a chart is a tool you can use an excel
to communicate your data graphically not
only are charts easy to create they are
often very easy for your audience to
understand charts allow users to more
easily see the meaning behind the
numbers in the spreadsheet and make
showing comparisons and trends a lot
easier for example if I asked you to
review this spreadsheet and tell me if
sales are increasing or decreasing in
2008 could you do so quickly what about
if you looked at this chart as you can
see sometimes a chart really is an
effective tool for communicating
information every chart starts with data
so let's take a look at a spreadsheet
for a small business called coastal
candle company we can see from the
spreadsheet that we have sales people
and some assorted data to show you how
to create a chart let's use the
information on the summary sheet so
we'll just click it to select it now you
can see that this view gives us a
summary of the sales people and the
dollar amount and sales for each month
let's create a chart that compares the
sales of all our salespeople month by
month to do this select the information
that you want to chart including the
column titles and the row labels then
click the insert tab in the charts group
you can see several different types of
charts let's take a look at some of the
most popular ones columns are often used
to compare items we'll probably want to
use the columns command to compare our
sales people line charts are great to
display trends over time so let's say
you want to see how a particular product
sold over the course of a year a line
graph would be a great chart to use
because you could use one line to
represent that products and additional
lines to represent other products
pie charts can be used to represent
items or pieces that combined together
form a total amount for example if I ask
a class of 30 students the question
where do you use the Internet
I could display the results in a pie
chart if you have multiple items to
compare a bar charts might meet your
needs and you have area scatter and
other charts as well don't worry if
you're not sure how you can use these
just hover over the commands and a box
will appear with some information about
how each chart is best used now let's
get to the fun stuff to insert a chart
click the command of your choice from
the charts group I think a column chart
will work well for this so we'll just
click that now we see a number of chart
types to choose from you have so many
options for this example let's just
choose a basic 2d clustered column I
know the name of this chart because it
displays when I hover my points are over
it
now just left-click it to select it and
there you go your charts appears we can
see how much each salesperson sold each
month and how their sales vary from
month to month our salespeople which are
the row titles and the sales now appear
on the bottom of the chart the column
titles from the worksheet January
February and March
Arnel represented in the charts
graphically and labeled to the right in
the legend the legend tells you which
color represents what data in the
spreadsheet we can see that the blue bar
represents January sales on the left
side of the chart Excel has created a
scale of numbers to help you understand
what the column heights of each month
means the height of each column is in
proportion to the data in the cells now
that you know how to insert a chart
let's take a look at some of the charts
tools once you insert a chart a new set
of chart tools that are
range into three tabs will appear above
the ribbon these are only visible when
the chart is selected let's take a look
at the design tab first if you want to
change the chart type after you create
your charts you can do so from this tab
just click Change chart type and from
the menu that appears select another
chart to type you can stay with the
column charts or even choose something
completely different
I like the column charts but I think I
want this 3d version of the clustered
column so I'll just click it and then
click OK your chart type will change
right now the chart shows in 3d how each
salesperson did month by month in
essence comparing their January sales to
their February sales to their own March
sales but you can change what is being
compared by simply clicking the switch
row/column data command clicking this
command will switch the info that
appears vertically and horizontally on
the X and y axis now the chart compares
salespeople to each other in each month
you can see that a simple click of a
button can change the chart
significantly you can switch the charts
back to the original view by clicking
switch row/column again you can modify
your charts and a lot of other ways too
ok stay with me here this may remind you
a little of high school math this chart
has two axes on the left is the vertical
axis also known as the y axis right now
the vertical axis displays a scale of
numbers which we can use along with the
columns to determine how much each
salesperson sold each month here at the
bottom is a horizontal axis also called
the x axis which displays a sales
person's name Excel gives us the ability
to change the charts and layouts and
chart titles and texts that describe our
axes on the design tab find the charts
layouts group you can click the more
arrow to view all your options and just
left clicking options to select it this
one looks good it lets me add a chart
title but if it's not what you want just
choose another one
this one just jumbles the text and
doesn't work for this chart but this one
is what I want it allows me to label
both axes and give my chart a title now
you can type the titles directly in the
chart I'll call my chart first quarter
2008 sales and then on the y-axis type
sales amount and on the x-axis type
salespeople you can do a few other
things from the design tab for instance
you can apply a chart style by selecting
an options in the chart Styles group
this can dramatically change the look of
your chart another great command is the
Move charts command this command does
exactly what it states it moves the
chart let's see how this works
just click the commands in a dialog box
appears
right now the objects in the radio
button is selected and summary appears
the drop down list this is reminding us
that the charts currently appears on the
summary sheet you can change this so the
charts appears on another existing
worksheet or select new sheet name the
sheets
and click okay now the chart appears in
its own sheets there are way too many
chart options for us to go into all in
this one video the Layout tab really
gives you some serious control over how
things are displayed in your chart
specifically the labels axes and
background groups I encourage you to
explore this tab and those three groups
in the commands also take a look at the
format tab from here you can really
change the visual appearance of your
chart so that works with the rest of
your spreadsheet as you saw adding a
chart takes somewhere around 10 seconds
but with all the Excel tools all at your
disposal you can spend as much time as
you want really formatting your chart to
meet your needs