Page 132 - Excel Timesaving Techniques for Dummies

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22 Charting Data
in a Snap

Technique

ne of the most effective ways to present your worksheet data is in
Save Time By graphic form using one of Excel’s chart formats. By representing
Othe numbers in your spreadsheet in graphic form, users can spot
Creating an instant chart
on a new chart sheet trends and anomalies in the data much more quickly than when perusing
the raw figures (no matter how well you’ve formatted them).
Making efficient use of
the Chart Wizard Excel makes it a snap to turn the tables of data in your spreadsheets into
vibrant, inspiring charts. When charting data, you can either create the
chart on its separate chart sheet or embed the chart as a graphic object
on one of the regular worksheets in the workbook. If you choose to
embed the chart as a graphic object, you can then modify the chart’s size
and position as you would a photo or piece of clip art that you add to the
worksheet. You can also easily print the chart along with its substantiat-
ing data in a report. If you create a chart on a separate chart sheet, you
can easily print the chart on a separate page of your report without hav-
ing to worry about fitting it in with surrounding data.

Instant Charts

If you want your data graphed on a separate chart sheet, you can do this
in as little as one keystroke, two tops. If you’re dealing with a table of
data where you want all the data graphed, you simply position the cell
pointer somewhere in the table of data and press F11. If, however, you’re
dealing with a table of data that includes numbers you don’t want graphed
(subtotals or grand totals in the table), you need to take the extra step
of selecting the range of cells to be graphed (column and row headings
including the numbers to be represented) before you press F11.

Figures 22-1 and 22-2 illustrate just how incredibly quick and easy it is to
generate a chart on its own sheet. Figure 22-1 shows a production sched-
ule of projected units to be produced in the last nine months of the calen-
dar year (April through December) arranged by part number. When I first
open the workbook with the cell pointer automatically saved in cell A1, I
just press F11 to graph this table of data.