Format & Arrange:
Format Pie Chart

Title: Jan's Illustrated Computer Literacy 101
Did you want Working with Numbers: 2007,2010,2013,2016  or españolIcon: Change web

Pie charts are most useful for showing how the parts relate to the whole.

In the sample chart below, the sizes of the wedges give you a quick feel for the relative sizes - which pieces are biggest, which are smallest, which are about the same size, which parts make up the bulk of the whole. You get more exact numbers when you include the values or the percentages as part of the data label.

Sample Pie Chart

Sample Pie Chart


Where you are:
JegsWorks > Lessons > Numbers

Before you start...

Project 1: Excel IntroTo subtopics

Project 2: Excel BasicsTo subtopics   

Project 3: Format & Arrange
    Format CellsTo subtopics
    Format Chart Open arrow to subtopics
    footprintPie Chart
    footprintColumn Chart
    ArrangeTo subtopics
    Summary
    Quiz
    ExercisesTo subtopics

Project 4: Groups & FormulasTo subtopics

Project 5: DesignTo subtopics

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Step-by-Step: Format Pie Chart

  Icon Step-by-Step

What you will learn:

to format chart title
to explode a pie chart
to explode one wedge of a pie chart
to format data points

Start with: Class disk trips14.xls (saved in previous lesson)

Format Chart: Title

In the previous lesson Basics: Chart, you created a pie chart for the number of tickets sold for each week that World Travel Inc. had their special offers. Now you will learn how to make changes to the formatting. 

  1. Open trips14.xls from your Class disk in the excel project3 folder, if it is not still open.
     
  2. Select the sheet named Pie Chart.
     
  3. Click on the chart's title to select it. When you changed the column label from # to Number, the chart was updated automatically. Cool feature!
     
  4. Chart title formattedUse the Formatting bar to format the title as:
    Font = Britannic Bold
    Font Size = 16

Format Chart: Explode whole pie or part

  1. Pie chart with wedges explodedClick on the pie to select it. Drag away from the center of the chart. You have exploded the whole pie!
     
  2. Drag back to the center to glue your pie back together.

  3. Pie Chart: one wedge explodedClick on the red wedge labeled 18% to select it. This is wedge with the largest percentage.
     
  4. Drag the selected wedge up and to the right a little. You've "exploded" a piece of the pie. This is a handy way to emphasize a special part of a pie chart.

Format Chart: Data Point

  1. Dialog: Format Data Points - PatternsRight click on the dark red 18% wedge and choose  Format Data Point  from the popup menu. A dialog appears with three tabs - Patterns, Data Labels, and Options. Choices made on these tabs apply only to the selected wedge (the data point).
     
  2. Using the Patterns tab, experiment with different colors and fill effects.
     
  3. Pie Chart: exploded wedge in lavenderOn the Patterns tab, click on the Lavender color square (5th row, next to last column). Then click OK. The color of the selected wedge is changed, and the matching box in the chart legend also changes.

    Warning Be careful when changing color and pattern assignments. Excel carefully places colors next to each other that won't look the same if printed in gray scale. You can make your chart unreadable with the wrong color or pattern choices.
     

  4. With the chart selected, create a header like the one on the first sheet. Your name and the date on the left, the workbook name and sheet name in the middle, and Excel Project 3 on the right.
     

  5. Preview: trips15.xls Pie ChartOpen the Print Preview. The chart is sized to fill the page. Close the preview.

     

  6. Preview: trips15.xls Pie ChartDeselect the chart by clicking on a cell somewhere else on the sheet.
     

  7. Open Print Preview again. This time the chart covers only a part of the page. This page will print much faster and will use less ink!

    8. But wait! What happened to the header you just created? Did it vanish? If so, when you created the header with the chart selected, you did not create a header for the whole sheet! Unexpected! This does not happen in all versions.
     

  8. If necessary, close the Print Preview and (with the chart not selected!) create your standard header: Your name and the date on the left, the workbook name and sheet name in the middle, and Excel Project 3 on the right.
     

  9. Save Save as  trips15.xls  on your Class disk in the  excel project3  folder.
     

  10. Print Print the sheet.