Charts in Excel

Create a Chart
To create a line chart, execute the following steps.

1. Select the range A1:D7.

2. On the Insert tab, in the Charts group, click the Line symbol.

3. Click Line with Markers.

Result:
Note: enter a title by clicking on Chart Title. For example, Wildlife Population.
Change Chart Type
You can easily change to a different type of chart at any time.

1. Select the chart.

2. On the Chart Design tab, in the Type group, click Change Chart Type.

3. On the left side, click Column.

4. Click OK.

Result:

Switch Row/Column
If you want to display the animals (instead of the months) on the horizontal axis,
execute the following steps.

1. Select the chart.

2. On the Chart Design tab, in the Data group, click Switch Row/Column.

Result:
Legend Position
To move the legend to the right side of the chart, execute the following steps.

1. Select the chart.

2. Click the + button on the right side of the chart, click the arrow next to Legend
and click Right.

Result:

Data Labels
You can use data labels to focus your readers' attention on a single data series or
data point.

1. Select the chart.

2. Click a green bar to select the Jun data series.

3. Hold down CTRL and use your arrow keys to select the population of Dolphins in
June (tiny green bar).

4. Click the + button on the right side of the chart and click the check box next to
Data Labels.

Result:
Column Chart in Excel
Column charts are used to compare values across categories by using vertical bars.

To create a column chart, execute the following steps.

1. Select the range A1:A7, hold down CTRL, and select the range C1:D7.

2. On the Insert tab, in the Charts group, click the Column symbol.

3. Click Clustered Column.

Result:
Note: only if you have numeric labels, empty cell A1 before you create the column
chart. By doing this, Excel does not recognize the numbers in column A as a data
series and automatically places these numbers on the horizontal (category) axis.
After creating the chart, you can enter the text Year into cell A1 if you like.
Line Chart in Excel
Line charts are used to display trends over time. Use a line chart if you have text
labels, dates or a few numeric labels on the horizontal axis. Use a scatter plot (XY
chart) to show scientific XY data.
To create a line chart, execute the following steps.

1. Select the range A1:D7.

2. On the Insert tab, in the Charts group, click the Line symbol.

3. Click Line with Markers.

Result:
Note: only if you have numeric labels, empty cell A1 before you create the line chart.
By doing this, Excel does not recognize the numbers in column A as a data
series and automatically places these numbers on the horizontal (category) axis.
After creating the chart, you can enter the text Year into cell A1 if you like.
Let's customize this line chart.

To change the data range included in the chart, execute the following steps.

4. Select the line chart.

5. On the Chart Design tab, in the Data group, click Select Data.

6. Uncheck Dolphins and Whales and click OK.

Result:

To change the color of the line and the markers, execute the following steps.

7. Right click the line and click Format Data Series.

The Format Data Series pane appears.

8. Click the paint bucket icon and change the line color.
9. Click Marker and change the fill color and border color of the markers.

Result:

To add a trendline, execute the following steps.

10. Select the line chart.

11. Click the + button on the right side of the chart, click the arrow next to Trendline
and then click More Options.

The Format Trendline pane appears.

12. Choose a Trend/Regression type. Click Linear.

13. Specify the number of periods to include in the forecast. Type 2 in the Forward
box.
Result:

To change the axis type to Date axis, execute the following steps.

14. Right click the horizontal axis, and then click Format Axis.
The Format Axis pane appears.

15. Click Date axis.

Result:

Conclusion: the trendline predicts a population of approximately 250 bears in 2024.

Pie Chart in Excel
Pie charts are used to display the contribution of each value (slice) to a total (pie).
Pie charts always use one data series.
To create a pie chart of the 2017 data series, execute the following steps.
1. Select the range A1:D2.

2. On the Insert tab, in the Charts group, click the Pie symbol.

3. Click Pie.

Result:
4. Click on the pie to select the whole pie. Click on a slice to drag it away from the
center.

Result:

Note: only if you have numeric labels, empty cell A1 before you create the pie chart.
By doing this, Excel does not recognize the numbers in column A as a data
series and automatically creates the correct chart. After creating the chart, you can
enter the text Year into cell A1 if you like.
Let's create one more cool pie chart.

5. Select the range A1:D1, hold down CTRL and select the range A3:D3.

6. Create the pie chart (repeat steps 2-3).

7. Click the legend at the bottom and press Delete.

8. Select the pie chart.

9. Click the + button on the right side of the chart and click the check box next to
Data Labels.

10. Click the paintbrush icon on the right side of the chart and change the color
scheme of the pie chart.

Result:

11. Right click the pie chart and click Format Data Labels.
12. Check Category Name, uncheck Value, check Percentage and click Center.

