Creating a Pie Graph Step-by-step directions In this example, Mrs. Smith is looking to create graphs that represent the ethnic diversity of the 24 students in her 4 th grade class. 1. Enter Data A. Open Microsoft Excel program. B. Label Columns (A & B) names of variables Ethnicity (Column A) and Number of Students (Column B). C. List Ethnicities in column A under Ethnicity.
D. Count the number of students that are members of each ethnic group and type the number of students in the next column (B) under the Number of Students label. Here are the number of students in Mrs. Smith s class. 2. Create a Pie Graph A. With the computer mouse, highlight the 10 boxes containing the information entered in steps 1.B-1.D. To do this, left-click on box A1 (Ethnicity) and while still holding the leftclick button, move the mouse cursor to B5 so all of the cells are inside of the box you create
B. Once the boxes are highlighted, move the mouse cursor to the toolbar at the top of the Excel page. Click on the Insert tab. C. In the Charts section, click on the Pie button. This creates a dropdown menu of Pie Chart options to choose from.
D. Click the icon for the appropriate graph (most likely it will be the first option). E. After clicking, a chart will be created from the highlighted data.
i. If you don t want the graph on the same page as the data, you can move the graph to a new sheet in the same document. First click on the white space on the graph. ii. Next, move your mouse cursor to the top of the window under Chart Tools (around the center of the bar) click the Design tab. The toolbar will display the Type, Data, Chart Layouts, Chart Styles, and Location boxes. iii. In the Location box, click the Move Chart button.
iv. In the box that pops up, click the circle next to New sheet, write the desired title for the new chart sheet, and click OK when completed. v. A new sheet will be created with the graph. If you would like to move back and forth between the chart and the data (most likely in Sheet1), click on the tabs across the bottom of the screen.
3. Once the pie graph is created, you want to finish labeling the graph. (For this example, we are going to use the chart in the new sheet, Number of Students ) A. Chart Title i. If there is already a chart title at the top of the chart (in this example, Number of Students ) and you would like to adjust the name of the graph at the top of the graph area, double click on the title to type. ii. If there is no chart title or you would like to adjust its location, click the Layout tab at the top of the window under Chart Tools. In the Labels box in the toolbar, click the Chart Title button. Choose the desired location. iii. For additional options, follow step 3.A.ii and click More Title Options at the bottom of the Chart Title dropdown menu.
B. Legend (Labels of graphed variables) i. To add or adjust the location of the legend, click the Layout tab at the top of the window under Chart Tools. In the Labels box in the toolbar, click the Legend button. Choose the location for the legend. ii. For additional options, follow step 3.B.i and click More Legend Options at the bottom of the Legend dropdown menu.
C. Data Labels i. To add or adjust the location of the data labels, click the Layout tab at the top of the window under Chart Tools. In the Labels box in the toolbar, click the Data Labels button. Choose the location for the data labels.
ii. Recommended: Follow step 3.C.i and click More Data Label Options at the bottom of the Data Labels dropdown menu. A Format Data Labels box pops up. In the box, click the squares beside Category Name, Value, Percentage, and Label Lines (a check mark should be in the box next to the label). Click Close when completed. iii. For additional options in Format Data Labels, utilize the selection along the column on the left side in the Format Data Labels box.
The completed graph 4. Additional Formatting A. To make additional changes to the pie graph, click the Format tab at the top of the window under Chart Tools. The toolbar will contain the boxes: Current Selection, Shape Styles, WordArt Styles, Arrange, and Size. If you are unsure the purpose of an option, hold the mouse pointer over the box but do NOT click. A brief description will pop up below your mouse. 5. How to copy an Excel graph into a Word Document. A. Right click on any blank area of your pie graph and select Copy (or Ctrl + C). B. Open your document and select Paste (or Ctrl + V) found in the upper left corner of the computer screen and Save your Word document.