Excel 2019 Bible

Part III: Creating Charts and Other Visualizations

New Chart Types for Excel

Starting with Excel 2016, Microsoft started introducing new chart types to its collection

of visualizations. This section presents an example of each new chart type, along with an

explanation of the type of data required.

Histogram charts

Histogram charts were introduced with Excel 2016. A histogram displays the count of data

items in each of several discrete bins. With a bit of effort, you can create a histogram by

using a standard column chart or by using the Analysis ToolPak (see Chapter 33, “Analyzing

Data with the Analysis ToolPak”). But using the new histogram chart type makes it easier.

Figure 20.35 shows a histogram created from 105 student test scores. The bins are displayed as

category labels. You control the number of bins by using the Axis Options section of the Format

Axis task pane. In this example, we specified eight bins, and Excel took care of all of the details.

FIGURE 20.35

Displaying a student grade distribution using a histogram chart

Pareto charts

The Pareto chart (introduced with Excel 2016) is a combination chart in which columns are

displayed in descending order, and the columns use the left axis. The line shows the cumu-

lative percentage and uses the right axis.