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Upon opening Excel, a new workbook with blank worksheet pages appears. The workbook structure resembles a binder filled with several sheets of paper, which in this case consist of worksheets. Text and numerical data for budget reports or student grades are input directly onto the worksheets. Charts cannot be inserted until data have been entered into the worksheet.
For practice, type random names of businesses in Column A, then input quarterly gains and losses in Columns D and G. Make use of headers and spacing between columns and rows to present the information clearly and attractively within the worksheet. - Highlight all the information to include in a chart. Click the Insert tab on the toolbar and select the type of chart to insert. Clicking the drop-down arrow under Column reveals several graphical options for this chart type. After choosing an option, a chart is inserted into the worksheet. To move the chart, hover the mouse over the top left corner until a crosshair cursor appears, then click and drag the chart to the desired location.
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Select the chart to display chart tools in the top menu bar. Choose a chart layout type from the toolbar options. Changing the layout permits the addition of chart titles and the relocation of legends and axes. Double click the chart and axis titles to change the text. Remove extraneous items from the legend by double clicking its colored square, then pressing delete on the keyboard. Select from several options under the Design tab to choose different pre-formatted backgrounds and colors. Click Format from the chart tools to manually modify background, shape and text colors.
Revisions to the information the chart represents must be made within the worksheet, not directly to the chart. Because of its dependence on worksheet data, the chart automatically will update to reflect any changes made to the highlighted data within the worksheet.
