Bar Charts
Trivia Question: What’s a pirates favorite type of chart?
Answer: A barrrgh chart.
Pirates use bar charts when they have discreet data over time. An example would be the cost of a pirate ship throughout the years. Pirates could chart the cost of their ships in the years 1800, 1850, 1900, 1950, and 2000. Another, more realistic example would be the tuition costs at KU for certain years.
For bar charts you will enter your data in columns. In the first cell you want to enter a time frame label. For the example we will use the cost of pirate ships through the years, so the label is simply Years.
In the cells below your label, enter all of the time intervals. For the example we will use the years listed above.
In the next column you will enter a label that describes your type of data. For the example we are using the cost of ships, so the label will simply be Cost. This label will go directly to the right of the time frame label.
Fill in the data that corresponds for each of your time intervals.
Once your data is completely entered, highlight all of the cells where you’ve typed information by clicking and dragging over the cells. The cells should change color, then click on the Chart Wizard icon.
If you can’t find the Chart Wizard icon, you can always click on Insert -> Chart
The Chart Wizard dialog box should pop onto your screen. Notice that the dialog box says step 1 of 4. This is a little deceiving because there are several steps within some of the steps.
The first thing you’ll want to do is select the chart type. In Excel there are actually two main types of bar charts. A Column chart and a Bar chart. They are basically the same type of chart except one is horizontal and the other is vertical. For the example we will use the Column chart, which has vertical bars. You can choose the type of bar graph that works best for your data.
Once you’ve selected your Chart type, you need to select a chart sub-type. The most common chart sub-types will be the Clustered Column or the 3-D Clustered Column. (For the example we will use the Clustered Column)
You can click and hold on the Press and Hold to View Sample button to get a rough sample of what your chart would look like (When creating a bar chart, the sample chart will not look right until you’ve made some minor modifications later in the chart wizard. If you’re chart doesn’t look correct, it’s probably not a big deal.)
When you’re happy with a chart sub-type click Next
In step 2 under the Data Range tab, make sure you have Columns selected in the Series in: field because your data should be entered down a column.
In step 2 under the Series tab, there is a box labeled Series. That box should contain your time frame label and your data type label. For the example we used Year and Cost.
The series box contains the actual data that’s displayed on your chart. Since we only want the Cost series data to be displayed on our chart, we need to remove the time frame label. Highlight your time frame label and click remove.
You will want your time frame data (i.e. the actual years) to be listed along the X-axis. You need to tell the Chart Wizard how to do this. Below the series box there is a field labeled Category (X) axis labels:. Click on the arrow to the right of the entry field.
The chart wizard should minimize so you can see your entered data in the workbook. The Chart Wizard will still be on the screen with a blank entry field. You need to click and drag to highlight the data in your time frame column. Your time frame column should now have a moving black dotted line around it. The blank entry field in the Chart Wizard should now contain a formula that will label your X-axis. Your formula will be different than the example formula because it depends on the data you enter. When your formula appears, hit the return key on the keyboard.
Your Chart Wizard should return to full size and you can click Next to move on to step 3.
In step 3 under the Titles tab enter your title in the Chart title: entry field. Enter the labels for your X and Y axes in their corresponding fields.
Under the Legend tab you can choose whether or not you want to show a legend and where you want that legend to be shown on your chart.
Under the Data Labels tab you can choose whether or not you want to show the values for each of your bars.
Click Next
Step four asks where you want your chart to be placed. You can choose to have an entirely new sheet created, or to simply have the chart embedded into the sheet with your original data. Since your chart will be used for the web, you can simply embed it as an object in your original sheet.
Click Finish
Your chart should appear in your original sheet. You can make adjustments to the color or other formatting options of the text, background, or bars by double-clicking on the specific area you want to change. For example, if you want to change the color of your headline text from black to blue then you’d double-click on the headline. The Formatting Chart Area dialog box will open. You can adjust the format much like formatting in Word or Photoshop.
If you need to get back into the Chart Wizard you can simply click on the Chart Wizard icon again to make adjustments to your chart.
When you’re satisfied with the appearance of your chart, then you’re ready to move to the Cleaning Up Charts tutorial.