Excel 2007 - Working With Charts
Excel 2007 - Working With Charts
Excel 2007
Working with Charts
Page 1
Introduction
A chart is a tool you can use in Excel to communicate your data graphically. Charts
allow your audience to more easily see the meaning behind the numbers in the
spreadsheet, and to make showing comparisons and trends much easier. In this lesson,
you will learn how to insert and modify Excel charts and see how they can be an
effective tool for communicating information.
Page 2
Charts
Watch the video! (9:25 min)
Creating a chart
Charts can be a useful way to communicate data. When you insert a chart in Excel, it appears in the selected
worksheet with the source data by default.
To create a chart:
Select the worksheet you want to work with. In this example, we use the Summary worksheet.
Select the cells you want to chart, including the column titles and row labels.
Click the Insert tab.
Hover over each Chart option in the Charts group to learn more about it.
Select one of the Chart options. In this example, we'll use the Columns command.
Select a type of chart from the list that appears. For this example, we'll use a 2-D Clustered Column. The
chart appears in the worksheet.
Page 3
Source data
The range of cells that make up a chart. The chart is updated automatically whenever the information in these cells
changes.
Title
The title of the chart.
Legend
The chart key, which identifies what each color on the chart represents.
Axis
The vertical and horizontal parts of a chart. The vertical axis is often referred to as the Y axis, and the horizontal axis
is referred to as the X axis.
Data series
The actual charted values, which are usually rows or columns of the source data.
Value axis
The axis that represents the values or units of the source data.
Category axis
The axis identifying each data series.
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Chart tools
Once you insert a chart, a new set of Chart Tools, arranged into three tabs, will appear above the Ribbon. These are
only visible when the chart is selected.
The chart in the example compares each salesperson's monthly sales to his or her other months' sales;
however, you can change what is being compared. Just click the Switch Row/Column Data command,
which will rotate the data displayed on the x and y axes. To return to the original view, click the Switch
Row/Column command again.
If your new layout includes chart titles, axes, or legend labels, just insert your cursor into the text and
begin typing to add your own text.
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Page 6
Challenge!
Use the Company Sales workbook or any other workbook to complete this challenge.
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