Part III: Creating Charts and Graphics
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Creating a Chart
Creating a chart is fairly simple:- Make sure that your data is appropriate for a chart.
- Select the range that contains your data.
- Choose Insert ➪ Charts and select a chart type. These icons display drop-down lists
that display subtypes. Excel creates the chart and places it in the center of the window. - (Optional) Use the commands in the Chart Tools contextual menu to change the
look or layout of the chart or add or delete chart elements.
Tip
You can create a chart with a single keystroke. Select the range to be used in the chart and then press Alt+F1
(for an embedded chart) or F11 (for a chart on a chart sheet). Excel displays the chart of the selected data,
using the default chart type. The default chart type is a column chart, but you can change it. Start by creating a
chart of the type that you want to be the default type. Select the chart and choose Chart Tools ➪ Design ➪
Change Chart Type. In the Change Chart Type dialog box, click Set As Default Chart. n
Hands On: Creating and
Customizing a Chart
This section contains a step-by-step example of creating a chart and applying some customizations.
If you’ve never created a chart, this is a good opportunity to get a feel for how it works.Figure 18.4 shows a worksheet with a range of data. This data is customer survey results by
month, broken down by customers in three age groups. In this case, the data resides in a table
(created by choosing Insert ➪ Tables ➪ Table), but that’s not a requirement to create a chart.On the CD
This workbook, named hands-on example.xlsx, is available on the companion CD-ROM. n
Selecting the data
The first step is to select the data for the chart. Your selection should include such items as labels
and series identifiers (row and column headings). For this example, select the range A4:D10. This
range includes the category labels but not the title (which is in A1).