Tip #33 - Charts in Excel

100 Computer Tips in 100 Days

Tip #33 - Charts in Excel

 Excel is an excellent program for creating charts. In 2007 Microsoft did away with the Chart Helper and gave you the Insert tab from which you can choose the type of chart you want to insert in your document. Five steps later and you have a chart, right smack in the middle of your worksheet. You then needed to use the Move Chart command to get the chart on its own sheet.  While this works, it’s a lot of trouble. Here’s a simpler way to create a beautiful chart.

Start by selecting the information you want to chart. Don’t forget to select the row and column headings so that Excel will know what to call the value and category axis items.

Now it’s time to dust off the Function keys along the top of your keyboard. When they’re nice and clean tap the F11 key. Excel will insert a new sheet in your document named “Chart1” with your beautiful chart displayed. The default chart type in Excel is a 2-D column chart with primary colors. If you would like a different kind o chart, use the options available from the Chart Tools tabs. (Formatting Palette in Apple).

To make it easier for you to make your charts all look the same, you might consider creating a chart template or two. To do this, format a chart just the way you like your charts to look and then click on the Chart Tools àDesign tab, Save As Template option. A dialog box will appear. Give the chart template a name. When you crate your next chart you can click on the Change Chart Type option and click on Templates. Your templates will be visible. Choose the appropriate template.

Note: If the information you want to chart is not in adjacent cells, you will have to use the Ctrl (Command) key to select it. In the image to the left we selected the salespersons names first, then held down the Ctrl (Command) key and selected the June data. Then we tapped the F11 key as described above.

Happy computing!