Making Charts (Graphs) in Excel 2007

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:
- It should have a table layout, with no spaces between rows and columns, and no spaces between the headers and the rest of the table.
- When you select the chart’s data table, contain the headers in the selection, and don’t contain empty rows or columns.

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 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, but 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.