Presenting Data in Charts - ΤΕΦΑΑ - DPESS · functionality of your chart. In what follows, those tools are examined in more detail. Insert Chart dialog box. University of Thessaly

University of ThessalyDepartment of Physical Education & Sport ScienceEuropean Master’s in Sport & Exercise Psychology

2012

Presenting Data inChartsSeminar: ICT skills for research and presentation

Dr. Marina Papastergiou

University of Thessaly - EMSEP

Presenting Data in Charts 22

Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 3

Common chart categories.......................................................................................................... 3

Creating a chart.......................................................................................................................... 3

Design tab options ..................................................................................................................... 6

Layout tab options ..................................................................................................................... 8

Format tab options .................................................................................................................. 18

Resizing or moving a chart....................................................................................................... 19

Transferring a chart to MS Office 2007 or PowerPoint 2007 .................................................. 20

Creating alternative types of charts ........................................................................................ 20

REFERENCES............................................................................................................................. 24



Introduction

Charts constitute a valuable means of visualizing data. Microsoft Excel2007 offers you the opportunity to enter and process numerical data inspreadsheets, and to produce dynamic charts that represent those data.

Common chart categories

The most common chart categories are as follows:

Bar: Usually, it is used for comparing values.

Column: It is essentially the same as the bar chart. The only difference isthat data are presented vertically, whereas in bar charts they arepresented horizontally. This is by far the most widely used chartcategory.

Line: Usually, it depicts the fluctuation of many different values within atimeframe.

Pie: It is used to present percentages.

Creating a chart

Let us see a concrete example. The following Excel spreadsheetcomprises data collected from an investigation of 650 high schoolstudents’ preferences towards 7 athletic activities. The sample of theinvestigation consisted of 320 boys and 330 girls and the athleticactivities were as follows: football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, trackand field, swimming and gymnastics.



Let us suppose that we want to create a column chart that will depictthe preferences for boys and girls. The necessary tools for the creationof charts are included in the Charts group of the Insert tab.

It should be noted that by selecting the Create Chart option on thelower right corner of the Charts group, the Insert Chart dialog boxappears, which includes all the chart categories and subcategoriesavailable in Excel.

Create chart



To create your chart, first select the data that you want to be presentedon the chart, namely cells A1:C8. Then select a 3-D column graph bypressing the Column button.

The chart is placed on the spreadsheet. Furthermore, the tabs Design,Layout and Format appear. The tools that are available on those tabsoffer you the possibility to significantly enhance the appearance andfunctionality of your chart. In what follows, those tools are examined inmore detail.

Insert Chartdialog box



Design tab options

With your chart always selected, click, for instance, on Layout 7 of theChart Layouts group of the Design tab. The look of your chart willchange.

Layout 7 of the 3-D Column subcategory of the Column category allowsyou to enter titles for axes x (horizontal axis) and y (vertical axis). Enterthe titles ‘Athletic Activity’ and ‘Frequency’ respectively. The chart takesthe following form:

From the Chart Styles group, you can also change the color scheme ofyour chart.

Layout 7



By using the commands of the Type and Data groups, you can changethe type of the chart (button Change Chart Type), and you can switchRow/Column (button Switch Row/Column), that is to say move databeing charted on the x axis to the y axis and vice-versa. You can evenchange the data that are presented on the chart.

The latter can be accomplished by pressing the button Select Data of theDesign tab

and pressing the button that appears next to the Chart data range field.

Afterwards, select the desired data area on the spreadsheet (e.g. areaA1:C5 if you want your chart to include only the first four athleticactivities), press the button that appears on the Select Data Sourcewindow and then the button OK in the subsequent window.



Layout tab options

The tools of the Layout tab allow you to modify the informationalelements of your chart (e.g. the legend), to insert SmartArt graphics andimages to your chart, etc.

Let us suppose, for example, that you want to change the placement ofthe legend of your chart. First of all, your chart should be selected. Asyour chart stands now, the legend is placed to the right. If you want toplace it at the bottom of the chart, select Show Legend at Bottom fromthe Labels group of the Layout tab.



Your chart will now look as follows:

You can undo this command if you want the legend to continue toappear to the right. Furthermore, by selecting More Legend Options,you can add a gradient fill, a solid border and a shadow to your legendthat will now look like this:



Insertion of SmartArt graphics and images into the chart can be done bypressing the buttons Picture and Shapes of the Insert group.

