Creating a chart with the Chart Wizard

Presenting information in a chart can be a very effective way of

communicating numerical data that otherwise might be too confusing
or complicated. Since most people are highly visual, a chart added to
text can really catch the audience's attention and help to inform and
persuade them more thoroughly.

The Chart Wizard shows each step along the path from entering raw
data to completing a graph. You can transform numbers into graphs,
illustrating the power of visually oriented information to strengthen
presentations.

To use the Chart Wizard

1. Open the Grade Book workbook.

2. Select the test data in the Grade Book worksheet, including

the headings and student numbers, but not the main title or
totals (cells B8 through F13).

3. On the Standard toolbar, click Chart Wizard.

4. On the Standard Types tab, in Chart type, click Column.

5. In Chart sub-type, click Clustered column with a 3-D visual

effect.

6. Click Press and hold to view sample to see a sample of your

data in the clustered column 3-D format.

7. Click Next twice.

8. In the Titles tab, in Chart title, type Test Grades.

9. In the Category (X) axis, type Student Numbers.

10. In the Value (Z) axis, type Points. (The Z-axis title is
available but the Y-axis is not, because it extends back into
the chart.)

11. Click the Gridlines tab to select type of lines to show on your
graph.

12. In Category (X) axis, clear the Major gridlines check box.

13. In Value (Z) axis, select Major gridlines.

14. To move the legend to the bottom, on the Legend tab, click
Bottom.

15. Click Next for Chart Location.

16. Click As new sheet.

 17. Click Finish to complete the chart process.

Attaching the graph as a new worksheet makes it easier to print a

chart. You now have a readable and easy-to-understand chart.
Attaching the chart as an object has the advantage of providing an
immediate view of changes to the chart as you change the data.

Enhancing chart titles

Rotating the Z-axis title gives the chart more room. The main graph
title is easier to read with a larger font size. Here's how to change
them.

To rotate Z-axis titles and enlarge chart

titles
1. In the chart from the previous activity, click the chart title
(Test Grades).

2. On the Formatting toolbar, change the font size to 20 point.

3. Right-click the Z-axis title (Points).

4. Click the Format Axis Title dialog box.

5. On the Alignment tab, click the text line, and drag it up to

the top of the semicircle to 90 degrees.

6. Click the Font tab and then change the font to bold and 14-
point.

7. Click OK.

8. Right-click the X-axis title (Student Numbers).

9. Click Format Axis Title.

10. Click the Font tab and then change the font to bold and 20-
point.

11. Click OK.

Changing colors of data bars

You can also change the data bar colors to enhance your chart or to
draw attention to information. Perhaps you want to draw attention
to the most recent test so students can easily compare this score
with previous test scores.

To add colors to enhance data bars

1. Right-click the first data bar.

2. Click Format Data Series.

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 3. On the Patterns tab, click Dark Green in the fourth row.

4. Click OK.

5. Right-click the second data bar and change the color to Dark
Blue.

6. Right-click the last data bar and change the color to Yellow.
The brighter color in the last bar calls attention to that bar.

Rotating charts

Sometimes it is easier to understand a chart if it is viewed in 3-D.

Using Excel you can modify your chart to show it from any view—
top, bottom, right, left--or you can create 3-D charts.

To rotate a chart
1. Right-click in the center of the chart.

2. Click 3-D View.

If your image gets blurry, 3. In the Elevation dialog box, type 15.
return to the 3-D dialog
box and click Default.
Excel returns the chart to
4. In the Rotation dialog box, type 40.
the “normal” 3-D settings.
5. Click the Auto scaling and the Right angle axes boxes.

6. Click Apply.

7. Click OK, and save your work.

Saving your worksheets to the Web

Now that you have created worksheets and workbooks, you can save
them to the Web. You may want to save your class grades or
attendance to the Web so that students and parents can see progress
at any time. You can also save class projects including data they have
collected and charts of the data.

Saving a worksheet as a Web page

When you save a worksheet as a Web page, you must keep the
following in mind:

• To put an interactive chart on a Web page, you must save it

separately by clicking Save As on the File menu.

• Some formatting and features of your worksheet are not

retained when you save it as a Web page.

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 • After you save your worksheet as a Web page, use Microsoft
FrontPage 2000 or Microsoft Access 2000 to edit the Web
page, as it is now an .htm file.

