Charts are one of Excel's coolest features. You can easily create charts of various kinds using your spreadsheet data. The ribbon makes it easy to pick just what you want to turn your numbers into an cool and colorful chart.
Some of the many types of charts - one to match your every need!
For this introduction to charts, you will stick with a simple pie chart. A pie chart works well when you want to see how much of the whole each part is. It uses just one column of data and a column of labels. Later you will work with column charts. These are the two most often used types.
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Step-by-Step: Pie Chart |
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What you will learn: | to select data to create a chart to create a pie chart to move a chart on a sheet to move a chart to a separate sheet to pick a chart layout to edit a chart title to format and position data labels - all or single to change the chart style to change the workbook theme to format a single data point to create a header that includes a field to print a chart |
Start with: budget-2010-Lastname-Firstname.xlsx from previous lesson
This time you will be saving your work as a new file!
To create a chart you first select the data to be charted and
also the cells that label this data.
For this lesson you will create a pie
chart that shows how the Inflow categories compare to the total.
Click on 3-D.
A chart appears in
the middle of the sheet.
The Chart Tools group of tabs shows as long as the chart is selected.
Your pie chart may use different colors from the illustration and the legend may be in a different location.
Next you will make some changes to this
chart. It certainly needs to be in a different place!
You can drag a chart to an open spot on the current sheet or you can put it on a sheet of its own. A chart sheet is different from a normal worksheet.
The Move Chart button is not about moving the chart on the worksheet but instead about which sheet tab it should be on.
You can make a lot of changes to a chart. There are several pre-designed chart layouts to choose from. Plus you can change the colors, show or hide the legend and change its location on the chart, add a title, show values or percentages for the pie wedges. You can even change the chart type without having to start over!
The position, size, color, and font for the labels for your data can be changed from the defaults to make the labels easier to read or to emphasize part of the data.
Click on Format Data Labels...
The font sizes are small and the numbers that are on a dark color are hard to read.
Experiment: Formatting Data Labels
While the data labels are selected, any formatting changes apply only to the labels. You
can use the Mini-Toolbar, the Home tab, or the Format Data
Labels dialog or pane.
Try different
font sizes, fonts, font colors, background colors, and positions for your data labels.
You can format just one label or all of them.
When you are ready to continue, Undo your changes.
Change the Label Position to Outside End.
The % values move so that all are outside the pie shape.
The text boxes for percentages at the top left are on top of each other. You can drag
one of the labels to a better position.
Drag the 0% to the left and up a bit .
The new position should be far enough away that the leader line shows. That's the line from the number to its pie wedge.
Only 0% is selected now.
Click the data label 88%. If necessary, click again
so that it is the only data label selected.
Right click on 88% and then click on Format Data Label...
Changes will apply only
to the selected label.
Check the box Category Name.
The data label changes to
"Gross Sale, 88%".
While the data label 88% is still selected, change the font to Arial Black.
Change the font color to Purple, Accent 4, Darker 50%.
Save.
[budget-2010-chart-Lastname-Firstname.xlsx]
The colors for the pie wedges were automatically assigned, based on the current color theme and each category's place in the legend list. If you pick a new theme, the colors will likely change, sometimes quite dramatically. You can manually change the color for individual wedges to emphasize a particular value.
The Chart Styles gallery behaves differently in Excel 2013 and 2016.
Excel 2007, 2010: The
Chart Styles gallery shows variations on the colors using only colors
from the color theme.
Excel 2013, 2016: The Chart Styles gallery shows variations on the layout using the current color theme.
Experiment: Chart Styles
On the Chart Tools: Design tab:
Excel 2007, 2010: Click on several
of the chart styles.
(There is no Live Preview for chart styles in Excel 2007 and 2010)
Excel 2013, 2016: Hover over each of the chart styles but do NOT click.
Live Preview shows the effect of your choice on the chart.
Open the gallery of chart styles by clicking the More button for the tab group and try some of these styles.
Which style do you think
works best for this particular chart??
Experiment: Themes
The current theme is Office 2007-2010. It is not in the list of themes in Excel 2013 and 2016. The Office theme is not the same as the theme Office 2007-2010 at all!
You will need to use Undo to get back to the correct theme after your experiment.
Select several different themes and check what changes about the chart and the other sheets.
A theme can set fonts, colors, and effects. Changing a theme may affect the font for the title, legend, and data labels as well as the colors in the chart.
Did you find a
theme that makes the chart look better than the Office theme?
Changing
theme affect all sheets: A theme affects the whole
workbook, not just the current sheet.
When you are ready to continue...
Again, formatting changes will apply only to what is selected whether you are using the ribbon tools, the Mini-Toolbar, or a formatting dialog or pane.
If you had clicked on the Outline button, the color change would apply to the line around the edge of the wedge.
For a normal sheet, the Page Layout view makes it easy to add a header or footer. But when you are looking at a chart sheet, the Page Layout and other view buttons are disabled. You have to use an old style dialog to add a header or footer to the print-out of a chart sheet.
Scroll down and click on the choice with the file's name, page 1.
The preview above the text box changes to show how your choice will print.
We won't get into the many options Excel has for printing just yet. Printing a chart sheet pretty easy.
Inspect the Print Preview window for the choices you have.
Excel
2007 shows the buttons on the ribbon , but has not changed much from
previous versions.
Excel 2010, 2013, and 2016 put the preview in the Print pane,
which shows printing choices directly in the pane instead of making you
open a dialog.
Print.
Printing without color: The
preview shows colors even if the selected printer cannot
print in color.
Wet paper: If you are using an ink jet printer, the large dark areas may stay wet for quite a while. Carefully remove the page from the printer before another page lands on it.
Save.
[budget-2010-chart-Lastname-Firstname.xlsx]