Using Charts in Excel 20021 Charting Your Data…. Using Charts in Excel 20022 Create a Simple Chart This lesson will cover: What is a chart? Which chart

Using Charts in Excel 2002 1

Charting Your Data…


Create a Simple Chart

This lesson will cover:• What is a chart?• Which chart to use for what data…

• Examples of Excel’s Charts• How to Create a Chart Sheet

• The Chart Wizard• How to Delete, Resize and Move Embedded Charts• Selecting Chart Objects• Formatting Chart Objects• Changing Chart Options• Changing the Current Chart Type• Adding and Deleting or Changing Source Data• Changing the Chart’s Location

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What is a Chart?

Charts are visual aids that help users see comparisons, patterns, and trends in data. For instance, rather than having to analyze several columns of worksheet numbers, you can see at a glance whether sales are falling or rising over quarterly periods, or how the actual sales compare to the projected sales.

You can create a chart on its own sheet or as an embedded object on a worksheet. You can also publish a chart on a Web page or insert it into another Office 2000 document. To create a chart you can the Chart Wizard to step through the process of choosing the data from your worksheet, the chart type and the various chart options.

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Embedded Chart or… Chart Sheet?

Embedded charts - An embedded chart is considered a graphic object and is saved as part of the worksheet on which it is created. Use embedded charts when you want to display one or more charts with your worksheet data, or copy a chart to another document.

Chart sheets - A chart sheet is a separate worksheet within your workbook that has its own sheet name. Use a chart sheet when you want to view or edit large or complex charts separately from the worksheet data or when you want to preserve screen space as you work on the worksheet.

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Anatomy of a chart…Legend – Chart Series Data

X Axis - Categories

Y AxisZ Axis

The Z Axis actually replaces the Y axis in 3D charts. It is the horizontal axis that starts at the 0 value of Y and increases to the “back” of the chart. As far as Excel is concerned it is the horizontal markings on the Y axis.

Bars


Which Chart type for what?

Excel has 14 standard chart types to choose from and many more custom types. Knowing which one to use takes a little time to master. You could try to use the same types in all your work, but data is represented differently with each chart type. So you can present another view of the same data by using another chart.

For example…

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a Pie chart…

Motorola Profit by Quarter1995

19%

24%

25%

32% Mar

Jun

Sep

Dec

Profits as a percentage of 100%

Profits by quarter in 1995, the legend shows the month that ends each quarter.

A “slice”


Motorola Profit by Quarter

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

1994 1995 1996

Year

To

tal

Pro

fit Dec

Sep

Jun

Mar

a “Stacked” Bar chart…

Profits as a percentage of 100%

Profits by quarter in 3 years, 1994, 1995 and 1996, the legend shows the month that ends

each quarter.


0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

Profit

Mar

Jun

Sep

Dec

Qu

arte

r E

nd

ing

Motorola Profit by Quater

1994

1995

1996

a “Clustered” Horizontal Bar chart…Each bar now represents a specific year

Profits are shown as a numerical value (undefined on this sheet) by each quarter


Motorola Profit by Quarter

0

0.5

1

Quarter Ending

Pro

fit 1994

1995

1996

1994 0.51 0.63 0.65 0.86

1995 0.61 0.79 0.81 0.72

1996 0.63 0.54 0.34 0.39

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a Line chart…

This chart uses the “Show data table” option available on the Data Table tab of the wizard or the Chart Options dialog box.

The Data Series is now 3 years of profits, the legend shows line color that represents each year.Each point, as

shown in the circle, is a “data point”,

and refers to a value in the table.


Want to see more charts?

To view the other chart types…open the Chart Wizard…scroll through the “Chart Type” pane of the wizard, click on a “Chart sub-type” and press the

button directly below the panes…you can also find this information by using the Chart Type command on the Chart menu.

Click here to preview your data

in the selected chart type


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This will display a preview of your data in the selected type…some items, such as in the legend may not be labeled properly…you’ll have to do that later.


