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Creating charts is one of the most reliable ways of visualizing data. With the right choice of charts and graphs, you would represent your data in an easy-to-digest format. The thing is, most people are somewhat confused when it comes to making a graph in Excel, and if you’re like most people, you’re figuring out how to create a chart in Excel.
Well, the process is relatively straightforward — and you can accomplish it using Excel 365, Excel 2016, Excel for mac, or Excel 2013. Simply put, you can make charts in Excel using any Excel version. And if you want to take it a step further, you get to use the Excel ChartExpo add-in to professionally create charts for your audience.
Before diving into the ways of creating a chart in Excel, you’ve got to get a good grasp of what graphs and charts are — here’s a brief overview of these data visualization tools.
Charts and graphs are data visualization tools that help elevate your data. By using these tools to represent your data, you would present the data to your audience in an easy-to-digest format. Although these terms are used interchangeably, they are somewhat different — and can serve different purposes.
If you are looking for the basic way of representing data, then you’re better off with graphs. With graphs, you get to showcase data points over a period. The time frame could be seconds, minutes, hours, days, or weekly. It’s worthy to note that the time frame is largely determined by the analysts — and the type of data to be measured.
On the other hand, charts are quite complex, and they are used for comparing data pieces relative to one another. Since charts take different shapes rather than the regular x- and y-axis, these data visuals are considered more visually appealing than graphs.
As an analyst, you could use charts and graphs to present your data to management, team members, stakeholders, or your clients. This way, they get to peek into the progress of your project and possibly draw insights from your results.
Moving on, charts and graphs help in representing the various types of quantitative data. Aside from the various data sets it can represent, these visual tools help you to save time and eliminate the tedious work that goes into using spreadsheets.
Creating graphs and charts using Excel ChartExpo add-in is easy, and if you’re looking for a reliable way of storing data, you can also do that using Excel.
The Excel ChartExpo add-in offers a plethora of chart and graph types. The rules to make charts in Excel are not set in stone — and you get to use them for Excel 2016, Excel 2013, Excel for mac, or any other Excel type.
Yes, multiple charts (or graphs) may work for a particular data set. But if you want to get the most out of your data story, you’ve got to choose the right chart that best fits the data you want to represent.
With over fifty charts (and graphs) in the Excel ChartExpo add-in, here are five main categories of graphs or charts.
These are arguably the most commonly used charts. The Column Chart is usually used for comparing data sets. The ChartExpo Excel add-in offers different Column Chart types like Pareto Column Chart, Column Chart, Grouped Column Chart, Stacked Column Chart, and the Dual Axis Grouped Column Chart etc.
Pareto Column Chart
Column Chart
Grouped Column Chart
Stacked Column Chart
Dual-axis grouped Column Chart
2. Pie Charts:
Pie charts are used for comparing the percentages of a whole. During data visualization, the whole could be the sum of all values in your data set. Pieces of the pie are used in representing the value on each portion of the pie.
3. Bar Charts:
The bar chart is quite similar to the Column Chart. Unlike the Column Chart, the bar chart is created using horizontal bars. Most times, bar charts are used interchangeably with Column Charts — but some analysts are keen on using Column Charts, especially when they work with negative values. Since the vertical bars appear on the y-axis, it makes it easier to visualize negative values vertically.
Here are some types of bar charts you would find in the ChartExpo Excel add-in — Pareto Bar Chart, Comparison Bar Chart, Grouped Bar Chart, Double Bar Graph, Bar Chart, Stacked Bar Chart, Dual Axis Grouped Bar Chart, Performance Bar Chart, and the Double Axis Line and Bar Chart.
Pareto Bar Chart
Comparison Bar Chart
Grouped Bar Chart
Double Bar Graph
Bar Chart
Stacked Bar Chart
Dual-axis Grouped Bar Chart
Performance Bar Chart
Double Axis Line and Bar Chart
4. Line Charts:
Unlike other visual tools that are used for representing static data sets, the Line Chart is usually used to show trends over time. The data points in a Line Chart are connected using lines. This way, you get to see how the values of the data set to increase (or decrease) over time.
There are various Line Chart types in the ChartExpo Excel add-in. You would most likely come across Line Chart types like Multi Series Line Chart, Line Chart, Area Line Chart, SparkLine Chart, Multi-Series SparkLine Chart, Dual Axis Line Chart, and Vertical Axis Line Chart.
Multi-series Line Chart
Line Chart
Area Line Chart
Sparkline Chart
Multi-series Sparkline Chart
Dual-axis Line Chart
Multi-Axis Line Chart
Other categories of charts you would come across include area charts, Sankey Charts, Scale Charts, Radar Charts, Gauge Charts, Sentiment Charts, and lots more.
