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Making Charts (Graphs) in Excel

Here are 6 tutorial videos dealing with different aspects of Excel charts: How to make them, setting and locating relevant titles, relocating the legend (or hiding it), what are data labels and how to add them, how to rescale the Y-axis, and eventually giving them some style and touch with colors, fonts and backgrounds.

When should you use a chart?

Use a chart whenever you want to visualize your data, making it clear and simple to comprehend. Sometimes one glimpse at a chart can save a lot of effort of figuring out the meaning of your data.

Last things to verify before creating a chart:

Make sure your data is organized in the correct layout:
  • No spaces or empty rows: It should have a table layout, with no spaces between rows and columns, and no spaces or empty rows between the headers and the rest of the table.
  • Include the headers: When you select the chart’s data table, contain the headers inside the selection.

Types of charts:

You can choose between many types of charts, the most popular are Column, Line and Pie.

The chart’s elements:

Titles:
You can add three types of titles to the chart: a general title to the whole chart, and specific titles to the X-axis (the horizontal axis) and the Y-Axis (the vertical).

Legend:
The legend (which represents the meaning of the columns or lines) can be placed in any desired location around the chart, and can also be hidden.

Labels:
You can add small numbers to the columns, to show their exact values.

Y-axis scale:
You can set the Y-axis scale, and control the range of values depicted on it.
For example, on a chart comparing a $33,000 car with a $34,000 car, the difference will be much more salient if the Y-axis range is between $30,000 - $35,000 than that of a range of $0 – $35,000.

Formatting the chart’s elements (fonts, colors, backgrounds etc.):

Every element in the chart (titles, legend, columns etc) can be formatted as if it was a simple graphic object. All texts and numbers can be simply right-clicked and formatted with the mini-toolbar.