Creating Charts in Excel

When you participate in Microsoft Excel Training, one of the topics that you will learn about is working with charts. Microsoft Excel allows you to use charts to graphically display data. Once you know how to use charts, you'll understand how versatile these tools are.

Excel comes with numerous chart types including column, line, bar, pie, area, XY (scatter), surface, bubble, donut, and radar charts. Within each chart type are numerous variations. For example, pie charts come in 2D and 3D versions along with “exploded” pies and sub-pies showing further detail of the categories of a slice.

Making charts in Excel is easy. Here's how to create a basic chart in Excel 2007. When you enroll in Microsoft Excel 2003 Training or Microsoft Excel 2007 Training, you'll learn more advanced steps.

First, start with a basic list. In this example, we'll look at gas prices and create a chart illustrating their rise and fall over a year's time.

In order to create a chart, click on the Insert tab in the Ribbon and choose the chart type you'd like.

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation

For example, if you want a column chart, click the Column icon. Your chart will look like this:

Not quite what you had in mind? Changing the chart type is just as easy. The Excel ribbon changes when you click on the chart. You'll see the Chart tools across the top. To change the chart type, simply click “Change Chart Type” in this area.

Experiment with the different chart types until you find the chart that best illustrates your data. You can make modifications to your chart by right-clicking it. Depending where in the chart you click, you'll get different options. For example, right-clicking in the bar area gives you options such as adding data labels or a trend line.