Format graph objects

Updated 16 Sep 2025

You can shade areas in your graph and choose whether lines are solid or dashed. You also can use sliders, text boxes, or check boxes when plotting transformations.

To shade a region in your graph:

  1. Select the region shading tool .
  2. Click or tap inside the region you want to shade.

    After you have shaded a region in your graph, you see the shading icon in the region.

To delete shading:

  1. Select the shading icon inside the shaded region of your graph.
  2. Press Delete on your keyboard or select Delete in the tool palette.

To change a line style:

  1. Select the line. It turns orange when selected:

    Example of a graph grid with a selected line

  2. Select the appropriate section of the line style tool :
    • To make a selected line solid, click or tap the top section.
    • To make a selected line dashed, click or tap the bottom section.

For more details, see Graph straight lines.

If a point requires a label, you see an ADD A LABEL box:

  1. Click or tap inside the box to display a list of choices.

    Clicking the three question marks (???) displays a drop-down list. Choose the label you want from the drop-down.

  2. Select a choice to enter it in the graph.
  3. Optionally drag the cross icon Cross icon used to move the text box to move the label.

To change a label, click or tap on the object or plot and then change the entry.

When you are plotting a transformation of an x-squared, x-cubed, logarithmic, exponential, sine, or cosine function, you can use sliders, text boxes, or checkboxes to transform the object.

To transform the object, first select it. The sliders, text boxes, or checkboxes appropriate to the function appear next to the graph grid.

Then select the values using sliders. For example:

There are sliders for adjusting vertical stretch and horizontal shrink.

There are sliders for adjusting vertical stretch and horizontal stretch.

Or enter values in text boxes. For example:

The Vertical Shift is 3, and the Horizontal Shift is -6.

For more details, see Graph transformations of functions.