Designed by Jason Wagner, Course Web Programmer, Office of e-learning DIFFERENT TYPES OF CHARTS... 1 CONVERTING DATA TO A TABLE...

Transcription

1 Charts in Excel Designed by Jason Wagner, Course Web Programmer, Office of e-learning DIFFERENT TYPES OF CHARTS... 1 CONVERTING DATA TO A TABLE... 1 CREATING CHARTS... 3 CONFIGURING CHARTS... 4 CHANGING THE DATA INCLUDED... 4 EMBEDDING CHARTS IN WORD OR POWERPOINT... 5 SPARKLINES... 6

2 DIFFERENT TYPES OF CHARTS The first step to creating a chart is to understand what the different charts are, and what purpose they serve. Pie Charts: Show proportions of a whole, and should add up to 100% -- no more, no less. Column/Bar (Horizontal) Charts: Show counts as trends of a particular item, and best used with fewer categories. o Clustered Column/Bar Charts: Column/Bar charts which groups different sets of data together as additional rectangles on the graph o Stacked Column/Bar Charts: Like clustered, but rather than placing them side-by-side, it adds the bars end-to-end o 100% Stacked Column/Bar Charts: A stacked column/bar chart that shows proportions of a whole as a pie chart does Line Chart: Show counts as trends of a particular item over time o Like Bar/Column charts, line charts also have stacked line charts and 100% stacked line charts that work in the same way for showing groups of data within a particular category. Scatter Chart: Shows a relationship between two variables, and allows trend data to be calculated. Area Charts: Show accumulated data, but can be difficult to read o Like Bar/Column charts, area charts also have stacked line charts and 100% stacked line charts that work in the same way for showing groups of data within a particular category. Sparklines: Small graphs which reside in cells and can be treated just like formulas; are not meant to show specific numbers, but trends. Stock Charts show high/low/open/close prices of a stock Surface Charts allow you to plot three dimensional data Doughnut Charts are pie charts of a different shape Bubble Charts allow you graph a third dimension (essentially a scatter chart of varying size for the points) Radar Charts allow you to chart three or more pieces of data in a two-dimensional surface CONVERTING DATA TO A TABLE To this point, all of the data we have been working with has been in what Excel calls ranges. The Table feature of Excel allows you to group data together. When we get to features later in this seminar, it will be very useful in allowing us to expand how much data we have, or add additional pieces of data. One prerequisite to using Tables is that they work best when all of the formulas in column must be the same that is, the formula must be replicated, and cannot be modified for a particular row to be different from others. To create a table, simply highlight all of the data that will be included in the table. Then, go to the Insert tab, and select Table. Charts in Excel Page 1

3 When the dialog box appears, click OK. This will create a table around our data. You will notice the header row is a different color, and the row colors now alternate. You will also see that when you scroll down so that the header row is no longer visible, the header row replaces the column labels above the spreadsheet. Once the table has been created, you will want to give the table a name to make it easily identifiable. To do this, click anywhere inside the table, and go to the Design tab under Table Tools. Then, enter a name under the Table Name: prompt. Now, you can use the table name as a reference, rather than the cell, row, and column labels. As mentioned earlier, one of the primary benefits of using Tables is that they are easily expandable. Enter something in the column immediately to the right of the table you ve created, and you will see the table will expand into that column. Similarly, entering something in the row immediately below the table you ve created will expand the table as well. Now, enter a formula in a new column. One thing you will notice is, as you enter the formula and click on cells in the table to reference them, they will not use cell references it will reference them by the label in the header of Charts in Excel Page 2

4 that column in the table. For example, below, the headers are called SUMMER, FALL, and SPRING. In the total column, if the cells referenced are in the same row, you can see them listed as and It simply references the fields in the same row by using However, if you type cell references, entering references will still work, and is required for any cell reference not to the same row. Now, when you hit enter to save the formula, you will see the formula be copied down throughout the entire table. Sorting and filtering works the same as it does when you are working with just a range of data. With filtering, you will see that the filters are already enabled in the header row of the table, so the first step of turning that on is not necessary. There are several options for formatting tables, such as the colors and adding banded rows or columns. To change these, click in the Table, and select the Design toolbar under Table Tools. CREATING CHARTS The first step to creating your chart is to make sure your data is properly formatted in the spreadsheet. Although you can set these after you create the chart, it is much easier to do from the initial spreadsheet. All similar data measuring the same thing should appear in the same column. All data relating to the same category should appear in the same row. In the first row of each column, it should list what it is measuring, while the first column of each row should list the category. To put a title on the graph automatically, put it in the first row of the first column. Once your data is properly formatted, highlight everything that will go in the chart including data, headings, category labels, titles, etc. Then, go to the Charts ribbon and select the button for the chart you want to create. Charts in Excel Page 3

