Inserting Charts

Inserting Charts

In order to insert a chart, you need to highlight your data and then click the Insert Object icon in the Toolbar. Hold the button down and drag it onto the sheet. When you let go the AutoFormat Chart opens.

As you change chart options the preview will also change to help you see what it will look like. The type for your chart is an important choice in how your data is presented.

It lists the Range of cells that will be used for the chart. Also, you need to decide if you want to use the first row as a label and the first column as a label, if not uncheck the boxes.

When you click next you will see the options that are available for chart type. Click on the option that best suits your needs.

The next step provides a way to select a chart variant that further refines the kind of chart that you need. There are a number of bar charts, pie charts, etc. that are available. Here several bar chart variants are seen.

Notice you can show Grid lines on the X axis or Y axis.

The next window allows you to enter a Chart Title and provide labels for the X and Y axis. Note that the Legend may be turned off here by unchecking the box. The X and Y axis have labels. The Data in this chart is in a series of columns but you could change that to rows.

The best way to understand how to build these charts correctly is to experiment with your data in different kinds of charts and settings.