Microsoft® Excel® 2010 Formulas & Functions Inside Out

Creating Meaningful Charts

Sometimes it is useful to display data in a chart instead of in a table. In Excel 2007 and Excel 2010, the options for creating bar charts, pie charts, and other charts have been enhanced.

Creating a Column Chart

To convert our example table into a simple but informative column chart, perform the following steps:

1. Select the table cells starting from Month to the profit margin December (see Figure 1-38).

   

   Figure 1-38. Selecting a value to create a chart.

2. On the Insert tab in the Chart group, click the Column button and select the first chart under 2D Column (see Figure 1-39).

   Figure 1-39. Selecting the chart format.

   The chart is ...