By pressing the Chart Title button you can add a title to your chart (e.g.‘Preferences towards athletic activities by gender’)

Your chart will look like this:



By selecting More Title Options … from the menu that appears bypressing the Chart Title button, you can further format the title (e.g. adda gradient fill or shaded borders to it).

By pressing the Axis Titles button, you can modify the way the axis titlesappear. By pressing the Data Labels button, the arithmetic values thatcorrespond to each of the data series of the diagram (blue columns, i.e.boys, and red columns, i.e. girls) appear over each column.

Selecting More Data Label Options … you can customize the appearanceof the data labels. For instance, here we have chosen solid white fill andshaded borders for the data labels for both boys and girls:



By pressing the Data Table button, you can include the data table inyour chart.

The two buttons of the Axes group are also very useful. By pressing theAxes button, you can specify what is shown on each axis and how it isshown. For example, as regards the x axis, you might want the labels‘football’, ‘basketball’, ‘volleyball’, etc. not to appear. In this case, selectButton Axes => Primary Horizontal Axis => Show Axis without Labeling.



By selecting More Primary Horizontal Axis Options, you can set up moreparameters, such as the point where axes x and y intersect.

Likewise, by selecting Button Axes => Primary Vertical Axis, you can setup parameters that have to do with the y axis, such as the scale of thisaxis.



By selecting More Primary Vertical Axis Options, you can set up moreparameters, such as the minimum/maximum number and the major unitof the y axis.



By pressing the Gridlines button => Primary Horizontal Gridlines, youcan specify that gridlines only for the major units of the y axis appear onthe chart (you can even eliminate horizontal gridlines altogether).



If you select Major Gridlines, your chart will become like this:

By pressing the Chart Wall button of the Background group, and thenselecting More Walls Options => Fill, you can add a gradient fill to thewalls of your chart.



Likewise, by pressing the Chart Floor button and then selecting theMore Floor Options, you can add a fill to the floor of your chart, whichby now will look as follows:



Format tab options

Using the tools of this tab, you can give a final, professional look to yourchart.

By clicking on your chart and then selecting one of the Shape Styles, youcan easily change the look and feel of your chart.

The Shape Fill, Shape Outline and Shape Effects commands of theFormat tab all refer to the borders of the chart and the area containedwithin those borders. For instance, you can add a glow effect to theborders by selecting Shape Effects=> Glow.



Finally, selecting an appropriate WordArt Style will change theappearance of the text (and numbers) of your chart.

Interesting text formatting options are also available through the TextFill, Text Outline and Text Effects commands. For instance, you can addan outer shadow to the text.

Resizing or moving a chart

You can move a chart by dragging it. You can resize it by using the 8resize handles which are situated on the chart borders.



Transferring a chart to MS Office 2007 or PowerPoint 2007

You can create a chart in Excel and then simply Copy/Paste it into aWord document or a PowerPoint presentation.

Creating alternative types of charts

Let us now see how we can create other types of charts, other than thevery commonly used column type. In the above presented example, letus suppose that we want to create a pie chart representing thepercentages of students (regardless of gender) that prefer each of theseven athletic activities.

The first step is to select the appropriate data area (or areas) on theExcel spreadsheet. This time, select the area A2:A8, then hold the [CTRL]key down and also select the area D2:D8. Your selection should be asfollows:



Then select a 3D pie from the Insert tab.

The following chart appears on the spreadsheet:



By applying Layout 1 of the Design tab, the corresponding labels(percentages) appear on each slice of the pie. The title ‘Students'preferences towards athletic activities’ can also be added to the chart,which becomes as follows:

If you want the labels to appear outside the pie slices, select the buttonData Labels => Outside End on the Layout tab.



Finally, on the Format tab, select an appropriate Shape Style and WordStyle and you are done!



REFERENCES

RAM (2007). Microsoft Office Excel 2007. Lambrakis Press.

Cox, J., Frye, C., Lambert, M., Lambert, S., Preppernau, J., & Murray, K.(2007). 2007 Microsoft Office System Step by Step. MicrosoftCorporation.

Documents

Presenting Data in Charts - ΤΕΦΑΑ - DPESS · functionality of your chart. In what follows, those tools are examined in more detail. Insert Chart dialog box. University of Thessaly