Lecture 6

Charts and Graphs in Excel

Charts and graphs are used to make information clearer and easier to understand. A good
picture is worth a thousand numbers. The most common place for people to see charts and
graphs is in the news. News publishers use graphics all the time to show comparisons and
explain important trends for things such as weather, gas prices, crime rate, or who is winning an
election and by how much. Charts and graphs are also critical to engineers, scientists and
financial analysts who use them to help visualize large amounts of information, make better
decisions, and communicate their results to other people.

Creating a Chart
1. To create a basic chart in Excel that you can modify and format later, start by entering
the data for the chart on a worksheet. It is important to include titles in the datasheet so
that Excel can create legends and labels for the chart.

2. Then simply select that data (including titles) and press F11. This creates an instant
column chart in a new tab, which can be customized to meet your needs.

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 3. Or, instead of pressing F11, go to the Insert tab and select the type of chart you would
like to create.

4. This creates a chart embedded in the datasheet.

Formatting a Chart
Once a chart has been created, there are a multitude of formatting options that can be applied.

1. Select the chart. This activates the Chart Tools on the Ribbon.

2. Use the features available on the Design tab to:

a. Change the chart type.
b. Swap the rows and columns or adjust what data is charted. For example,
switching the columns and rows changes the look of the chart, even though the

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 raw data has not changed:

c. Apply a Chart Style.

d. Move the chart (from the datasheet to its own tab or vice versa).
3. Use the features available on the Layout tab to:

a. Insert a picture, shape, or text box.

b. Adjust the labels, including moving the legend, editing titles, and adding data
labels (like values).
c. Adjust the axes and gridlines (for example, showing numbers on the axis in
millions or adding or removing gridlines).
d. Format the background.
e. Add trendlines to forecast future data or error bars to show potential error
amounts.
4. Use the features available on the Format tab to:

a. Apply a style, fill, outline, or effect. (For example, to change the color of the
bars.)
b. Apply and format WordArt.
c. Use the dropdown list in the Current Selection group to quickly adjust which
area of the chart you want to format.

Working with Charts

1. Keep in mind that as data changes in the worksheet, the chart will automatically update.

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2. You may want to name the tabs at the bottom of the workbook to ease in navigation.

a. To rename a tab, double-click its name.

b. Or right-click and choose Rename.
c. You can also right-click and choose Tab Color to change the color of the tabs.
3. There may be times when you want to chart summary data rather than individual
instances. For example, you may want to chart total expenditures for each quarter as
opposed to each monthly expenditure.
a. Use formulas to create the summary data.
b. Use the CTRL button on the keyboard to select non-adjacent data. Remember to
select titles so that Excel can appropriately label the chart.

After selecting one group

of cells, hold CTRL while
selecting additional

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Adding Excel Charts to Word or PowerPoint
Now that you have created the charts in Excel, you may want to add them to a Word document
or PowerPoint presentation. There are two options – inserting a static copy of the chart or
inserting a linked copy of the chart. A static copy does not change; it will NOT be updated if
the chart is updated in Excel. A linked copy will update if the chart is updated in Excel.

1. Select the chart in Excel.

2. From the Home tab, select Copy.

3. Open the document or presentation in which you want to insert the chart.
4. Place the cursor in the desired location.
5. To insert a static copy of the chart, select Paste from the Home tab.

A static copy will not reflect

changes made to the data in

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6. To insert a linked copy of the chart, click the dropdown arrow underneath
the Paste button and choose Paste Special.

a. Select Microsoft Office Excel Chart Object.

b. Select Paste Link.
c. Click OK.

d. The chart in the document or presentation will update as the chart is

updated in Excel. Right-click on the chart and choose Update Link to
force the application to check for updates.

A linked copy will reflect changes

made to the data in Excel.

e. Note: To ensure that the entire chart is seen when pasted, before you
click the Copy button in Excel, go to the View tab, and click the 100%
button to set the Zoom level to 100%.

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Common types of graphs and charts

Bar Graph
A bar graph is a graph that shows you information about two or more discrete objects,
events, locations, groups of people, etc. You can use the bar graph to make
comparisons. For example, if you count the number of students in your class who are
girls and the number who are boys, you could make a bar graph to compare the totals.
One bar would represent the number of boys, and another bar would represent the
number of girls.

Example of a bar graph created with Excel.

Column Chart
A column chart in Excel is just a bar graph where the bars are displayed as columns.
Instead of the labels or categories listed on the left, they are listed on the bottom. The
example below shows how you can set up the data table for creating a column chart
showing the number of apples eaten in a particular month.

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 Example of a column chart created using Excel

Pictograph
A pictograph shows data using a series of pictures, where a picture represents a
number. The example below takes the same data used for the column chart but uses
pictures of apples, where one complete picture represents 5 apples eaten. Pictographs
can be a fun way to display information, and they are easy to create in Excel. You first
create a bar graph or column chart and then you edit the fill options for the bars or
columns.

Example of a Pictograph created with Excel

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 Fill Settings for Creating a Pictograph
Click to Enlarge

Pictures can say a lot more than numbers. But, it is very important that we don't
misrepresent information by the way that we use images and graphics. For example, it
would be very confusing if the pictograph above used images of oranges instead of
apples to represent the number of apples eaten. We must think about whether the
sizes, shapes and colors of graphics are helping to make information more clear and
helping to increase understanding.

