Excel 2010 Bible

Chapter 18: Getting Started Making Charts

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FIGURE 18.4

The source data for the hands-on chart example.

Tip
If your chart data is in a table (or is in a rectangular range separated from other data), you can select just a sin-
gle cell. Excel will almost always guess the range for the chart accurately. n

Note
The data that you use in a chart need not be in contiguous cells. You can press Ctrl and make a multiple selec-
tion. The initial data, however, must be on a single worksheet. If you need to plot data that exists on more than
one worksheet, you can add more series after the chart is created. In all cases, however, data for a single chart
series must reside on one sheet. n

Choosing a chart type

After you select the data, select a chart type from the Insert ➪ Charts group. Each control in this

group is a drop-down list, which lets you further refine your choice by selecting a subtype.

For this example, choose Insert ➪ Charts ➪ Column ➪ Clustered Column. In other words,

you’re creating a column chart, using the clustered column subtype. Excel displays the chart

shown in Figure 18.5.

You can move the chart by dragging any of its borders. You can also resize it by clicking and drag-

ging in one of its corners.

Experimenting with different layouts

The chart looks pretty good, but it’s just one of several predefined layouts for a clustered column

chart.

To see some other configurations for the chart, select the chart and apply a few other layouts in the

Chart Tools ➪ Design ➪ Chart Layouts group.