CHAPTER 20Getting Started with Excel Charts
Charts offer a visual representation of numeric values; they are at-a-glance views that allow you to specify relationships between data values, point out differences, and observe business trends. Few mechanisms allow you to absorb data faster than a chart, which can be a key component in your dashboard.
While most people think of a spreadsheet product such as Excel, they think of crunching rows and columns of numbers. But Excel is no slouch when it comes to presenting data visually in the form of a chart. In this chapter, we present an overview of Excel's charting capabilities and show you how to create and customize your own charts using Excel.
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Most of the examples in this chapter are available on this book's website at |
What Is a Chart?
Let's start with the basics. A chart is a visual representation of numeric values. Charts (also known as graphs) have been an integral part of spreadsheets since the early days of Lotus 1-2-3. Charts generated by early spreadsheet products were extremely crude by today's standards. Over the years, however, the quality and flexibility have improved significantly. You'll ...
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