Result:

Note: right click the data labels and click Font to change the font size and font color
of the data labels.
Bar Chart in Excel
A bar chart is the horizontal version of a column chart. Use a bar chart if you have
large text labels.
To create a bar chart, execute the following steps.

1. Select the range A1:B6.

2. On the Insert tab, in the Charts group, click the Column symbol.

3. Click Clustered Bar.

Result:
Area Chart in Excel
An area chart is a line chart with the areas below the lines filled with colors. Use a
stacked area chart to display the contribution of each value to a total over time.
To create an area chart, execute the following steps.

1. Select the range A1:D7.

2. On the Insert tab, in the Charts group, click the Line symbol.

3. Click Area.
Result: in this example, some areas overlap.

Below you can find the corresponding line chart to clearly see this.

4. Change the chart's subtype to Stacked Area (the one next to Area).
Result:
Note: only if you have numeric labels, empty cell A1 before you create the area
chart. By doing this, Excel does not recognize the numbers in column A as a data
series and automatically places these numbers on the horizontal (category) axis.
After creating the chart, you can enter the text Year into cell A1 if you like.
Scatter Plot in Excel
Use a scatter plot (XY chart) to show scientific XY data. Scatter plots are often used
to find out if there's a relationship between variables X and Y.

Only Markers
To find out if there is a relationship between X (a person's salary) and Y (his/her car
price), execute the following steps.

1. Select the range A1:B10.

2. On the Insert tab, in the Charts group, click the Scatter symbol.

3. Click Scatter.

Result:
Note: we added a trendline to clearly see the relationship between these two
variables.

Straight Lines
To create a scatter plot with straight lines, execute the following steps.

1. Select the range A1:D22.

2. On the Insert tab, in the Charts group, click the Scatter symbol.
3. Click Scatter with Straight Lines.

Note: also see the subtype Scatter with Smooth Lines.

Result:

Note: we added a horizontal and vertical axis title. The horizontal axis of a scatter
plot is a value axis, so you have more axis scaling options (the same as a vertical
axis which always is a value axis).
Data Series in Excel
A row or column of numbers that are plotted in a chart is called a data series. You
can plot one or more data series in a chart.
To create a column chart, execute the following steps.

1. Select the range A1:D7.

2. On the Insert tab, in the Charts group, click the Column symbol.

3. Click Clustered Column.

Result:
Select Data Source
To launch the Select Data Source dialog box, execute the following steps.

1. Select the chart. Right click, and then click Select Data.

The Select Data Source dialog box appears.

2. You can find the three data series (Bears, Dolphins and Whales) on the left and
the horizontal axis labels (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May and Jun) on the right.
Switch Row/Column
If you click Switch Row/Column, you'll have 6 data series (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May and
Jun) and three horizontal axis labels (Bears, Dolphins and Whales).

Result:
Add, Edit, Remove and Move
You can use the Select Data Source dialog box to add, edit, remove and move data
series, but there's a quicker way.

1. Select the chart.

2. Simply change the range on the sheet.

Result:
Chart Axes in Excel
Most chart types have two axes: a horizontal axis (or x-axis) and a vertical axis (or y-
axis). This example teaches you how to change the axis type, add axis titles and how
to change the scale of the vertical axis.
To create a column chart, execute the following steps.

1. Select the range A1:B7.

2. On the Insert tab, in the Charts group, click the Column symbol.

3. Click Clustered Column.

Result:
Axis Type
Excel also shows the dates between 8/24/2018 and 9/1/2018. To remove these
dates, change the axis type from Date axis to Text axis.
1. Right click the horizontal axis, and then click Format Axis.

The Format Axis pane appears.

2. Click Text axis.

Result:

Axis Titles
To add a vertical axis title, execute the following steps.

1. Select the chart.

2. Click the + button on the right side of the chart, click the arrow next to Axis Titles
and then click the check box next to Primary Vertical.

3. Enter a vertical axis title. For example, Visitors.

Result:
Axis Scale
By default, Excel automatically determines the values on the vertical axis. To change
these values, execute the following steps.

1. Right click the vertical axis, and then click Format Axis.

The Format Axis pane appears.

2. Fix the maximum bound to 10000.

3. Fix the major unit to 2000.

Result:
Trendline in Excel
This example teaches you how to add a trendline to a chart in Excel.
1. Select the chart.

2. Click the + button on the right side of the chart, click the arrow next to Trendline
and then click More Options.

The Format Trendline pane appears.

