Chart Series May Not Be Printed in Black and White

When you print a chart in Microsoft Excel, the series in the chart may not be printed in black and white even if "Print in black and white" is selected in the Page Setup dialog box.

This problem occurs when the color of a series has been set to anything other than Automatic.

This behavior is by design of Microsoft Excel.

To prevent a series from printing in color, use either of the following methods:

• Change the color of the series back to Automatic. To do this, follow these steps:
  
  
  1. Select the series.
  2. On the Format menu, click Selected Data Series.
  3. Click the Patterns tab.
  4. Under Area, click Automatic.
  5. Click OK to accept the change.
  -or-
• Disable color printing on your printer (this is usually accomplished by changing a setting in the Printer Setup or Properties dialog box).

The "Print in black and white" option in the Page Setup dialog box causes a chart to print exclusively in black, white, and shades of gray for all chart series whose patterns use an Automatic setting. To select the "Print in black and white" option for the active chart, follow these steps:

1. On the File menu, click Page Setup.
2. Click the Chart tab.
3. Click to select (check) the "Print in black and white" check box.
4. Click OK to accept the change.

The chart will now print in black, white, and shades of gray.

However, if any series in the chart has been formatted so that its pattern color is not Automatic, that series will not conform to the "Print in black and white" setting. The series will be printed in color if your printer is set to print in color.