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when working with numerical data in
Excel
sometimes a chart is just what you need
to show the meaning behind the numbers
in this video we're going to look at
some of the different types of charts
and also some ways that you can
customize them to best represent your
data column charts are good all-around
charts they work with many different
types of data
whereas line charts are best for showing
trends over time
pie charts are unique because they let
you see your data in proportion instead
of on a graph
we also have the bar chart which is
basically just a column chart turned on
its side and finally area charts which
are similar to line charts except the
areas under the lines are filled in in
this example I have a table of sales
figures for a bookstore they're
organized by genre and year but it's
hard to see any trends without looking
at the numbers one by one a chart would
make things much easier to create a
chart select your data including any
headers that you want to use then go to
the insert tab and look to the commands
in the charts group for this data I
think I'll go with something in the
column category this one looks nice and
simple okay this is a lot clearer now I
can see that sci-fi and fantasy have the
strongest sales with an all-time high in
2009 how do I know this column is from
2009 well below the chart there's a type
of key called a legend and this tells us
what each color represents right now the
columns are grouped by genre but you
might prefer to see them grouped by year
instead there's an easy way to make this
change just make sure the chart is
selected then click switch row / column
on the design tab see how the chart has
been rearranged basically it's the same
data but the years and the genres have
switched places you can always
experiment with this to see which option
is going to work best for your data if
you want to try a different chart
altogether click the change chart type
command on the far right of the tab then
pick something else from the dialog box
I think I'll go with the line chart this
time
line charts work well for data like this
for example we can see right away that
romance novels are starting to catch up
to sci-fi and fantasy but mystery sales
have stayed consistently low if you want
you can change the chart style to give
your chart a different look and feel as
you can see you have several different
options to choose from you can also
change the chart layout itself just go
to the quick layout command and make a
selection from the menu not all of these
options will work well for the data in
your chart just keep going until you
find something you like why don't we go
with something a little bit like this
you can make further adjustments using
the add chart element command or the
chart elements shortcut just look for
the button with the plus sign here you
can add or remove elements from your
chart depending on your preferences or
you can click the arrow to the right to
access even more options to edit one of
your
elements like the chart title in this
example all you have to do is select the
placeholder then replace the text
finally whenever you insert a chart it
appears on the same sheet as the source
data by default if you want you can move
it to a different worksheet by following
these steps first make sure your chart
is selected then click the move chart
command next select the sheet where you
want the chart to go in this example
we'll choose new sheet when you're ready
click OK and now the chart appears in
whatever location you chose charts are a
great tool for presenting numerical data
and also enhancing your worksheets in
Excel with so many options to choose
from you can achieve exactly the result
you want
you