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How do I remove this outer line from my charts?

I'm using Numbers and Keynote for a presentation I have coming up soon, and every single one of my charts has this thin line around the outside. I cannot figure out how to remove it!



I am aware that when you open up the format pane in Numbers, there is a section under the Chart tab titled "Background and Border Style" but change that will only change the board around the chart itself and not around the entire thing.


Any help would be very appreciated! Thanks!

Posted on May 15, 2023 10:28 AM

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Posted on May 15, 2023 11:11 AM

Did this spreadsheet start in or spend any time in Excel? It is an Excel feature that gets imported but there is no way in Numbers to change it. You will have to recreate the chart(s) in Numbers. Or you can go back to Excel and turn off the chart borders then re-import it into Numbers.

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May 15, 2023 11:11 AM in response to ldweeks4

Did this spreadsheet start in or spend any time in Excel? It is an Excel feature that gets imported but there is no way in Numbers to change it. You will have to recreate the chart(s) in Numbers. Or you can go back to Excel and turn off the chart borders then re-import it into Numbers.

May 15, 2023 11:52 AM in response to ldweeks4

You can get rid of the line and other uneditable elements and also change to the Numbers color palette using the instructions below. If you want the original colors of your charts, you can set them back.


  1. Create a new document with a small chart in it.
  2. Copy/Paste that chart to your document
  3. With that chart selected, go to the Chart tab in the sidebar
  4. Scroll through (but do not click) the chart styles until you see a +
  5. Click the +
  6. Choose to "Define the chart using all series styles"
  7. With some finesse and perhaps some wonderment about why it won't move at first, drag that new style so it is the one in the upper left corner when scrolled back to the beginning. That position is the default style.
  8. Delete the temporary table you pasted in.
  9. Select a chart then click on that table style.
  10. If you want the original colors, go to the Chart tab and select one of the Chart Color palettes. I did not try but you should be able to create a new style from this chart and make it the default and use it for converting all your other charts.


If you have any problem with these instructions or find a better way, please post it here. I came up with this on the fly. I've not seen an 'easy" solution before.

Jul 5, 2023 8:08 PM in response to Badunit

I have the same problem. I created a numbers sheet yesterday (5 jul 23 on v13.1) and created data and charts from that data (simple line chart, but it is there on any chart when I tested others) from scratch (not cutting and pasting etc) and they all have that external border as attached.

Excel has never been part of the development.


I don't recall ever having this problem before - been using numbers forever - but maybe it was just never an issue for me to notice. But the format requirements for the dashboard I am building needs them to be gone so the layout is clean.


Is this something something new since the last update to v13.1?


It's annoying and totally un-apple to present stuff in a way that is messy.


....my work around is to add a white square the same size to hide it.


any thoughts would be welcomed.

Jul 6, 2023 1:44 AM in response to CSWard

Hi CSWard,


The screen shot of your Test Data is intriguing 🤔.

Badunit's reply to this discussion has been marked as Best Answer (green tick).

It is best that we leave this discussion as an answer that will help other users.


Please start a new discussion with more details of your particular case of the unwanted border around graphs. In my experience with Numbers, the default has always been no border. See under Graph > Graph options > Border



Tested in Numbers 13.1 under macOS Ventura 13.3.1


It will help us to help you if you post a screen shot of your data table. Please click on the table to show column labels (A, B, C, etc) and row numbers (1, 2, 3 etc.) and include them in your screen shot.

Does your table have any Header Rows or Header Columns?

More information may lead to a solution.


Regards,

Ian.

Jul 6, 2023 3:45 PM in response to CSWard

Well, I seem to be having the opposite problem with borders now. I tried adding a border to a chart and all it does is put a line on the X and/or Y axis. Fill color works fine but I get this wonky stuff with the border and axis lines:



I made the chart border very wide. If an axis line is turned off, the border on that axis goes off. If there is no chart border, axis lines won't appear.

May 15, 2023 11:22 AM in response to Badunit

Whoa. My mind is blown.


It is entirely possible that I started my Numbers document (which has now grown to include many sheets and many charts) with an Excel document. Indeed, that seems to be the case: I just created a new Numbers document, and when I created a chart using the same data, that line was not there.


So... I guess that means I need to re-create every one of my charts in a new Numbers document which I start from scratch. Ouch.


But thank you very much for your very helpful answer!!

Jul 6, 2023 5:46 AM in response to ldweeks4

In my case, I was using data that had been downloaded from QuickBooks online in the excel file format. So although excel hadn’t technically been part of my development, it was in fact.


So are you sure your data source is *not* in the excel file format?


one thing you could do to test is create a fresh new numbers file, copy and paste your data, and try to make the chart again.

Jul 6, 2023 2:11 PM in response to ldweeks4

100% sure. I made the numbers sheet from scratch and keyed in the data, plus no-one else touched it nor did I send it to anyone or have it on a shared drive etc.


I have since replicated it, exactly the same way and the issue is not there.


Baffling.


I also had an Apple Notes note disappear completely (ie not in recently deleted or anything, kapoof, gone without a trace) when I changed the font size a few weeks back.


maybe I have gremlin...thanks for your reply though, appreciate it ✌🏻

How do I remove this outer line from my charts?

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