Creating a chart in Excel - a science and an art

Edited screen shots showing how to create a pie chart in Excel

Microsoft Excel supports many kinds of charts to help you display data in ways that are meaningful to your audience. When you use the Chart Wizard to create a chart — or when you use the Chart Type command to change an existing chart — you can easily select the type you want from a list of standard or custom chart types. Some chart types require a specific arrangement of the data before you can create a chart.
1. On the worksheet, arrange the data that you want to plot in a chart

For a column, bar, line, area, surface or radar chart, you should arrange the data in columns or rows. Data in columns:

Field1	Field2
1	2
3	4

Data in rows:
Field1	1	2
Field2	3	4

For a pie or doughnut chart with only one series of data, you should arrange the data in one column or row only.

One column of data and one column of data labels:
A    1
B    2
C    3

One row of data and one row of data labels:
A B C
1 2 3

For a pie chart or doughnut chart that has more than one series of data, you can arrange the data in more than one column or row.

More than one column of data:
A   1   2
B   3   4
C   5   6

For an xy (scatter) or bubble chart, you can arrange the data in columns, so that x values are listed in the first column and corresponding y values and/or bubble size values are listed in adjacent columns.

Data in columns:
X   Y   Bubble
1   2   3
4   5   6

For a stock chart, you need to arrange data in the following order (in rows or columns): high values, low values, and closing values. Use names or dates as labels.

Data in columns:
Date High Low Close
1/1/2002 46.125 42 44.063

2. Select the cells that contain the data that you want to use for the chart.

Tip: If the cells that you want to select for the chart are not in a continuous range, select the first group of cells that contain the data that you want to include. Hold down CTRL, and then select any additional cell groups that you want to include. The nonadjacent selections must form a rectangle.

3. Click Chart Wizard on the Standard toolbar, or click Chart on the Insert menu.

4. Follow the instructions in the Chart Wizard.

Tips:

To quickly create a basic chart that is displayed on a separate chart sheet (chart sheet: A sheet in a workbook that contains only a chart. A chart sheet is beneficial when you want to view a chart or a PivotChart report separately from worksheet data or a PivotTable report.), select the data that you want to use for the chart, and then press ALT+F1 or F11.

If you use a specific chart type frequently when you create a chart, you may want to set that chart type as the default chart type.

Some notes:

When you create a chart, the Chart toolbar is displayed and the Chart menu is added to the menu bar. You can use the toolbar buttons and menu commands to modify the chart. For example, use the toolbar to select specific items in the chart, change the chart type, make formatting changes, show or hide the legend or data table, or switch between displaying the data series by row and displaying it by column. The Chart menu allows you to make changes to the source data, add data to the chart, specify numerous chart options, change the location of the chart, and apply 3-D effects. The Chart menu does not, however, provide a command for creating a chart.

The Chart toolbar can also be displayed (or hidden) at any time by pointing to Toolbars on the View menu, and then clicking Chart. If you display the Chart toolbar before you create a chart, you can use it to create a chart. Select the cells that contain the data that you want to use in the chart, and then click Chart Type on the Chart toolbar. The chart will be displayed in the selected chart type on the same worksheet.

Pie chart in Excel continued

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