How to Make a Graph in MS Excel

Microsoft Excel is well-known for its spreadsheet capabilities; Excel 2007 is no different. The software contains numerous built-in formulas that can help users calculate everything from simple math to complex statistical and engineering operations. For those who are not as comfortable with enormous amounts of numerical data, Excel can also be used to create charts and graphs. One of the basic graphs that can be created in Microsoft Excel is a column graph.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Basic knowledge of Excel
• Data for graph

Instructions

1. Type "Month" in cell A1, and type the months January through December in cell A2 through A13. In cell B1, type "Applications." For each month, increase the "Applications" by 200. In cell B2, type "200," in cell B3 type "400" and so on. The last month in the "Month" column should be be in cell A13 and the last figure in the "Applications" column should be in cell B13.

2. Place the cursor on a cell in the "Month" and "Applications" data table. If the cursor is not on an item in the table, the chart will not know where to access the data. Press the "Insert" tab. Click on the down arrow under the "Column" option in the "Charts" panel.

3. Click on "Column" from the "Charts" section, and then select the first column chart option under "3-D Column."

4. Click on the border of the chart and drag it to the desired location. You can change the size of the chart by grabbing a border of the chart and dragging it.

Tips & Warnings

• To change the type of chart, right-click on the graph itself and select "Change Chart Type." Work with different types of charts and graphs to discover which works best in displaying the data. For instance, line charts may be more effective than pie charts to show drastic changes in data. Alternatively, the chart type can be changed by going to the "Design" tab and clicking on "Change Chart Type" on the "Type" panel. The data table can be included with the chart by selecting "Quick Layout" on the "Chart Layouts" panel of the "Design" tab. This is the second chart layout option on the second row titled "Layout 5."

References

• Microsoft: Create a Chart
• Mircrosoft: Present Your Data in a Column Chart
• Microsoft: Changing Chart Elements

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Microsoft: Office Excel 2007 Product Overview