To save a worksheet as a Web page

1. Open the Attendance worksheet if it is not already open.
2. Make sure that all the work is saved.
3. On the File menu, click Save as Web Page.
4. Click Publish.
5. Make sure that Sheet All contents of Attendance is selected
in the Choose box.
6. Under Viewing options, select the Add interactivity with
check box, and click the type of functionality you want for
your worksheet.
7. To add a title to the saved worksheet, click Change, type the
title you want, and then click OK.
8. In the File name box, click Browse and then locate the drive,
folder, Web server, or FTP location where you want to save
your worksheet.
9. If you want to view the Web page in your browser after you
save it, select the Open published Web page in browser
check box.
10. Click Publish.

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 Making Web data interactive
If you want students or other instructors to be able to interact with the
data on a Web page, you can make the data interactive. Depending on
the choices you make, people can perform such actions as filtering,
entering new values for calculations, or summarizing and analyzing
data in a PivotTable list. For example, you can save a mortgage
calculator with worksheet functionality to the Web so that students can
use it to calculate how changing the term or interest rate will effect the
monthly payment. Or, if you want to collect data from students in other
parts of the world, they can enter data in an interactive worksheet.

Interactive and non-interactive Excel data

Much of the data in Excel can be saved with interactivity, but some
data must be saved to the Web without interactivity.

Data that can be interactive

• PivotTable report
• Results of a query (external data range)
• Range of cells or a simple list
• Filtered list
• Chart
• Modified data on an interactive Web page that was
previously saved by Excel
Data that cannot be non-interactive
• Entire workbook
• Modified data on a non-interactive Web page that was
previously saved by Excel

Put a chart on a Web page

Use this procedure to put a chart on a Web page so that others can
interact with the data. You can also put a chart on a Web page so
that others can only view the data. When you save an interactive
chart to the Web, you must keep the following in mind:

• The associated data for the chart is also displayed on the

Web page when you use interactive functionality. When you
save a chart, the associated interactive worksheet is
displayed and when you save a PivotChart report, the
associated PivotTable list is displayed.

• Some formatting and features for the chart are not retained
when you save it as a Web page.

• After you save the chart as a Web page, you can't open and
modify the .htm file in Excel without losing formatting and

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 functionality. Use Microsoft FrontPage 2000 or Microsoft
Access 2000 to edit the Web page.

To save a chart interactively on a Web page

1. Click the chart or the chart sheet that you want to put on a
Web page.

2. On the File menu, click Save as Web Page.

3. Click Publish.

4. Under Viewing options, select the Add interactivity with

check box. (Chart functionality is automatically selected.)

5. To add a title to the chart, click Change, type the title you
want, and then click OK.

6. In the File name box, click Browse and locate the drive,
folder, Web server, or FTP location where you want to save
your chart.

7. If you want to view the Web page in your browser after you
save it, select the Open published Web page in browser
check box.

8. Click Publish.

Putting it together
As you experiment with the worksheets in Excel, you will continue to
learn more about how to use Excel worksheets and workbooks in and
out of the classroom. You may want to try some of the following
activities:

• You can easily insert Excel data charts and graphs into
PowerPoint 2000 presentations. The next time you create a
presentation, insert a data table and graph. Any changes you
make to the Excel worksheet are automatically updated in your
PowerPoint 2000 presentation.

• Your monthly reports can be updated as quickly as you change

the data. In letters to your students’ parents, you can quickly
update student scores and grades.

• Use Excel in conjunction with Word 2000 to send students or

parents a customized letter regarding their class progress using
the Mail Merge feature in Word 2000.

• Track club or classroom budgets.

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 • You can use Excel for personal record keeping, such as taxes
and money management.
• With Excel you can creates all kinds of graphs and charts that
visually explain numerical data. Create a budget and track
expenses for school projects.

• Calculate interest rates, both simple and compound.

Using Excel in the classroom

• Students can reinforce basic mathematical processes using

Excel to produce charts and tables.

• By adding well-designed charts and tables to reports, students

can enhance both their understanding of the content and their
presentation of the information.

• Have students plot their progress in your class. A good starting

activity is to have the students create the chart on graph paper
so they can get an idea of what the chart will look like. Then
have students practice explaining what the chart is supposed to
accomplish. If the chart doesn't help explain the data, it has not
served its purpose.

• Give students a completed chart and see if they can reconstruct

the underlying worksheet. This goes a long way toward helping
them understand the relationship between the data and the
chart.

• Insist that reports and research papers contain some type of

chart to help support their findings. Encourage students to
import other types of graphics and information from different
electronic sources to enhance and complement their
documents.

• Have students visit a Web site related to a topic you are

studying currently. Have them find tables of information,
download them, and plot the information in a chart.