Line Graph
A line graph is great for showing continuous change over time. For example, you
could use a line graph to watch the changes in temperature in the month of March. If it
is hotter one day than on the day before, the line will go up. If it is cooler, it will go down.
By analyzing the line graph, you can get a better idea of the changes that took place as
time went on. You can also easily determine when the value you are graphing was
highest or when it was lowest. Including 2 lines on the same graph lets you visualize
comparisons, such as the difference between the High and Low temperatures for each
day.

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 Example of a line graph in Excel
Data Source: http://www.beautifulseattle.com/mthsum.asp

You can create a line graph from the same data table as a bar graph, and vice versa.
But, what you decide to use should largely depend upon whether you are showing how
something changes over time (line graph) or showing comparisons between discrete
things (bar graph).

It is important to be aware of color choices when using graphs. People often associate
meanings with different colors, such as red for hot and blue for cold, so in the example
above it could be confusing if the colors of the lines were switched. It makes more
sense for red to be used for the High temperature and blue to be used for the Low
temperature.

Pie Charts
A pie chart is a circular graph where the pieces of the pie are used to represent a
percentage of a whole. For example, if you took a survey of the students in your class
and asked them each about their favorite pizza, you could use the results to make a pie
chart that would show what toppings earned the most votes. In this case, each triangle
would represent a different topping. The triangle with the largest area would represent
the topping that got the most votes, while the toppings that got the least votes would be
represented by smaller triangles.

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 Example of a pie chart in Excel

In the example above, it is pretty easy to see that Pepperoni was the favorite. It is also
easy to see that Pepperoni received the same amount of votes as all of the others
combined. That would not be as easy to see if you were just staring at the numbers in
the table. One problem with a pie chart is that it can take up a lot of space to show only
a little bit of information.

Another major problem with pie charts is making comparisons between a lot of different
things, and especially when you have a lot of little slices. To help with that, Excel
provides a "Bar of Pie" graph that breaks out some of the pieces into a separate
stacked bar graph like in the example below.

Example of a "bar of pie" graph in Excel

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People already have a hard time comparing sizes of areas when they are fairly close in
size. But, it is even harder when the areas are different shapes. If you tried to compare
Sausage and Bacon in the above example (without using the data table), you could end
up coming to an incorrect conclusion. Can you tell why? Is the Sausage slice larger or
smaller than the Bacon? Without the numbers to help you, you probably couldn't tell for
sure. In fact, the Sausage received 3 votes and the Bacon only received 2. It turns out
that the sizes of the rectangles can only be compared within the stacked bar chart. The
size of the rectangles cannot be compared to the size of the pie slices - not only
because of the difficulty between comparing rectangles and pie slices, but also because
the total area of the stacked bar chart is not the same as the total area of the "Other"
slice from which it was taken.

Area Charts
An area chart or area graph combines some of the characteristics of line graphs with
the characteristics of bar graphs. It looks like a line graph with shading underneath the
line. Sometimes, the shading can help add meaning to a line graph. For example, if a
line graph represented the height of water in a reservoir over time, shading the area
under the line could make the line graph look like actual water rising and falling.

Stacked area charts and stacked column charts provide a way to compare differences
or proportions over time or between different locations or groups of people. The height
of each of the areas as well as the total height of all the areas may change over time. If
you had a series of pie charts that compared the same items from month to month, all of
that information could be displayed in a single area chart. For example, let's say that a
teacher offered the same pizza topping survey to each of her classes over a period of
10 years. You can display that information as an area chart like the image below.

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 Example of a stacked area chart in Excel

This type of area chart is time-based (same survey offered year after year), but it's not
truly continuous because the class stays the same throughout the entire year. So, this is
a case where it might be more appropriate to show the graph as a stacked column chart
(see below) which will depict the results as discrete events. Everything about the data
table and the graph is pretty much the same. All you have to do is change the chart
type.

Example of a stacked column chart in Excel

XY Graph (Scatter Plot)

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 Spirograph Template

An X-Y graph, also called a coordinate graph or scatter plot, is a graph that shows
different ordered pairs on an X-Y axis (Cartesian coordinate system). X-Y graphs are
used to look at and find patterns in sets of data and to plot mathematical formulas. The
points on the graph may form a straight line or a curved line, and may be connected
with a line. Unlike bar graphs and line graphs, the line in an X-Y graph can curve back
on itself, forming complex patterns such as the spirograph shown on the right. In some
cases, the points may not form a line at all. They might just be shown as a bunch of
random dots scattered all over the place (thus the name).

To plot a point on graph paper, you first need to draw the coordinate system and then
you simply find the point's x-coordinate, move straight up or down the line to its y-
coordinate, and draw a point. To create a scatter plot in Excel, you first create a simple
table with one column for listing the X-coordinates and a second column for the Y-
coordinates, select the data table, then insert the scatter chart by choosing it from a
menu.

Example of a scatter plot in Excel

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Other Charts and Graphs
There are many other types of charts and graphs, as well as many other variations on
the types listed above. But most of the more advanced types of graphs, charts, and
plots require a more advanced knowledge of math, science, and statistics. Some of the
names for these other types of charts (but definitely not all of them) are: surface plots
and other 3-dimensional graphs, bubble charts, candlestick charts, radar plots, forest
plots, glyph plots, histograms, stem-and-leaf plots, dot plots, biplots, box plots, gauge
charts, control charts, geo charts, tree maps, combination charts, stepped area charts,
dendrogram plots, and many others.

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