill". Instead of "automatic", select the color you want.

[Machavity]

Hmm, removing and adding in order worked pretty well. Good idea

[Machavity]

Did you read my question? I specifically said that changing color schemes did not fix the issue.