• Have students find charts in printed publications. Discuss what

the charts mean.

• Teach principles of accounting and financial management.

• Demonstrate numerical concepts—for example, showing the

relationship between numbers and their concrete
representation in charts and graphs.

• Demonstrate how different types of graphs can be used to

represent the same series of data. Compare how the data looks
in a bar graph as opposed to a pie chart.

• Store and analyze data from classroom experiments.

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 • Compare data collected by a group of collaborating classrooms
within one school or around the world.

Graphics
This will be a lot of fun. We are now going to turn your spreadsheet numbers into graphics -- bar charts,
pie charts, etc. This will greatly assist you when you display and explain your work.

Before we do this there are a couple of essential steps. First we have to tell an Excel 2003 "Wizard"
what we want to chart and then were we want the chart to go.

First: in cell B9 type-in Income (to replace the word Total). Next, type-in Expenses in cell
B17 for the same reason.

VERY IMPORTANT……….
Something new.... Hold down the left mouse button and highlight cells B3 to F3. Next HOLD
DOWN the Ctrl key at the bottom of the keyboard, and while you are holding it down,
highlight cells B9 through F9. You will now see two "ranges" highlighted. Hold down the
Ctrl again, and highlight cells B17 through F17. These three ranges will make up your
chart. The x-axis will be made up of B4 - F4. And, the two sets of bars (series) will make-up Income and
Expense. When you complete the above instructions, your screen should look like the one below.

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 If your spreadsheet does not look exactly like the one above, please try again. This is a bit tricky
and it often takes even experienced spreadsheet folks a couple of “tries” to get the highlighting just right.

We’ll use the easiest method for our first chart (graph).

In the Menu Bar click-on to Insert, then click on Chart. The Chart
Wizard – Step 1 of 4 Chart Type menu screen will appear (like the one at
the top of the next page).

The Chart Wizard shows the

various types of charts in Chart
type: (on the left side of the menu
screen).

Examples of the selected chart type

show on the right under Chart
sub-type. We’ll stay with Column
and the chart selected for now.

Click Next.

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 The Step 2 portion of the menu
appears (as shown on the right).

The Wizard (on the last page)

shows you what your chart will
look like. The “ranges” you
selected originally are shown in the
Data range: area. If you did not
highlight as indicated, your chart
won’t "look right." Your chart
should look like the example
above. If you click-on the Series
tab at the top of the Wizard screen, you’ll see a new Wizard screen that shows you where the Income and
Expenses series came from. Click-back on the Data range tab at the top. Now click-in the little circle in
front of Columns. The Wizard will indicate that the chart has been “rotated” 90 degrees and thus the axis
has changed. This is often called a “pivot.” Click-back in the small circle in front of Rows. Click Next
again.

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 The Chart Wizard Step 3 of 4 menu will appear: Titles (similar to the image above). Click-in the blank
area under Chart Title. A flashing cursor will appear. Type-in your name with an apostrophe (‘) s and
the word Budget (ex. Janie's Budget). Now, click-in the area under Category (X) axis: and type in
Months. Next, click-in the area under Value (Y) axis: and type in Dollars. You probably noticed that as
you entered these titles, the chart in the area on the right of the Wizard changed to give you an “instant”
preview of your final chart. You will also notice that there are several tabs at the top of the Wizard. Click-
on each of the tabs and see what “they do”. Notice how some change axis and put in grid lines. The
legend is the small box on the right, which indicates what the colors of the “bars” represent (Income and
Expenses). Click Next one last time. The Step 4 page of the Wizard will now appear (image at the top
of the next page)

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 This is the final Wizard page. You’ll notice that it asks you where you want to put your chart. Since this
is your first chart, it is best if you select As a new sheet: (see arrow above). This will put your chart on a
new tab called Chart 1. Now click-on Finish, You’ll see that you chart has a tab of its own at the bottom
of the screen, and “fills” an entire screen.

WOW!!!! There's your chart. Again, notice that Excel created a new tab at the bottom of the spreadsheet
that says Chart 1. Any time the numbers change on Sheet 1, the bars in Chart 1 will reflect the
change automatically! Click on the Sheet 1 and Chart 1 tabs to get the feel of going back and forth
between the data and the chart. After you make your changes, click on the Chart 1 tab and you’ll see how
the chart has changed.

Now it would be a good time to Save again.

In Excel 2003, when you save your spreadsheet, you also save your graph. Your graph is saved wherever
you are working in the graph.

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