Working with Charts and GraphicsCREATING CHARTSLesson 6 - Microsoft Excel 2010

Creating Charts• There are six common charts used in business.

• Column Chart• Bar Chart most common charts• Pie Chart• Line Chart• XY Scatter• Exploded Pie Chart

• It is important to understand how and when each chart is used to communicate information.

Column Chart• Column charts are used to make comparisons about groups of

data• This chart compares Senior, Junior, and Sophomore attendance

rates at assemblies over a period of four months.

Spirit Participation

0

20

40

60

80

100

January February March April

Month

Att

enda

nce

Rat

e

Seniors

Juniors

Sophomores

Stacked Bar Chart• The stacked bar chart is used to represent the contribution of

individual items to a whole• Each bar is divided into two or more parts• The length of the stacked bar represents a total

8,000

7,000

8,000

5,000

15,755

25,000

12,575

10,500

2,500

3,500

3,500

3,300

0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000

1st Quarter

2nd Quarter

3rd Quarter

4th Quarter

Pe

rio

d

Sales (in Thousands)

Printers

Computers

Monitors

ABC ComputersQuarterly

Report Sales

Analysis

Pie Chart and Exploded Pie• The Pie chart is used to represent only one series of data

• Examples:• Percent (%) of each expenditure in a budget• Percent of each investment type in a portfolio

• Answers the question, “What is the percentage of each part to the whole?”

• The Exploded Pie chart is used to emphasize one or more portions of the data

Financial Budget East Region

57%

17%

13%13%Printers

PDAs

Desktops

Laptops

Music Sales by Genre

16%

24%

33%

27% Classical

Country

Rock

Hip Hop

Line Chart• The Line Chart is used to indicate trends in data• Examine the Sales Trends chart below

Sales Trends by Department

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

1st Quarter 2ndQuarter

3rd Quarter 4th Quarter

Period

Sa

les

(in

Th

ou

sa

nd

s)

Music

Shoes

Clothing

XY Scatter Chart• The XY Scatter chart is used to indicate a correlation between two or more sets

of data• A business example of an XY Chart is one that represents the effect (if any) of

caffeine on worker productivity

Stress Analysis

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

0 5 10 15

Wait Time (in Minutes)

Pu

lse

Rat

e

Principal'sOffice

Doctor'sOffice

Selecting Data for a Chart

• When creating a chart, select only the data you wish to display.

• Totals are not usually used• Click the insert tab to select the appropriate chart type to

display your data• There are two ways to display a chart

• As a separate chart sheet• Embedded in the worksheet with the data

Go to this tutorial for creating charts in Excel 2010.