Charts are a great way to present a table data sheet in an Excel worksheet in a visual form. Before you insert a data chart, your table dataset has to be:
- Should contain summarized data. If you have worksheet that contains so many rows/records, use the Pivot table to summarize and then us the summarized data to create a chart.
- The first column and row should contain the data label or heading. However, Cell A1 should be left BLANK. As show in the data table below. Leaving cell A1 will enable Excel to plot the chart axis correctly.
Once the data set is ready, now it’s easy to insert a chart in three quick ways.
1: Use the F11 function key on the keyboard.
- Select the data set table
- Press F11 on the keyboard. This will insert a chart in a new worksheet. The chat is selected and displays the Chart Tools contextual Tab with two tabs- Chart Design and Format.
- The commands in Chart Design tab are for applying to the whole chart. The commands in Format tab are for formatting each individual element of the chart.
2: Using the Recommended Charts Command
- Select the data set table
- Click on Insert Tab and under Charts command group, click Recommended Charts. This will display the Recommended Charts dialog box which displays the chart different chart types which Excel thinks matches the selected data set.
- Click OK
Excel will display the chart within the worksheet and not on a separate worksheet. Then it displays the Chart Tools contextual tab as well.
3: Using the Quick Analysis Tool
- Select the data set table
- On the bottom right corner of the table, click on the Quick Analysis Tool. This will display a pop-up tabbed menu window.
- Click Charts tab on the pop-up menu and click the desired chart to preview it.
- Click on the desired chart.
Excel will display the chart and the contextual Chart Tools tab to design and format the chart as in the earlier options as well.
That’s how easy it is to insert charts quickly in Excel.
