creating graphs and pie charts in excel 2013

#CREATING GRAPHS AND PIE CHARTS IN EXCEL 2013 HOW TO#
#CREATING GRAPHS AND PIE CHARTS IN EXCEL 2013 SERIES#

Here are some common tasks you’ll want to learn how to do on your own. But if you can’t find the design that’s just right for your presentation, you might want to explore formatting your data yourself. The above methods for formatting pie charts are handy if you want to work with Excel’s existing designs and formats. The Filters icon next to the selected image allows you to hide or show categories as needed. The Change Colors selection allows you to choose from a list of themes, while the sample styles offer variations of designs within the selected theme.Īs a shortcut, you can click the chart styles (paintbrush) icon next to the chart when its image is selected to access the same chart style options. You can change the chart’s color or style from the Chart Styles command group. Browsing these options will allow you to choose whether your chart has a title, whether and where a legend is displayed, and whether the values on your chart are shown as explicit values, percentages, or at all.

The Quick Layout option also has a few built-in combinations which can be used instead of manually adding each element one by one.

You can either click Add Chart Element from the Chart Layouts command group to the far left of the Design tab or click the green Chart Elements icon next to the chart when its image is selected. It’s possible to add or remove a chart title, data labels, and/or a legend in two ways. Step 3 - Quick customization Chart elements This will, of course, defeat the purpose of simplifying data to your audience.įor your first chart, it’s best to stick with the classic 2D chart since it’s more straightforward. Because of the angles used, they are often accused of being misleading since the sections toward the front look bigger. The Pie of Pie and Bar of Pie options may not be familiar to all audiences and you’d need to understand it yourself in order to use it anyway.ģD pies might look cool, but be careful. This icon looks like a mini pie chart.įrom this group, you’ll need to select from 2D, 3D, and Doughnut. Step 2 - Insert the type of pie chart you wantįrom the Insert tab, go to the Charts command group and click the Insert Pie or Doughnut Chart icon. So select only what you need by holding down the Control key between non-adjacent selections. Remember, Excel puts (or tries to put) everything that is highlighted on your chart. When selecting the cells to be used as your source data, there may be times when your data is non-contiguous. Remember, pie charts can only handle one measurement or value per independent variable. This should include what is being measured, and how much of it there is. How to make a pie chart in Excel Step 1 - Select your dataįrom your Excel worksheet, highlight the data you want to appear in your pie. This goes for all Excel charts, by the way, not just pie charts.Įnough small talk. These are called contextual tabs, meaning that they only appear when you select a chart. Most of the menu options we’ll be referring to below can be found on the Design or Format tabs. After all, even if the slices are not labeled with individual values or percentages, and if there is no legend (doesn’t sound like a very good chart, to be honest), the relative size of each slice is a visual indicator of the value of each variable in relation to the other variables, and to the pie as a whole.

Pie charts are notoriously bad for displaying lots of data points, simply because the slices will be too small, making them meaningless for making a point visually.Īs long as you remember that the data in a pie chart will always add up to 100%, you can appreciate why it’s so easy to read. Negative values will be displayed as positive values, as zeros won’t be displayed at all. you have negative or zero values in your dataset.Since each variable will have only one value, pie charts are a snapshot of one moment in time. you want to display a trend over time.

#CREATING GRAPHS AND PIE CHARTS IN EXCEL 2013 SERIES#

you want to display more than one data series (i.e., each category has multiple data points).

Let’s get this out of the way - pie charts are not ideal for every type of data. It’s easy to create and even easier to read. It usually doesn’t require the audience to have an in-depth knowledge of the subject being reported on, nor any lengthy explanations of what it is meant to describe. A pie chart is very useful for displaying basic statistical data.

Creating graphs and pie charts in excel 2013