How to Change a Table Into a Bar Chart

Here is an example of a bar chart derived from table information.

Tables transform any group of numbers into a graphical format so that relationships and patterns are easy to discern. Small wonder that they are often used in documents and web pages. As useful as tables can be, their information can be made even more comprehensible when presented as a bar chart. You're going to need a charting program such as Microsoft Excel to accomplish this task.

Instructions

1. Open both your charting program and the source containing the table. If possible, display them side by side on the screen.

2. Click on the upper-left cell of the table and while holding down the left mouse key, drag the selection to the lower-right cell of the table.

3. Click the "Edit" menu of your table source and choose the "Copy" option. If no such menu exists, try pressing the "Control" and "C" keys at the same time.

4. Click the upper left cell of your charting program. Select the "Edit" menu and choose the "Paste Special" option. In the "Paste Special" dialogue, choose "Unformatted Text" to paste the information. The data cells of the table should appear in the individual cells of the chart. Choose the "Save" option from the "File" menu and specify a file name to store your changes.

5. Delete any extraneous rows or columns of data from the chart program. Bar charting only works if your cells contain numerical values. However, your top row and left-most column can consist of text labels that appear as headers in the chart. Remove any text beyond these specifics.

6. Choose the "Insert" menu and the "Chart" option to display the Chart wizard. Choose "Bar" as the chart type and click the "Finish" button. The bar chart appears. You can typically change different elements of the chart, for example bar colors or labels, by clicking on the element.

Tips & Warnings

• You can convert a table into a chart only if it contains similar numerical information arranged in some kind of sequence. For example, a table of sales numbers arranged in columns by state and in rows by month works well as a bar chart. However, a table that combines sales numbers, wholesale prices and tax rates would not make a good chart. The procedures apply specifically to Excel 2000 used in the Windows XP operating system. However, they work in general for all versions of Excel and Windows.

References

• Creating a Chart in Excel