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excel chart area

zmworm edited this page Apr 27, 2026 · 16 revisions

Excel: Chart - area

A dedicated page for the area chart type. Area charts are like line charts with the space between the line and the X axis filled with color, useful for showing magnitude over time and comparing cumulative totals.

Path: /{SheetName}/chart[N]

Add command shape:

officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=area \
 --prop title="Cumulative Revenue" \
 --prop series1="Revenue:100,200,300,400" \
 --prop categories="Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4" \
 <styling props>

See also: Chart - add, Chart - set.

Chart type variants

Type string Grouping 3D
area Standard (overlapping) No
areaStacked Stacked No
areaPercentStacked PercentStacked (0-100%) No
area3d Standard Yes

Area-specific properties

Area gradient fill

Property Default Notes
areaFill / area.fill — Gradient fill: "C1-C2[:angle]"
gradient — Per-series gradient
gradients — Per-series gradients (semicolon-separated) 
# Stacked area with gradient fills
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=areaStacked \
 --prop title="Revenue by Region" \
 --prop data="East:100,200,300;West:80,150,250" \
 --prop categories="Q1,Q2,Q3" \
 --prop transparency=30
# 3D area
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=area3d \
 --prop title="Trends" \
 --prop data="A:10,20,30;B:15,25,35" \
 --prop categories="X,Y,Z" \
 --prop view3d="15,20,30"

Title styling

Property Default Notes
title — Chart title text
title.font / titleFont — Font family
title.size / titleSize — Font size (pt)
title.color / titleColor — Font color (hex)
title.bold / titleBold — Bold (true/false)
title.glow / titleGlow — Glow: "COLOR-RADIUS-OPACITY" or "none"
title.shadow / titleShadow — Shadow: "COLOR-BLUR-ANGLE-DIST-OPACITY" or "none"

Legend

Property Default Notes
legend true Position: top, bottom, left, right, none
legend.overlay false Float legend on top of the chart
legendFont / legend.font — "size:color:fontname"

Axis features

Scale control

Property Default Notes
axisMin / min (auto) Value axis lower bound
axisMax / max (auto) Value axis upper bound
majorUnit (auto) Major gridline / tick interval
minorUnit (auto) Minor gridline / tick interval
axisNumFmt / axisNumberFormat General Number format for tick labels (e.g. "$#,##0", "0%") 
# Lock Y axis to 0-500, gridlines every 100
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=area \
 --prop series1="Data:50,120,280,350,400" \
 --prop categories="Jan,Feb,Mar,Apr,May" \
 --prop axisMin=0 --prop axisMax=500 --prop majorUnit=100

Logarithmic scale

Property Default Notes
logBase / logScale — Logarithmic scale base (e.g. 10)

Reversed axis

Property Default Notes
axisOrientation / axisReverse minMax Set to maxMin or true to flip the Y axis

Dual axis (secondary axis)

Property Default Notes
secondaryAxis / secondary — Comma-separated 1-based series indices for secondary Y axis 
# Volume on left axis, percentage on right axis
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=area \
 --prop series1="Volume:1000,2000,3000,4000" \
 --prop series2="Rate %:5,8,12,15" \
 --prop categories="Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4" \
 --prop secondaryAxis=2

Display units

Property Default Notes
dispUnits / displayUnits — thousands, millions, billions, etc.

Axis visibility and styling

Property Default Notes
axisVisible / axis.visible true Show/hide both axes
axisLine / axis.line — Value axis line: "color:width:dash"
catAxisLine — Category axis line: "color:width:dash"
majorTickMark / majorTick — out, in, cross, none
minorTickMark / minorTick — Same as major tick
tickLabelPos nextTo nextTo, high, low, none

Gridlines

Property Default Notes
gridlines / majorGridlines true Toggle or configure: true, false/none, or "color:widthPt:dash"
minorGridlines false Same format as gridlines 
# Custom gridlines: light gray, thin, dotted
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=area \
 --prop series1="Data:100,200,300" --prop categories="A,B,C" \
 --prop "gridlines=D0D0D0:0.5:sysDot" \
 --prop "minorGridlines=EEEEEE:0.3:sysDot"

Reference lines (target / threshold overlays)

Property Default Notes
referenceLine / refLine — value or "value:color:width:dash" 
# Target line at 250 — red, dashed
officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=area \
 --prop series1="Actual:120,180,250,310" \
 --prop categories="Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4" \
 --prop "referenceLine=250:FF0000:1.5:dash"

