MS Excel - Lesson 6: Four Steps to Create an Excel Chart

Understanding Microsoft Excel requires more than a headline. The overview below breaks down the key facts, changes, and user impact.

Microsoft Excel Overview

Step 1: Chart type - Click on any data box that contains the information you want to include in the chart, or black out exactly the data to display in the chart. - Click on the Chart Wizard icon on the Standar toolbar. The Chart Wizard dialog box displays:

- From Chart type: Select the type of chart you want to create - Then from Chart sub-type: Select the correct format you want to apply to the chart type - To see how to select the chart, click Press and Hold to View Sample in the dialog box. In the above example, we choose which is the default - Click Next to display the next page of the dialog box - Source Data Chart. Step 2: Data source - Data Range allows you to specify data correctly to display in the chart - You can choose how to display Series in Rows or Columns. In the case of the data in the example above, two results are illustrated. Choose Series in Rows.

- Click the Next button, the Chart Options dialog box appears Step 3: Options for the chart From the Chart Options dialog box, you can select Titles, Axes, Gridlines, Legend, Data Labels, Data Tables and create necessary changes. Add chart title - In the Chart title: section, name the chart (eg Exam results ). - In Category (X) axis: enter title for X axis (eg Subject ) - In Category (Y) axis: enter title for Y axis (eg Mark score ) - The example above is illustrated as follows:

Adjust the chart axis - From the Chart Options dialog box, click the Axes tab - It allows you to adjust the display axis, you can select or not select the axis on the selection box to see the results on the chart Adjust chart gridlines - From the Chart Options dialog box, click the Gridlines tab - You can choose to display large or small X and Y axes by clicking on the check box Adjust chart captions - From the Chart Options dialog box, click the Legend tab - You can choose to display or not to display chart captions and position the annotations in the chart by clicking on the radio button. Adjust labels for data - From the Chart Options dialog box, click the Data Labels - You can choose to display or not to display data labels by clicking on the radio button Display table data - From the Chart Options dialog box, click on the Data Table tab - You can choose to display or not to display the chart data of the chart by clicking on the check box - Click Next to continue, then the last page of the dialog box appears - Chart Location Step 4: Position the chart Locate chart - You can choose to place the chart on a spreadsheet as an object, or place a chart on a new spreadsheet. There are two options:

• As new sheet: The chart is placed in a new worksheet
• As object in: The chart is placed in the current worksheet

- Click Finish to finish, then the created chart will look like the Chart Wizard.