Excel 2016 For Dummies

Chapter 10

Charming Charts and Gorgeous Graphics

IN THIS CHAPTER

Creating great-looking charts with just a few clicks

Customizing the chart from the Chart Tools contextual tab

Representing data visually with sparklines

Adding a text box and arrow to a chart

Inserting clip art into your worksheets

Adding WordArt and SmartArt to a worksheet

Printing a chart without printing the rest of the worksheet data

As the Chinese sage, Confucius, was reported to have once observed, “A picture is worth a thousand words” (or, in our case, numbers). By adding charts to worksheets, you not only heighten interest in the otherwise boring numbers, but also illustrate trends and anomalies that may not be apparent from just looking at the values alone. Because Excel 2016 makes it so easy to chart the numbers in a worksheet, you can also experiment with different types of charts until you find the one that best represents the data — in other words, the picture that best tells the particular story.

Making Professional-Looking Charts

I just want to say a few words about charts in general before taking you through the steps for making them in Excel 2016. Remember your high-school algebra teacher valiantly trying to teach you how to graph equations by plotting different values on an x-axis and a y-axis on graph paper? Of course, you were probably too busy with more important things like cool cars and rock ’n’ roll to pay too much attention to an old algebra teacher. Besides, you probably told yourself, ...