Teach Yourself Excel Lesson 26 - Create A Chart

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Create A Chart

Download starting Sheet

Now we are going to create charts of our pivot tables so that we can get a visual representation of all this data.

Steps:

  1. Select cell A4 on the "Monthly Summary" worksheet
  2. Choose the "Insert" menu on your ribbon
  3. Choose "Column"  and pick the 1st chart type under 2d Charts
  4. Now click on the edge of your new chart, and drag it somewhere convenient
  5. Select cell A4 on the "Summary By Expense Type" worksheet
  6. Choose the "Insert" menu on your ribbon
  7. Choose "Pie"  and pick the 1st chart type under 2d Pie
  8. Drag it somewhere convenient
  9. Do steps 5 to 8 for the "Necessary" worksheet

You'll now have 3 charts:

 

This chart tells me that my expenditure is fairly low apart from a massive spike in May 2006.

create-a-chart
This chart tells me that most of my expenditure is on Computer-related items. 
Good that I am only spending a small amount on Entertainment

create-a-chart

 

This chart tells me that most of my expenditure is necessary
This isn't great because I cannot save much by economising

create-a-chart

NOTE:

  • If you enter more expenses and you want to update the charts, simply right click on the pivot table and choose "Refresh"

Your sheet should now look like this

Next Lesson: Teach Yourself Excel Lesson 27 - Create Hyperlinks

Training Video on how to Create A Chart in Excel:

AttachmentSize
create-a-chart.xls40 KB

2 great chart shortcuts

If you're in a hurry to create a chart, remember these two great shortcuts when creating a chart either from an existing Pivot Table or from a selected range of data: 1) Press F11 - get a chart on a new sheet 2) Press Alt+F1 - get a chart on the current worksheet