5 When the chart is created, it is, by default, a floating object on the spreadsheet that contains the original data. To move it to its own sheet, right-click on the chart and select Move Chart. Then, select New sheet and enter a name for this spreadsheet. CONFIGURING CHARTS To configure charts, you have the following options: On the Design toolbar under Chart Tools, you can select a premade layout configuring everything at once under the Chart Layouts section of thumbnails. On the Layout toolbar under Chart Tools, you can select each individual component (Labels, Axes, and Background) and what to show for each. You can customize titles, axes, legends, data labels, and tables for most types of charts. On the Layout toolbar under Chart Tools, you can change the dropdown menu to specifically what you want to configure. Then, beneath it, hit the Format Selection dialog. On this dialog, you can, for example, change the range of axis (minimum and maximum), how frequently gridlines appear, whether tick marks appear, etc. Note that pie charts have different options than the rest of the charts. These options include the rotation of the pie chart, whether the pie pieces are exploded, and any labels on the individual pie pieces. CHANGING THE DATA INCLUDED Occasionally, you may need to change the data represented in the chart. If you change the values in cells that are already contained in your chart, your chart will automatically update. However, other times, you may need to remove or add data. When we covered Tables, it was noted that the primary benefit was that the tables could easily be expanded when using other functions in Excel. One of these functions is with Charts. As noted earlier in the seminar, if you add data to the column immediately to the right of the table, or in the row immediately below the table, the table will automatically expand, and in this case, will automatically be added to your chart. To remove data from a chart, simply hide the rows or columns in the table that you want to remove. If you do not use a table, you must manually change the data contained in your chart. You may also run into the problem when you create the graph where the data is reversed or flip-flipped that is, the data you want on the horizontal axis is on the vertical access, and vice versa. Charts in Excel Page 4

6 To correct this, click the Charts ribbon, and under Data, select Switch Row/Column. EMBEDDING CHARTS IN WORD OR POWERPOINT To embed a chart in Word or PowerPoint, go to the Insert ribbon in either application. Then, click Chart. A dialog box will appear that will allow you to select which chart you want to use. Select one and click OK. Then, Excel will open in a new window. In this Window, you will see that Excel has provided with a sample table to input your chart data into. As you change the data, you will notice that the chart in your Word document or PowerPoint presentation will automatically update. When you are finished, close Excel. Charts in Excel Page 5

7 Inside Word, you can configure any parts of your chart as we did when we were working in Excel. If you click on the chart in Word, you will see a group of Chart Tools toolbars appear, for Design, Layout, and Format. If you need to change the data the chart contains, click on the chart, and in the Design toolbar, click on Edit Data. Excel will open in a new window, just as it did when you initially created the chart. SPARKLINES Sparklines operate differently than any of the other charts in Excel. They are the only chart that fit inside a cell, rather than as their own object or sheet. They were first created by Edward Tufte, a statistician, as a way to show many graphs without taking up too much space. They are not meant to show specific numbers, but as a quick way to see a trend in a data set. Besides appearing in cells, they are also very different because Excel treats them like formulas. They can be copied to other cells, and their formatting is copied, and reference the data relatively, rather than absolutely. If there is, for example, a column of Sparklines, Excel will apply the same properties to all of them. There are three different types of Sparklines built into Excel: Line: Works just like a regular line chart Column: Works just like a regular column(/bar) chart Win/Loss: Looks like a Column Sparkline, but is only used to show if something is positive ( win ) or negative ( loss ) To create a Sparkline, first highlight the data points that you want shown in the Sparkline. Then, go to the Insert ribbon and select the Sparkline you want to use. Charts in Excel Page 6

8 Then, when the dialog box appears, Data Range should already be filled in. Click your cursor in the Location Range box, and then click on the cell(s) on the spreadsheet you want to put the Sparkline in. Click OK. To configure the Sparklines, click on one of them and click on the Design toolbar under Sparkline Tools, where you will see a number of options. Clicking on one of these, you will see that all of them are highlighted. Any options you change apply to all of them when there are Sparklines in adjacent cells. Charts in Excel Page 7