Excel 2010 Bible

Chapter 18: Getting Started Making Charts

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On the CD
A workbook that contains the charts in this section is available on the companion CD-ROM. The file is named
xy charts.xlsx.

Note
Although these data points correspond to time, the chart doesn’t convey any time-related information. In other
words, the data points are plotted based only on their two values. n

Figure 18.24 shows another XY chart, this one with lines that connect the XY points. This chart

plots a hypocycloid curve with 200 data points. It’s set up with three parameters. Change any of

the parameters, and you’ll get a completely different curve. This is a very minimalist chart. I

deleted all the chart elements except the data series itself.

If this type of design looks familiar, it’s because a hypocycloid curve is the basis for a popular chil-

dren’s drawing toy.

FIGURE 18.24

A hypocycloid curve, plotted as an XY chart.

Area

Think of an area chart as a line chart in which the area below the line has been colored in. Figure

18.25 shows an example of a stacked area chart. Stacking the data series enables you to see clearly

the total, plus the contribution by each series.