Introduction
Information can be presented in a more visually acceptable way using charts and graphs in Excel. Then, it can be used to track down trends, compare things, and draw conclusions much quicker. Several different types of charts exist in Excel, such as bar charts, line charts, pie charts, column charts, area charts, scatter plots, and histograms, and are used for various analyses. This guide shows you how to create charts step by step, and it details various types of charts you can create for better enhancement of data presentation and subsequent decision-making processes.
Charts in Excel
An Excel chart or graph is the graphical representation of data within your Microsoft Excel worksheet. It will help you in finding the trend, comparison, and underlining of the trend as well as drawing insights from numbers. Excel has thousands of possibilities of charts and graphs. Some of these includes:
Bar chart
Line chart
Pie chart.
Column chart
Area chart
Surface chart
Scatter Plot
Histogram chart
How to Create Charts in Excel
To create any chart in excel we need to follow some common steps. These steps are as follows:
Step 1: Create Dataset
Your data should appear in tabular format with headers to the columns.
For example, we could put “months” and “sales” in different columns.
Step 2: Select the Data
Select to drag and highlight the data you want to plot.
Step 3: Insert Chart
Switch to the Insert tab on the ribbon of Excel.
Select one of the chart types from the list on the right side, located in the Charts group: Column, Line, Pie, Bar, Area, Surface, or Scatter.
Make the following kinds of popular charts:
Bar Chart
The bar charts represent the categorical data using rectangular horizontal bars, whose height and length are proportional to the values of the data it is supposed to represent.
Information on two or more groups can be indicated by a bar graph. Bar graphs are primarily applied in comparing over a range.
Line Chart
Trends are best represented by line charts. This may turn out to be very helpful in trying to analyze ups and downs in a range of data over a given period of time. The chart uses connecting lines of the data points.
Connect straight lines joining a series of values/data points. In a line graph, use this when you want to find out if the values increase or decrease over some period of time.
Pie Chart
This is a circular graph that represents data. The data set forms a pie or circle, divided into sections to represent some proportion of the whole.
They are usually used to analyze the percent allocation of data points in an incomplete dataset.
Column Chart
Column charts represent the data with the help of vertical chart by using vertical bars. Most of these graphs are used for comparing purposes in between the data points available in the data.
Area Chart
Area charts are those that are used to represent graphically the quantitative data. It is very much alike the line chart and is based on it. The area between the lines is coloured, and they are easy to analyze because they resemble much like the line chart with ups and downs of data.
Surface Chart
Surface charts are 3 dimensional charts. Data views in three dimensions are their interaction with variables, this kind of chart shows optimality in combinations of variables.
For example, for the analysis of how differing aspects of price and advertising expenditure affect sales, best conditions for maximizing revenue on one line graph.
Scatter Chart
A scatter plot is simply called a coordinate graph with dots for the two data values plotted against each variable. This type of graph allows for an assessment of the presence or absence of a relationship or pattern between two variables of data.
Histogram Chart
Histograms are very good at summarizing the data by aggregating them into ranges, showing the number of how many falls within each of those ranges. This sort of graph is very good for trying to understand a distribution. Suppose you were interested in understanding the range of your customers’ ages. The histogram would display how many of your customers fall within each age range. Thus, you may be able to identify shifts in age demographics of the target population.
Conclusion
The master of creating charts in Excel is what gives someone really valuable skills for doing proper data analysis and communicating it well. By making the appropriate choices of chart types and then tailoring them according to specific needs, it can transform complicated data into clear and compelling visuals, all essential for drawing out insights that are key. Ranging from trends and comparisons to distributions, Excel charts are so versatile that they add a great deal of power to the telling of a data story.