A chart is a way of making a point without asking anyone to read numbers. In this lesson you will build a bar chart from a small table, tidy it up so it explains itself, and learn which chart to reach for.
Rows of figures make a reader do the work. A chart does that work for them: taller means more, and the comparison lands in about a second. Nothing new is calculated — a chart is a picture of numbers that are already in your grid.
- The label column
- The number column
- Change this and the chart redraws itself
Try it yourself
In A1 type Month and in B1 type Patients. Underneath, add Jan 120, Feb 150, Mar 95.
Those headings become the chart's labels and legend, so you do not have to type anything twice.
Select A1 to B4 by clicking A1 and dragging to B4.
This time you do select the data. You are telling Excel exactly which numbers the picture is about — headings included.
On the Insert tab, click Recommended Charts, pick the clustered column, and click OK.
Recommended Charts filters dozens of chart types down to the few that suit your data, which saves you guessing.
Click the chart's title and type Patients seen per month.
"Patients" is a column name, not a message. A title in plain words is what makes a chart readable on its own.
Drag the chart by its blank edge to move it, or drag a corner handle to resize it.
The chart floats above the grid rather than living in a cell, so it can sit anywhere on the sheet.
Change B2 to 200 and watch the chart.
The bar grows immediately. Like AutoSum, the chart is linked to the cells, not a snapshot of them.
Choosing a chart type is mostly one question: what am I comparing? Column or bar charts compare separate things, such as departments or months. Line charts show something changing over time. Pie charts show parts of a single whole, and only work when you have a handful of slices that genuinely add up to 100 per cent.
Words people use
Check yourself
If you can say yes to each of these, you are ready for the next lesson.
- I can lay out a table with a label column and a number column
- I can select that table and insert a column chart
- I can rename the chart title to say what the chart means
- I know when to use a column, line or pie chart