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To see more types, just “point and click”…but you really need to learn how to properly use the Chart Wizard to appreciate it…


A Tour of…the Chart Wizard

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Creating a Chart Sheet with the Chart Wizard 0

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You can create either an embedded chart or a chart sheet several ways in Excel (what else is new?).

• To create a chart sheet that uses the default chart type, select the data you want to plot, and then press F11.

• To create an embedded chart that uses the default chart type, select the data you want to plot, and then click Default Chart button . If the Default Chart button is not available, add it to a toolbar.

…or you can use the Chart Wizard…


Creating a Chart Sheet with the Chart Wizard

• Select the cells that contain the data you want to appear in the chart. If you want the column and row labels to appear in the chart, include the cells that contain them in the selection.

• Click Chart Wizard button .• Follow the Wizard’s instructions....

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You can create either an embedded chart or a chart sheet by using the Chart Wizard. It is by far the best way to create simple or complex graphs and charts that perfectly match your criteria. To use the Wizard:


To start the charting process select the data that you want to use…here the Product Segments and the Sales in millions of

dollars during the quarter (ending June 29, 1996) were selected…B3:B8 and G3:G8.

Then click the Chart Wizard button on the toolbar…

Chart Wizard button


Notice the steps are numbered, this is

step 1 of 4…selecting a Chart

type.

When the Wizard opens the first

task is selecting a Chart type…

remember that you can preview the types before you move to the

next step.

The Pie chart with 3D effects is chosen

for this demonstration…


The Chart, as it is currently formatted, is displayed in the upper pane of the wizard. You now can change

the data range that was previously selected by clicking on the button

next to the Data Range text box…

After clicking the Next button step 2 is

displayed…


Remember that there is “What’s This?” help

available for the objects and options in the wizard. To use it, click on the ? button

in the upper right corner of the dialog

box, and then click on the item in question…below is a sample of

the help …

The Data Range selection is fine so we’ll proceed…

click Next…


Here at step 3 we can change some of our

chart options, such as Titles, the Legend and

the Data Labels…a chart title is added

“Motorola Earnings by Quarter”, which

appears as we type it in, and then we click

the Legend tab…


The Show Legend option is selected and we leave that alone. But we change the

Placement to Bottom. The legend moves to

the bottom of the chart, and then we

click the Data Labels tab…


The Data Labels tab has options for adding or changing labels that explain the chart. Here

the selection was changed from None to

Show value… this displays the actual

data values from the worksheet…


And, here the selection was changed to Show percent… this

displays the percentage each data value is of the whole (100%) …notice how the chart updates as

we customize it to our needs…this looks fine…and now we

click Next…


Step 4…the end of the line. At this step we

select to save the chart as either a new sheet

or an object on a sheet. If As new sheet is selected, a name for

the sheet should be entered or the default value (here, Chart1) will be used…if we

are happy with everything we click

Finish…

You can always backup a step or two if you want to make a change before you

click Finish…


And, this is our final chart…saved as a worksheet named

Chart1


If the current design still isn’t what we really would like to see, it can be modified…that is what Chapter 7 is about.


Deleting, Sizing and Moving Embedded Charts 0

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Deleting resizing or moving an Excel chart is very simple… first you need to make it “Active”. Just like a cell, a chart needs to be activated to be changed. To activate a chart, simply click anywhere on it…when the chart becomes active its border will display little black boxes called “handles”.The handles are used for resizing the chart, but they also let you know the chart is active and can be moved or modified. You can right click on an active chart to display its shortcut menu.


The active chart’s shortcut menu offers numerous ways to modify it. Of course, there is the usual Cut, Copy and Paste actions…but now there is a Clear

command…this is basically the Delete…however you can use the Delete key for this, too. Clicking on the top command, Format Chart Area, brings up…


…the Format Chart Area dialog box. From here you can change many of the chart’s properties

like its background, font and its positioning and locked property.


…changing the font to Architect and the area (fill) color to gray and the border to shadowed with rounded corners changes the chart from the

previous one, to this...


