Chart Templates in Excel: Step-by-Step Guide

Why are you still reformatting the same chart every Monday morning? Same colors, same font sizes, same axis label adjustments — and you've done it forty-something times this year alone. If that sounds familiar, you don't have a charting problem. You have a workflow problem. And chart templates in Excel are the fix.

A CRTX file is what Excel creates when you save a chart as a template. It stores your formatting — fonts, colors, gridline weight, legend placement, axis settings — and lets you apply all of it to a new chart in seconds. By the time you finish this guide, you'll have a reusable template that anyone on your team can use without calling you for help. I built the logistics dashboard I still run today around this exact system, and it's saved an estimated 12 hours of reporting work per week for three years straight.

What You'll Have When You're Done (and What to Set Up First)

The prerequisite is simple: you need a chart that's actually worth saving. That means a chart you've already formatted the way you want it — correct chart type, clean axis labels, your brand colors applied, unnecessary gridlines removed. If you haven't built one yet, start with the how to create a chart in Excel walkthrough first.

My standing rule before saving any template: no more than three colors, and nothing decorative that doesn't carry data. Extra formatting is chart junk. It clutters the visual and makes the template harder to maintain. Design it lean, then save it.

Once that chart is ready, you're set. The steps below cover saving, applying, managing, and sharing your template — in that order.

Saving a formatted chart as a CRTX template takes seconds — and pays back every time you build a new report.

Step 1: Format Your Chart, Then Save It as a Template

This is the step most tutorials rush past. The quality of your template is only as good as the chart you start with. Get the Excel chart formatting right before you save anything, because whatever's in the chart when you save it is what travels with the template.

How to Open the "Save as Template" Dialog

1. Click once on your finished chart to select it.
2. Right-click the chart area (not a specific element inside it — the border area works best).
3. Choose Save as Template from the context menu.
4. In the dialog box that opens, name your file something specific. Q1_SalesBar_2026 is better than MyTemplate — you'll thank yourself later when you have six templates.
5. Click Save.

That's the whole save process. No extra steps in Microsoft 365, and it works the same way in Excel 2016, 2019, and the current subscription version.

Where Excel Stores Your CRTX File

Excel saves your CRTX file to a specific folder automatically. If it lands anywhere else, the template won't show up in the Excel Template Gallery when you go to apply it.

On Windows, the default path is:

C:\Users\[YourName]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\Charts

On Mac, look here:

/Users/[YourName]/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/Excel/User Templates/My Templates

If your template disappears after saving, check that folder first. Nine times out of ten, it saved to the wrong location because someone navigated away from the default path in the save dialog.

Step 2: Apply Your Chart Template to New Data

Now that your template is saved, here's how to use it. There are two entry points depending on whether you're starting fresh or working with a chart you've already built.

Applying a Template When Creating a New Chart

1. Select your data range.
2. Go to Insert > Charts and click the small dialog launcher (the arrow in the bottom-right corner of the Charts group).
3. In the Insert Chart dialog box, click All Charts > Templates.
4. Your saved templates appear here. Select the one you want.
5. Click OK.

Excel applies every saved formatting setting from the CRTX file to your new chart. No manual formatting. No starting from scratch.

Applying a Template to a Chart You've Already Built

1. Click the existing chart to select it.
2. Under the Chart Design tab, click Change Chart Type.
3. Go to All Charts > Templates and select your saved template.
4. Click OK.

If your new data has a different structure than the chart you used when saving the template — different number of series, different column order — Excel may mismap the series. Always check the chart after applying. I test every template against at least two differently shaped datasets before I consider it production-ready.

Step 3: Set a Default Chart Type and Manage Templates You No Longer Need

Once you've got a template you trust, you can make it the default chart type in Excel. That means every time you press Alt + F1 or F11 to insert a quick chart, Excel uses your template instead of its built-in clustered column.

To set a default chart: open the Insert Chart dialog, go to All Charts > Templates, right-click your template, and choose Set as Default Chart.

To manage or delete templates, click Manage Templates in that same dialog. It opens the Charts folder directly in Windows Explorer or Finder on Mac. From there you can rename, delete, or copy any CRTX file.

Copying is how you share a template with a teammate. Paste the CRTX file into their Charts folder and it appears in their gallery immediately. No Excel settings to sync, no export process — just a file copy.

This is the piece most guides skip. Your CRTX file is a portable, shareable asset. Treat it like one: keep your Charts folder organized, retire old templates when designs change, and document what each one is for if you're working with a team.

For a deeper look at how formatting decisions affect the whole chart, the formatting chart elements in Excel guide is worth reading alongside this one. And if you're building charts into a broader reporting workflow, Excel charts and data visualization for retail inventory shows how template consistency plays out in a real operational context.

Common Mistakes When Saving and Applying Chart Templates

If you're newer to Excel overall and this guide moved a bit fast, the Excel for Beginners starter guide covers the foundational stuff that makes all of this click.