3.2.5 Charts and graphs

Charts and graphs are visual representations of data that help convey information in a clear and concise manner. They are widely used for data analysis, reporting, and presentations.

Below are the top five best practices to make your chart or graph as clear and useful as possible:

1. Make It Clean: Cluttered graphs — those with excessive colors or texts — can be difficult to read and aren’t eyes catching. Remove any unnecessary information so your audience can focus on the point you’re trying to get across.
2. Choose Appropriate Themes: Consider your audience, the topic, and the main point of your chart when selecting a theme. While it can be fun to experiment with different styles, choose the theme that best fits your purpose.
3. Use Text Wisely: While charts and graphs are primarily visual tools, you will likely include some text (such as titles or axis labels). Be concise but use descriptive language, and be intentional about the orientation of any text (for example, it’s irritating to turn your head to read text written sideways on the x-axis).
4. Place Elements Intelligently: Pay attention to where you place titles, legends, symbols, and any other graphical elements. They should enhance your chart, not detract from it.
5. Sort Data Prior to Creating the Chart: People often forget to sort data or remove duplicates before creating the chart, which makes the visual unintuitive and can result in errors.

Sequential Processes in Charts and Graph Works

How to Chart Data in Excel

To generate a chart or graph in Excel, you must first provide Excel with data to pull from. In this section, we’ll show you how to chart data in Excel 2016.

Step 1: Enter Data into a Worksheet

• Open Excel and select New Workbook.
• Enter the data you want to use to create a graph or chart. In this example, we’re comparing the profit of five different products from 2013 to 2017. Be sure to include labels for your columns and rows. Doing so enables you to translate the data into a chart or graph with clear axis labels. You can download this sample data below.

Step 2: Select Range to Create Chart or Graph from Workbook Data

• Highlight the cells that contain the data you want to use in your graph by clicking and dragging your mouse across the cells.
• Your cell range will now be highlighted in gray and you can select a chart type. 

  In the following section, we’ll walk you through the specifics of creating a clustered column chart in Excel 2016.

  How to Make a Graph in Excel

  Although graphs and charts are distinct, Excel groups all graphs under the charts categories listed in the previous sections. To create a graph or another chart type, follow the steps below and select the appropriate graph type.

   

  Select Range to Create a Graph from Workbook Data

  • Highlight the cells that contain the data you want to use in your graph by clicking and dragging your mouse across the cells.
  • Your cell range will now be highlighted in gray.
  • Once the text is highlighted you can select a graph (which Excel refers to as chart). Click the Insert tab and click Recommended Charts on the toolbar. Then click the type of graph you wish to use.

   

  Now you have a graph. To customize your graph, you can follow the same steps explained in the previous section. All functionality for creating a chart remains the same when creating a graph.