The Netride - Smart Stuff - Creating Simple Charts in Excel

Creating Simple Charts in Excel - the easy way

In Excel, graphs are called charts. The data for the X-axis is called a category and the data for the Y-axis is called a series. If you are going to create a chart, first you must have some data entered on a worksheet. (Note: With pencil and graph paper, you would draw the axes based on your data and then plot the data. In Excel, you don't draw the axes, the program will do that for you.)

Make sure that the data you want to chart is in adjacent columns as shown in the illustration on the right. Download the sample spreadsheet.

Select all of the cells from Month (top left) to 49 (bottom right).

Click the Chart button on the toolbar.

Click the Finish button.

That's it…your chart has been created…right into the worksheet you were working on.

But, you will want to have a title for the chart (Chart Options) and titles on each axis (Chart Options), and change the position of the legend (Format Legend). You may even want to change the Chart Type.

Chart Options

Click the chart. Choose Chart | Chart Options on the toolbar (or click the right mouse button).

Type a title for the chart and the title for each axis in the appropriate slot then click OK.

Position of the legend

Click the legend box on the chart. Choose Format | Selected Legend on the toolbar (or click the right mouse button).

Choose Placement and choose one of the options - say, bottom — and click OK.

Chart Type

Click the chart. Choose Chart | Chart Type on the toolbar (or click the right mouse button).

Have a look at the types of chart a pick one. If you don't like it, choose another type and finally click OK.

Printing a chart

If the chart is an embedded chart on a worksheet, resize the chart by clicking it and then dragging its selection handles. Chose View | Page Break Preview and move the page break line so that everything fits on one page. You can also choose File | Page Setup and change the orientation to Landscape.

If the chart is on a separate chart sheet, you can scale it when you print it. Activate the chart sheet, click Page Setup on the File menu, and then click the Chart tab. Under Printed chart size, click the scaling option you want. If you click Custom, the chart will be printed at the size you make it when you drag its selection handles.

You cannot print multiple chart sheets on a single page. To print two or more charts on a page, create embedded worksheet charts, and then resize them to fit on a single page. You can use the Page Break Preview command on the View menu to more closely see the location of the charts in the print area.

Please contact the netride with questions or comments.