Microsoft® Office 2008 for Mac Step by Step

Create Charts in Workbooks

Excel is a wonderful program in which to store lots of data, but let’s face it—data is only useful if you can do something with it. The point of having a lot of data is being able to analyze that data. Presenting data visually, in chart format, can greatly simplify the analysis process.

Choose a Chart Type

Excel 2008 provides 11 types of charts, each with multiple implementations, for a whopping total of 73 two- and three-dimensional chart formats that you can create instantly from data stored in a worksheet. The basic chart types are Area, Bar, Bubble, Column, Doughnut, Line, Pie, Radar, Stock, Surface, and Scatter. Although you can create any type of chart from a data selection, certain data is best represented by certain ...