Working with Charts, Part 1

Creating a Chart

You can create a basic chart by selecting any part of the range you want to be charted, then clicking the chart type that you want on the Insert tab in the Charts ribbon group. Or, simply press Alt+F1 for Excel to automatically create a simple column chart for you. From there, you have multiple options to change the chart so it's just the way you want it.

Inserting a Column Chart

1. Select the data from the spreadsheet.
2. Click Insert > Insert Column or Bar Chart icon, and select a column chart option of your choice. 
   

Inserting a Line Chart 

1. Select the data from the spreadsheet. 
2. Click Insert > Insert Line or Area Chart icon, and select a chart option of your choice.

Inserting a Bar Chart 

1. Select the data from the spreadsheet. 
2. Click Insert > Insert Column or Bar Chart icon, and select a chart option of your choice.

Inserting a Pie Chart

1. In your spreadsheet, select the data to use for your pie chart. 
2. Click Insert > Insert Pie or Doughnut Chart, and then pick the chart you want.

Styling Charts with the Design Tab

1. Click the chart that you want to format. This displays the Chart Tools, adding the Design, Layout, and Format tabs.
2. On the Design tab, in the Chart Styles group, click the chart style that you want to use.
   

Tip: To see all predefined chart styles, click More.

Notes:
• When the Excel window is reduced in size, chart styles will be available in the Chart Quick Styles gallery in the Chart Styles group.
• Chart styles use the colors of the current document theme that is applied to the workbook. You can change the colors by switching to a different document theme. You can also customize a document theme to display a chart in the exact colors that you want.

Modifying Charts with the Layout Tab

After you create a chart, you can instantly change its look. Instead of manually adding or changing chart elements or formatting the chart, you can quickly apply a predefined layout and style to your chart. 

Microsoft Office provides a variety of useful predefined layouts and styles (or quick layouts and quick styles) that you can select from. However, you can customize a layout or style of a chart further by manually changing the layout and style of the individual chart elements that are used in the chart.

Select a predefined chart layout

1. Click the chart that you want to format. This displays the Chart Tools, adding the Design, Layout, and Format tabs. 
2. On the Design tab, in the Chart Layouts group, click the chart layout that you want to use.

Manipulating a Chart

You can change the format of individual chart elements, such as the chart area, plot area, data series, axes, titles, data labels, or legend.

1. Select the chart element (for example, data series, axes, or titles), right-click it, and click Format <chart element>. 
2. The Format pane appears with options that are tailored for the selected chart element.
3. Clicking the small icons at the top of the pane moves you to other parts of the pane with more options. 
4. If you click on a different chart element, you’ll see that the task pane automatically updates to the new chart element.