After inserting a chart on a sheet, we typically take additional steps to format it. Chart Templates to the RescueĮven if you don't follow these principles, it's likely that the default chart formatting doesn't match your needs. My good friend Mynda Treacy from MyOnlineTrainingHub also covers these principles in her Dashboards Course. To learn more about this topic checkout the books by Edward Tufte and Stephen Few (Amazon links). All the extra formatting is typically referred to as chart junk because it clutters up the chart and distracts the reader. The main idea is that we should use a minimalist approach to creating and designing charts (graphs). This makes the chart easier to read, and allows the data to tell the story.Įntire books have been written on the principles of data visualization, so I won't go into a lot of detail here. A nicely formatted chart should include only the minimal amount of elements (legend, axis, labels, gridlines, etc.).
The default chart formatting in Excel typically includes a lot of extra elements that aren't always needed for our charts. You can repeat this step for multiple data series, not just two.Bottom line: Learn how to use Chart Templates in Excel to quickly apply formatting and settings to new and existing charts. Next, click on the Chart tab again and click the button for the other type of chart you want to combine here. You'll create a chart of the selected type with both data series shown.Ĭlick on the chart representation of one of the data series - for example, if you selected a column chart, select on the columns showing the data you wanted in a line chart to select that data series within the chart. The most commonly used combination chart type mixes a column chart with a line chart. Be sure to include the cells with the labels in the selection area.Ĭlick on the "Charts" tab in the ribbon and select a chart type from the "Insert Chart" group. Select all the cells with data you want to include. Each data series needs to be in its own column or row and the number of cells used for each data series needs to be identical. Sales data broken down by month would be an example of a data series. Gather your data, making sure you organize it by the appropriate axes.
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