Fills and borders

Property Default Notes
plotFill / plotAreaFill — Plot area background: hex, gradient "C1-C2[:angle]", or "none"
chartFill / chartAreaFill — Chart area background
plotArea.border / plotBorder — Plot area outline: "color:width:dash" or "none"
chartArea.border / chartBorder — Chart area outline
areaFill / area.fill — Area gradient fill for area-style rendering

Series shadow and outline

Property Default Notes
series.shadow / seriesShadow — "COLOR-BLUR-ANGLE-DIST-OPACITY" or "none"
series.outline / seriesOutline — "COLOR-WIDTH" e.g. "FFFFFF-0.5" or "none"

Data labels

Property Default Notes
dataLabels false Toggle data labels
labelPos / labelPosition — Position: center, insideEnd, insideBase, outsideEnd, top, bottom, left, right, bestFit
labelFont — "size:color:bold"
dataLabel{N}.text — Custom text for individual label
dataLabel{N}.x/y/w/h — Manual layout of individual label
dataLabel{N}.delete — Hide individual label
dataLabels.separator — Separator between label parts
dataLabels.numFmt — Number format for labels

Transparency and opacity

Property Default Notes
transparency 0 Series transparency (0-100%)
opacity / alpha 100 Series opacity (0-100%) 
# Translucent areas for layered comparison
officecli set data.xlsx /Sheet1/chart[1] --prop transparency=40

Layout control

Property Default Notes
x, y 0 Chart position (column/row index)
width 8 Chart width (column units)
height 15 Chart height (row units)
plotArea.x/y/w/h — Manual plot area layout (0-1 decimal)
title.x/y/w/h — Manual title layout
legend.x/y/w/h — Manual legend layout

Display blanks

Property Default Notes
dispBlanksAs / blanksAs gap How blank cells are handled: gap, zero, span/connect

Conditional coloring

Property Default Notes
colorRule / conditionalColor — Color data points conditionally
point{N}.color — Individual data point color (hex)

3D settings

Property Default Notes
view3d / camera / perspective — "rotX,rotY,perspective" e.g. "15,20,30"

Applies only to area3d chart type.

Full example: presentation-grade area chart

officecli add data.xlsx /Sheet1 --type chart \
 --prop chartType=areaStacked \
 --prop title="Revenue by Region" \
 --prop title.size=16 --prop title.bold=true \
 --prop title.font="Arial" --prop title.color=1F2937 \
 --prop series1="East:100,200,300,400" \
 --prop series2="West:80,150,250,350" \
 --prop series3="South:60,100,180,280" \
 --prop categories="Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4" \
 --prop colors="4472C4,ED7D31,70AD47" \
 --prop transparency=20 \
 --prop "gridlines=E5E7EB:0.5:solid" \
 --prop "minorGridlines=F3F4F6:0.3:sysDot" \
 --prop axisTitle="Revenue ($K)" --prop catTitle="Quarter" \
 --prop "axisfont=10:6B7280:Arial" \
 --prop plotFill=FAFBFC \
 --prop "referenceLine=300:FF0000:1:dash" \
 --prop legend=bottom \
 --prop "legendfont=9:6B7280:Arial" \
 --prop x=0 --prop y=0 --prop width=14 --prop height=20

HTML preview support

Feature Preview Notes
Filled area Yes Polygon fill
Stacked / percent stacked Yes Cumulative polygon stacking
Gridlines Yes Color, width, dash from OOXML
Reference lines Yes Dashed overlays with legend entry
Data labels Yes Value text on areas
Custom axis scale Yes axisMin/axisMax/majorUnit
Log scale Yes Logarithmic Y axis spacing
Reversed axis Yes Inverted Y direction
3D area No Falls back to 2D
Shadow effects No Decorative; not rendered
Glow effects No Decorative; not rendered

Known quirks

  • Stacked area type is set at creation. You cannot change an area to areaStacked via set — recreate the chart with the desired type.
  • 3D area charts fall back to 2D in preview. area3d is rendered as a flat 2D area chart in the HTML preview. Use Excel for 3D QA.
  • Transparency interacts with stacking. In stacked area charts, transparency reveals lower series through upper ones. This is faithfully rendered in the HTML preview.

Inspect an existing area chart

# List all charts
officecli query data.xlsx chart
# Inspect a specific chart
officecli get data.xlsx "/Sheet1/chart[1]"
# Render to HTML preview
officecli view data.xlsx html > preview.html

See Also

Based on OfficeCLI v1.0.56

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