Excel 2010 Bible

Part V: Analyzing Data with Excel

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FIGURE 38.6

Use the Histogram tool to generate distributions and graphical output.

Moving Average

The Moving Average tool helps you smooth out a data series that has a lot of variability. This pro-

cedure is often used in conjunction with a chart. Excel does the smoothing by computing a moving

average of a specified number of values. In many cases, a moving average enables you to spot

trends that otherwise would be obscured by noise in the data.

Figure 38.7 shows a chart generated by the Moving Average tool. You can, of course, specify the

number of values that you want Excel to use for each average. If you select the Standard Errors

check box in the Moving Average dialog box, Excel calculates standard errors and places formulas

for these calculations next to the moving average formulas. The standard error values indicate the

degree of variability between the actual values and the calculated moving averages.