…to resize a chart, hover your mouse cursor over one of the handles until a double headed arrow appears like this , when it appears left click and drag the border

outward (to enlarge the chart), or inward (to reduce the chart). This is a simple process, but it takes a few tries to understand it. Dragging from the corners resizes the chart

diagonally (both height and width are resized) which is the best way to increase its size overall. Dragging from the sides merely moves the sides in or out, resizing the chart

vertically or horizontally.


…to move a chart, left click on the active chart and drag it to its new location…notice the “ghost” of the chart as you move it…


…when you release the chart it comes to rest in it new home...


…to add a toolbar to Excel’s window…right click on a visible

toolbar and select the one you want to use form the pop-up

menu…here you see the Chart toolbar is already displayed…when a chart is active the

main menu displays a Chart menu which includes many of

the chart’s shortcut menu commands and few that are

different...


…the Chart toolbar can be undocked and moved to

wherever you want…it can be docked on the bottom of the window or at either of the

sides if you like…


The Chart Toolbar can be used to access many of the chart’s features and modify it according to your desires…

• Format Chart Area dialog• Chart Type

• Show Legend• Data Table

• Series by Row• Series by Column

• Angle Text

The Chart Toolbar

Chart Objects – shows the active object on the chart and can be used to select another

Default Chart – creates the currently selected default chart type by clicking this button.


…to select a chart object, like the title, either click on the object (the chart does not

have to be active), or select the object from the Chart toolbar’s drop-down list

box…each of these methods will make the chart object

available for modifications…in fact, you can use many of

the formatting toolbar’s commands to change it once

it is active.


…the selected or active chart object displays a border with “handles” this object can now

be changed. To resize the object you simply grab one of

the handles and drag it…


…to delete the object press the Delete key…or you can

bring up the shortcut menu by right clicking on the active

object…

…the current Chart object is the “Plot Area”


…the current Chart object is the “Legend”

…select the Clear command from the menu to delete the

object…notice that the active object here is the Legend. Its

border is slightly different then the Plot Area, but you

can still tell that it is selected.

Each chart object has a shortcut menu that is

customized to the options available to that object…

selecting the Format Legend command…


…displays the formatting dialog box for the Legend.

You can also change many object options by using the

commands on the formatting toolbar, such as the Font

styles and Fill color…only the available options on the toolbar will be active, the others are “grayed-out”.


…the shortcut menu for the Plot Area (which is where the

data is visually displayed) contains commands that can drastically alter the current

chart.

Selecting the Chart Options command…


…displays Chart Options dialog box.

Here you will find many of the same options as are presented by the Chart

Wizard…


…many of the Plot Area’s shortcut menu commands can be found on the Chart menu

that appears whenever a chart is selected…for example, to change the chart type, click

on the Chart Type menu command…pretty intuitive,

huh?


…The Chart Type dialog box allows you to select a new

chart type. When you select a new type and click OK it is

immediately implemented…you can use the Undo

command to revert to the original chart.

For instance, if you select a Clustered Bar with 3D

effects…. This is where you reset the default chart type…


…you would see something like this…


To change the data sources for the chart, select Source

Data from the Chart menu…

… remember the source data is highlighted when you select a chart.


…the Source Data dialog box displays options for selecting data ranges or data series. It

dynamically displays the changes you make to your

chart…


…removing the 1997 column from the the data range

produces a slightly different chart…


…and changing the series from rows to columns adjusts it even more. Remember not all these changes will produce

a chart that effectively communicates your data’s true meaning. Be selective and know what you want to

portray.


Changing the location of a chart means to change it from an embedded object or a chart

sheet, or move it from one sheet to another, or both. To

change a chart’s location, select the Location command

from the Chart menu.


The Location command displays the Chart Location dialog box. There are two ways to save a chart, as an

embedded object or as a chart sheet…


…currently the chart in this demonstration is an embedded

object on the Options worksheet…by selecting the As new sheet button, entering

a worksheet name, such as New Chart Sheet (as used

here) and then clicking OK…


…the chart is now moved to a new worksheet named “New Chart Sheet”,

just as we requested.

Documents

Using Charts in Excel 20021 Charting Your Data…. Using Charts in Excel 20022 Create a Simple Chart This lesson will cover: What is a chart? Which chart