Creating any of these charts (or graphs) in Excel follows a similar pattern — and here is how to do just that.
To create charts in Excel, you’ve got to have the Excel desktop app and the ChartExpo for Excel add-in. After installing the add-in, you’ve got to gather your data and insert it in the worksheet.
Let’s say you manage an electronic business, and you want to track your sales using a pie chart — the first step is to gather your data set and insert it in the worksheet as shown below. After inserting the data set, highlight it.
| Item Sold | No. of units |
| Laptops | 200 |
| Television | 100 |
| Mouse | 600 |
| Phone | 750 |
| Keyboard | 300 |
Next, click on the Insert button on the top left corner of your screen, navigate to the My Add-ins option, and click on it.
For this illustration, we would be creating a Pie Chart. To create a pie chart, highlight your data on the spreadsheet and click on the Pie Chart.
At this point, you can customize your visuals to fit your needs. Let’s start by editing the elements of the chart. To do that, click on the Edit Chart option.
Here, you get to edit elements like the Chart Header and the Chart Footer.
By clicking on any of the elements, you get to customize any of the microelements.
Let’s say you click on the Chart Header Properties, you would get to edit things like the chart header and other elements.
After editing the Chart Header to electronics store sales analysis, you would have to click on Apply.
Once you are done with all the editing click on Save Changes.
There is an option of exporting your charts via Windows and Mac. To do that, click on the Export Chart option and follow the directions given.
You can create other Excel chart types following the same guidelines — all you need to do is choose your preferred chart type, customize it to fit your need, and export using any of the recommended channels.
From the chart, you would see that the products with the highest sales volume are phones and mouse respectively. However, the product with the least volume of sales is the television.
Moving on, here is how to make graphs in Excel.
Making graphs in Excel is somewhat straightforward — you’ve got to install the ChartExpo Excel add-in, gather your data, and insert it into the spreadsheet.
Let’s say you’re the sales manager of your organization, and you want to compare the sales of five different products in four years, here is what you need to do.
Gather your data and insert it into the spreadsheet.
| Products | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 |
| Product A | 20000 | 60000 | 72000 | 93000 |
| Product B | 85000 | 120000 | 50000 | 40000 |
| Product C | 62000 | 35000 | 80000 | 100000 |
| Product D | 40000 | 70000 | 50000 | 35000 |
| Product E | 15000 | 25000 | 62000 | 81000 |
For this illustration, a Grouped Column Chart will be created to showcase the sales of the various products over time. After clicking on the add-in option, a list of graphs will be displayed on your screen — choose Grouped Column Chart.
Select your data and click the Create Chart from Selection button.
From the image above, you would see some options — you can opt to Edit Chart or Export Chart. If you click on the Edit Chart option, you would get the chance of customizing the elements in your graph. But if you want to export your data visual, then you’ve got to click on the Export Chart option.
To create charts in Excel, install the ChartExpo Excel add-in. ChartExpo is a visualization tool that would help you create compelling data visuals in no time. By merely inserting your data into the spreadsheet, you get to navigate and choose your most preferred visualization tool. After that, you would generate catchy charts (or graphs) in no time.
The best part, no coding skill is required.
Creating bar charts is somewhat straightforward. First, install the ChartExpo Excel add-in. Next, insert your data into the spreadsheet.
Click on the insert icon at the top left corner of your screen. Next, click on the add-in icon and click ChartExpo.
On the next screen that displays, you’ve got to carefully search for the bar chart and click on it.
A chart, also known as a graph in Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool that helps in the creation of compelling data visuals. If you’re looking for a reliable way of representing your data, you can opt for various chart (or graph) formats like a bar, line, column, area, pie, doughnut, surface, scatter, or radar charts. Before choosing a chart format, you’ve got to be sure that it will accurately represent your data.
The best part, you can use the ChartExpo Excel add-in to create these charts — and you can do that without any coding skills.
By now, you’ve learned how to create charts in Excel. You don’t need any coding skills to get it done. If you’ve got a good grasp of Microsoft Excel and its workings, you can easily create several charts without a sweat.
ChartExpo is one of the best data visualization tools out there — and you can use the tool for the creation of charts (and graphs) in Excel.
Regardless of your level of expertise, all you’ve got to do is install the add-in and kick start your journey in the world of data visuals.
With great visuals, you get to translate complex data into an easy-to-understand format. Whether you’re looking to present data to your customers, stakeholders, or your team members, compelling data visuals created using ChartExpo will help you get it done.
Now you’ve got a good grasp of the various charts in Excel, what chart (or graph) will you be using to create your next data visual?
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