Excel 2010 Bible

Chapter 18: Getting Started Making Charts

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A key point to keep in mind is that charts are dynamic. In other words, a chart series is linked to

the data in your worksheet. If the data changes, the chart is updated automatically to reflect those

changes.

After you create a chart, you can always change its type, change the formatting, add new data series

to it, or change an existing data series so that it uses data in a different range.

FIGURE 18.2

This line chart displays two data series.

A chart is either embedded in a worksheet, or displayed on a separate chart sheet. It’s very easy to

move an embedded chart to a chart sheet (and vice versa).

Embedded charts

An embedded chart basically floats on top of a worksheet, on the worksheet’s drawing layer. The

charts shown previously in this chapter are both embedded charts.

As with other drawing objects (such as Shapes or SmartArt), you can move an embedded chart,

resize it, change its proportions, adjust its borders, and perform other operations. Using embedded

charts enables you to print the chart next to the data that it uses.

To make any changes to the actual chart in an embedded chart object, you must click it to activate

the chart. When a chart is activated, Excel displays the Chart Tools context tab. The Ribbon pro-

vides many tools for working with charts.

With one exception, every chart starts out as an embedded chart. The exception is when you create

a default chart by selecting the data and pressing F11. In that case, the chart is created on a chart

sheet.