You can also click on the legend, or any other aspect of the chart to move it around and make changes. You can also click on the chart's title to change or format it. You can right click on the plot area, as we've done below.įrom the menu, you can delete the chart, reset, change the chart type, save the chart as a template, or select data to include in the chart. There are a number of ways to modify a chart after it's made. The chart is embedded in your spreadsheet: Click on the Quick Analysis tool button at the bottom right of the selected data: To use the Quick Analysis tool for creating charts, select that data that you want to include in the chart. Uncheck any entries you don't want to appear in the chart.Ĭreating Charts Using the Quick Analysis Tool If you want, you can switch rows and columns so that the days of the week appear on the left and your axis labels become legend entries. Your legend entries were your column labels. These appear as colors representing each day of the week. Note that your axis labels were your row labels. Now you can use the Select Data Source dialog box to add legend entries – or edit and remove them. When you hit Enter, the chart appears in your worksheet: When you are finished, you can either click the button on the right, or push Enter. MS Excel automatically enters the selected cell coordinates into the data range window. This window is simply asking you to define the data range, and you can do it easily by clicking on a cell, holding the mouse button, and dragging it over all of the cells you'd like to add. Interested in learning more? Why not take an online Excel 2013 course? You'll see another box that looks like this: To do that, click the Data Range button next to the text box.
It's actually much easier to select the data range by dragging your mouse over it. For instance, "=Sheet1!$A$1:$G$8" refers to cells A1 through G8 on worksheet one. The data range refers to the number of cells you'd like to use. You'll see a blank area on your worksheet where your chart will be embedded, and you'll also notice the Chart Design and the Chart Format tabs open on the Ribbon.Ĭlick the Select Data button under the Design tab.
Select the type of bar chart that you want to use. However, this time, don't select any data before you do it. In other words, you can start to create your chart without selecting data first.Ĭlick the Insert Bar Chart button on the Ribbon again. However, you don't have to do it that way (although it's the easiest).
So far in this article, we've taught you how to create charts by selecting your data first. Preview data as a 2-D scatter or bubble chart. You can preview data as a 2-D or 3-D pie, or 2-D doughnut chart. Preview your data as a 2-D combo clustered column and line chart – or clustered column and stacked area chart. Preview your data as a 2-D or 3-D area chart. This lets you preview data as a 2-D or 3-D line chart. With this, you can preview data as a 2-D stock chart that uses typical stock symbols, a 2-D or 3-D surface chart, or even a 3-D radar chart. Insert Bar Chart allows you to preview your data as a 2-D or 3-D horizontal bar chart. With this, you can preview data as a 2-D or 3-D vertical column chart. This is the first button, located in the top left corner. We're going to go from left to right, starting at the top left, and cover all the buttons above. You can use these buttons and their drop-down menus to create these types and styles of charts. To the right of the Recommended Charts button on the ribbon, you'll see this: We'll discuss all of these options later in this article. The tools shown above will help you customize your charts. You'll also notice the Chart Tools Format tab opens in the Ribbon: The chart is embedded in your worksheet for you: On the right is a preview of what the chart will look like with your data.Ĭhoose the chart you want to use, then click OK.
On the left side of this dialog box you'll find all the chart recommendations. When you click on the Recommended Charts button, a dialog box opens, like the one pictured below.īased on your data, Excel recommends a chart for you to use. To create a chart this way, first select the data you want to put into a chart. This is under the Insert tab on the Ribbon in the Charts group (as pictured above). That was a great tool and a great help, but Excel 2013 offers you something even better: the Recommended Charts tool. In prior versions of Excel, you had the Chart Wizard to help you create charts.