A chart is a tool you can use in 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 charts 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
salespeople 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 Salespeople and the dollar
amount in 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 salespeople.
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 the year.
A line graph would be a great chart to use because you could use one line to represent
that product 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 asked 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
chart 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 command 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, 2 D Clustered Column.
I know the name of this chart because it displays when I hover my pointer over it.
Now, just left-click it to select it, and there you go...your chart appears.We can see
how much each salesperson sold each month, and how their sales varied from month to month.
Our salespeople, which are the row titles in the cells, now appear on the bottom of
the chart. The column titles from the worksheet: January,
February, and March are now represented in the chart 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 height 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 Chart tools.
Once you insert a chart, a new set of Chart Tools that are arranged into 3 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 chart, you can do so from this tab.
Just click Change Chart Type and from the menu that appears, select another chart 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 chart back to the original view by clicking Switch Row/Column again.
You can modify your chart in 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 the horizontal axis, also called the x axis, which displays the
salesperson's name. Excel gives us the ability to change the chart
layout and add chart titles and text that describe our axes.
On the Design tab, find the Chart Layouts group.
You can click the More arrow to view all your options, and just left-click an option 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 1st 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 option from the Chart Styles
group. This can dramatically change the look of your
chart. Another great command is the Move Chart command.
This command does exactly what it states - it moves the chart.
Let's see how this works. Just click the command and a dialog box appears.
Right now, the Object in radio button is selected and Summary appears in the drop-down list.
This is reminding us that the chart currently appears on the Summary sheet.
You can change this so the chart appears on another existing worksheet, or select New
Sheet, name the sheet, and click OK. Now, the chart appears in its own sheet.
There are way too many chart options for us to go into them all in this 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 3 groups and the commands.
Also, take a look at the Format tab. From here, you can really change the visual
appearance of your chart so that it works with the rest of your spreadsheet.
As you saw, adding a chart takes somewhere around 10 seconds, but with all the Excel
tools at your disposal you can spend as much time as you want really formatting your chart
to meet your needs.