Let's see how we can help Sean create some basic charts in
Excel so that he can impress his manager and his team members.
You can find the charting tools under the Insert tab in the Ribbon.
Let's start with Pie Charts.
The easiest way to create a chart is by selecting your data first.
Highlight the data including the heading as well
as the data and the headings of the different quarters.
Now click on the Pie Chart icon,
let's do 2-D charts, click on Pie.
And now, you've got a quick and impactful way that
summarizes how Aanya Zhang performed across the different quarters.
You don't need to highlight data that appears in rows to create a Pie Chart.
You can also create a Pie Chart by highlighting data in columns.
Let's say we want to see how
the different account managers performed relatively in Quarter 1.
Highlight all the data including the headings,
click on Insert, click on the Pie Chart icon,
click on 2-D Pie, the simple one.
And now you have a quick Pie Chart that shows you how
the different account managers performed relatively during Quarter 1.
Let's see what happens when we try to include more than one series in a Pie Chart.
Highlight Account Manager names,
Quarter 1, Quarter 2,
and all of the data.
Click on Insert, click on the Pie Chart icon,
click on 2-D Pie.
Nothing really happened.
This is because a Pie Chart can only include a single series of data.
So, if you want to compare different series as well as
see the absolute numbers and not the relative size of these numbers,
a Column Chart is a great way to summarize the data for you.
So let's say we want to create a Column Chart for Account Managers across two quarters.
Highlight all the data, click on Insert,
now click on the Column Chart icon,
we'll choose 2-D column.
Look at that. It's a great way to compare
your data across the different account managers as well as across the different quarters.
Let's say your manager is so impressed that he or she
wants you to include all the quarters in your chart.
You don't need to create your chart all over again.
Click on the chart so the chart gets selected and then you'll
see that Excel will highlight where all the data,
where all the information in the chart comes from.
You'll see fill handles for all of these.
So let's say you wanted to include Quarter 3,
you drag the fill handle to include Quarter 3.
Let go - and look at that -
Quarter 3 has now just been added to your chart.
Guess what, if you drag the fill handle even further to include Quarter 4, look at that.
You've got yellow columns now appearing which represent Quarter 4.
A Column Chart is a great way to not only
compare the performance of the different account managers but
also you can compare different series for
each account manager and compare the quarters for each account manager as well.
The third essential chart that you need to know is the Line Chart.
A line chart is for time series data.
Let's say we want to see a trend in
Aanya Zhang's performance across the different quarters.
Highlight the heading as well as Aanya Zhang's name,
the headings for the quarters as well as the data,
click on Insert, go to Charts and now,
click on Line Chart and let's click on the first icon.
This chart shows you Aanya Zhang's performance as a trend over time.
The horizontal axis, sometimes called the X-axis,
represents the different quarters.
The vertical axis, sometimes called the Y-axis, represents the sales.
You can see that the sales begin to pick up from
Quarter 1 to Quarter 2 and the big jump to
Quarter 3 and then there was a decrease in sales in Quarter 4.
It's not that impactful a graph to impress
anyone because there are only four time periods in this graph.
We'll need a much longer time series to see the impact that a Line Chart can give you.
Fortunately, Sean's been able to get the monthly sales figures from the Sales department.
Click on the last tab, Monthly Sales.
The Sales department has helped Sean now and given him the total sales for every month.
As you can see, February 2013,
March 2013 and so on.
To create a Line Chart,
select all of this data.
I selected the headings as well as the months as well as the actual sales.
Click on insert, click on
the Line Chart icon and the most essential Line Chart is the first icon under 2-D Line.
Click on that, and now you have a Line Chart that represents the trends in your data.
Again, the horizontal axis represents
the time period and the vertical axis represents the total sales.
It's a great way to see how your sales have been trending over time.
Like Column Charts, Line Charts can include more than one series.
Here's a challenge; have a play with Excel
and see how you can create a Line Chart that has more than one series.
Dr Yvonne BreyerDirector, Learning and Teaching