3. Choose a Trend/Regression type. Click Linear.

4. Specify the number of periods to include in the forecast. Type 3 in the Forward
box.

5. Check "Display Equation on chart" and "Display R-squared value on chart".

Result:

Explanation: Excel uses the method of least squares to find a line that best fits the
points. The R-squared value equals 0.9295, which is a good fit. The closer to 1, the
better the line fits the data. The trendline predicts that 120 Wonka bars will be sold
in period 13. You can verify this by using the equation. y = 7.7515 * 13 + 18.267 =
119.0365.

6. Instead of using this equation, you can use the FORECAST.LINEAR function in
Excel. This function predicts the same future values.

7. The FORECAST.ETS function in Excel predicts a future value using Exponential

Triple Smoothing, which takes into account seasonality.

Tip: visit our page about forecasting to learn more about these functions.
Sparklines in Excel
Sparklines in Excel are graphs that fit in one cell. Sparklines are great for displaying
trends. Excel offers three sparkline types: Line, Column and Win/Loss.

Create Sparklines
To create sparklines, execute the following steps.

1. Select the cells where you want the sparklines to appear. In this example, we
select the range G2:G4.

2. On the Insert tab, in the Sparklines group, click Line.

3. Click in the Data Range box and select the range B2:F4.

4. Click OK.

Result:
5. Change the value in cell F2 to 1186.

Result: Excel automatically updates the sparkline.

Customize Sparklines
To customize sparklines, execute the following steps.

1. Select the sparklines.

2. On the Sparkline tab, in the Show group, check High Point and Low Point.

Result:

Note: to make the sparklines larger, simply change the row height and column width
of the sparkline cells.

3. On the Sparkline tab, in the Style group, choose a nice visual style.

Result:
Note: the high points are colored green now and the low points are colored red.

To delete a sparkline, execute the following steps.

4. Select 1 or more sparklines.

5. On the Sparkline tab, in the Group group, click Clear.

Note: when creating multiple sparklines at once (one for each row or column of
data), your sparklines are grouped. To customize each sparkline individually, first
select the grouped sparklines and click Ungroup.

Sparkline Types
Excel offers three sparkline types: Line, Column and Win/Loss. You can easily change
to a different type of sparkline at any time.

1. Below you can find the Line sparklines we created in the previous two paragraphs.

2. Select the Line sparklines.

3. On the Sparkline tab, in the Type group, click Column.

Result:

4. Select the column sparklines.

5. On the Sparkline tab, in the Type group, click Win/Loss.

6. On the Sparkline tab, in the Show group, uncheck High Point and Low Point and
check Negative Points.

Result:

Note: we changed the data to negative and positive values. A win/loss sparkline only
shows whether each value is positive (win) or negative (loss).

Sparkline Axes
By default, each sparkline has its own vertical scale. The maximum value is plotted
at the top of the cell. The minimum value is plotted at the bottom of the cell.

1. Below you can find the column sparklines we created in the previous paragraph.
Note: all green bars have the same height, but the maximum values (B2, E3 and F4)
are different!

2. Select the column sparklines.

3. On the Sparkline tab, in the Group group, click Axis.

4. Under Vertical Axis Minimum Value Options and Vertical Axis Maximum Value
Options, select Same for All Sparklines.

Result:
Conclusion: now you can clearly see that the earnings of Jack are much higher.

5. Here's another cool little trick. Below you can find three sparklines with negative
values.

6. Select the sparklines.

7. On the Sparkline tab, in the Group group, click Axis.

8. Under Horizontal Axis Options, click Show Axis.

9. On the Sparkline tab, in the Show group, check Negative Points.

Result:

Note: the horizontal axis only appears if the sparkline has data that crosses the zero
axis. On the Sparkline tab, in the Style group, click Marker Color to change the color
of the negative points.

Hidden and Empty Cells

By default, Excel does not show hidden data in a sparkline and empty cells are
shown as gaps.

1. Select 1 or more sparklines.

2. On the Sparkline tab, in the Sparkline group, click Edit Data.

3. Click Hidden & Empty cells.

The following dialog box appears.

Note: to show hidden data in a sparkline, check "Show data in hidden rows and
columns".
4. You can show empty cells as gaps (first sparkline below), zero (second sparkline
below) or connect the data points with a line (third sparkline below).

Note: now it's your turn! Download the Excel file and try to create a few sparklines.
Practice makes perfect.
Combination Chart in Excel
A combination chart is a chart that combines two or more chart types in a single
chart.
To create a combination chart, execute the following steps.

1. Select the range A1:C13.

2. On the Insert tab, in the Charts group, click the Combo symbol.

3. Click Create Custom Combo Chart.

The Insert Chart dialog box appears.

4. For the Rainy Days series, choose Clustered Column as the chart type.

5. For the Profit series, choose Line as the chart type.

6. Plot the Profit series on the secondary axis.

7. Click OK.

Result: