In this Quick Tip,
we'll look at quick and easy ways to create charts in Microsoft Excel. First,
let's look at some easy shortcut keys.
Start by selecting the data range you want to chart.
As just a quick reminder here, we want to make sure that the data is contiguous.
It doesn't have any blank,
rows or columns and includes the labels that will be used for the legend
as well as the X-axis. In this case,
I'm not including the totals because that doesn't really help us if we're trying
to do some comparative charts, but we might use the total for a separate chart,
like a pie chart. Now that I've selected the data,
we press ALT+F1 to create an embedded chart.
An embedded chart is an object within the current worksheet.
In this case, the default chart is a column chart.
Let's look at this once again with the data selected. Now,
if I want a chart sheet, press the F11 function key,
and we have a chart.
You can tell everyone that you have spent hours creating it,
but all you needed to do was press one key.
A chart sheet is a standalone chart in its own sheet that
can be helpful because it's proportional and fills the page.
This becomes an easy format if you want to add a lot of annotations,
like text boxes, arrows, and other notes to this chart.
Now with either of these charts, if you change your mind, that is,
I want this embedded chart to be a chart sheet,
or I want to move it to a different worksheet, that's really easy. First,
the chart is selected. We go to Chart Design and here is Move Chart.
This becomes an easy way for you to make this into a chart sheet,
to make a chart sheet into an embedded object,
or to even move it to a different worksheet. Additionally,
once we have the chart, if we want to change the chart type,
that's very simple as well. In the Chart Design contextual Ribbon tab,
I'll pick Change Chart Type, and perhaps I'd like this to be a line chart.
Instead, I think I'll go back to that column chart,
but it's that easy to not only create the chart,
but also to change the chart type. Next,
let's look at some quick and easy tips and tricks for selecting data.
One of the challenges we can have with charts is that we may not have all of the
data at the time we want to create the chart. So let's say for instance,
I don't have my fourth quarter data. It's currently zero. Well,
I could select this and then have a placeholder for it.
But even easier is I'll select the quarterly data that I already have.
Now we'll create a chart now,
before we hit the keyboard shortcut ALT+F1 but I could also just choose
Insert in Charts here.
I'll pick my column chart and select the type that I want.
So simple and easy, but once I have the fourth quarter data,
I could go to Select Data and change the range.
But here's the neat little trick. I'm simply going to select that data. Copy it,
move into the chart and paste and look what happens.
I've simply added that data to the existing data.
And now I have all four quarters that are plotted in this chart.
And one more selection tip for this chart.
I want to plot the total as a pie chart.
Now I could build another worksheet, but I don't have to.
So the key here is I'll highlight the labels first,
whether it's vertical or horizontal,
we simply highlight those labels that we want to use for the chart. Next,
hold down,
CTRL and select a matching parallel range that contains
the data and let go of CTRL.
Now don't use the CTRL for the first range or you won't have a successful chart.
We select the labels,
hold CTRL and then select a matching parallel data range. Now,
once you have that, Insert, we'll choose pie chart,
and there we go.
It's that easy to select the data and create the types of charts that you
want in Excel.
For more tips on being productive with Microsoft Excel or to sign up for my tips
newsletter, visit TheSoftwarePro.com/Excel. If this training was helpful,
please like this video and subscribe to this channel. This is Dawn Bjork,
The Software Pro. Thanks for watching.