Creating Graphs and Charts in Excel Overview Use graphs and charts in Excel to create a visual report that

tells a story about the data in your Excel spreadsheet. Charts and graphs can help provide a nice, professional appearance to a proposal or other documentation. Procedures 1. Enter your data in Excel as a spreadsheet.

2. Click and drag the mouse to highlight the columns of data for which you would like a chart or graph. Note: If creating a pie chart, you can only select one data series to graph. For example, either Count or Cost.

3. With the data highlighted, click on the Insert tab of the ribbon and select the type of chart from the Charts section of the ribbon. Look through the descriptions of the commonly used charts below.

a. Column charts are used to compare values across categories. i. Click the arrow under the Column option and select the layout of the chart.

ii. Once you select the layout, your chart will appear.

b. Line charts are used to display trends over time. i. Click on the arrow under the Line option and select the layout of the chart.

ii. Once you select the layout, your chart will appear.

c. Pie charts display the contribution of each value to a total. Use it when values can be added together or when you have only one data series and all values are positive. i. To get a pie chart of the cost of the items, I will highlight both columns (hint: hold the Ctrl button on your keyboard while highlighting the Description and Cost columns).

ii. Click on the arrow under the Pie option and select the layout of the chart.

iii. Once you select the layout, your chart will appear.

d. Bar charts compare multiple values. i. Click on the arrow under the Bar option and select the layout of the chart.

ii. Once you select the layout, your chart will appear.

4. When you have your chart selected, you can use the tabs under the Chart Tools section of the ribbon to format the chart. You are also able to get to many of these same settings by right-clicking in various places within the chart.

a. Design Change the data, layout, or colors of the chart

b. Layout Changes the title, axis titles, data labels, or legend in the chart

c. Format Change colors and font

5. Once your chart is formatted to the way you like, you can copy and paste the chart into a Word document if needed. Select the chart so that it has a light border around it. Right click on the border and select Copy from the pop-up menu.

6. Right-click in the place you would like to add the chart in your Word document and select Paste from the pop-up menu.