Excel 2013 Charts and Graphs

by Bill Jelen

Overview

Use Excel 2013’s radically revamped charting and graphing tools to communicate more clearly, powerfully, and quickly… so you drive your message home, and get the decisions and actions you’re looking for!

 

This book reveals data visualization techniques you won’t find anywhere else and shows you how to use Excel 2013 to create designer-quality charts and graphs that stand out from the crowd. It will help you make the most of new features ranging from Power View to Recommended Charts, and instantly share your insights with anyone, anywhere–even on the Web and social networks.

 

Learning advanced Excel techniques has never been easier. You’ll find simple, step-by-step instructions, real-world
examples and case studies, and more than a dozen YouTube videos, straight from MrExcel!

 

•      Create stunning data visualizations instantly with Excel 2013’s new Recommended Charts

•      Use charts to instantly reveal trends, differences, and relationships

•      Map your data with Excel 2013, MapPoint, and the new GeoFlow add-in

•      Quickly generate combo charts that once required complex, frustrating procedures

•      Use sparklines to imbue worksheets with more context and insight

•      Highlight and clarify the meaning of data with DataBars, color scales, icon sets, and other conditional formatting tools

•      Post charts to Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, directly from Excel

•      Build stock charts that help you make smarter investments

•      Solve “non-standard” problems such as noncontiguous data or custom data sequences

•      Generate new charts automatically with Excel VBA

•      Uncover visual tricks that people use to lie with Excel

 

About MrExcel Library:  Every book in the MrExcel Library pinpoints a specific set of crucial Excel tasks
and presents focused skills and examples for performing them rapidly and effectively. Selected by Bill Jelen, Microsoft Excel MVP and mastermind behind the leading Excel solutions website MrExcel.com, these
books will:

 

•      Dramatically increase your productivity–saving you 50 hours a year or more

•      Present proven, creative strategies for solving real-world problems

•      Show you how to get great results, no matter how much data you have

•      Help you avoid critical mistakes that even experienced users make

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780133259513
Publisher:	Pearson Education
Publication date:	02/20/2013
Series:	MrExcel Library
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	464
File size:	58 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Bill Jelen, Excel MVP and the host of MrExcel.com, has been using spreadsheets since 1985, and he launched the MrExcel.com website in 1998. Bill was a regular guest on Call for Help with Leo Laporte and has produced more than 1,500 episodes of his daily video podcast, Learn Excel from MrExcel. He is the author of 39 books about Microsoft Excel and writes the monthly Excel column for Strategic Finance magazine. His Excel tips appear regularly in CFO Excel Pro Newsletter and CFO Magazine . Before founding MrExcel.com, Bill Jelen spent 12 years in the trenches--working as a financial analyst for finance, marketing, accounting, and operations departments of a $500 million public company. He lives near Akron, Ohio, with his wife, Mary Ellen.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Using Excel 2013 to Create Charts .................. 1

Choosing the Right Chart Type ...........................................1

Using Excel as Your Charting Canvas ...............................2

Topics Covered in This Book ........................................3

This Book’s Objectives ...............................4

    Versions of Excel ...................................................4

    Conventions Used in This Book ......................................4

    Special Elements in This Book .................................................4

Next Steps.................................................5

 

1 Introducing Charts in Excel 2013 ............................... 7

What’s New in Excel 2013 Charts ........................................................7

Choosing Among the Three Ways to Create a Chart ........................10

    Creating a Chart from the Quick Analysis Icon .........................................10

    Inserting a Recommended Chart .................................................................11

    Creating a Chart Using the Other Icons on the Insert Tab ......................14

    Creating a Chart Using Alt+F1 ............................................................15

Changing the Chart Title ................................................................16

    Editing a Title in the Formula Bar ...............................................16

    Why Can’t Excel Pick Up the Title from the Worksheet? ...............17

    Assigning a Title from a Worksheet Cell ......................................18

Handling Special Situations ....................................................19

    Charting Noncontiguous Data .........................................................19

    Charting Nonsummarized Data ............................................22

    Charting Differing Orders of Magnitude Using a Custom Combo Chart .............23

    Reversing the Series and Categories in a Chart ...............................24

    Changing the Data Sequence by Using Select Data ........................25

Using the Charting Tools .................................................................26

    Introducing the Three Helper Icons ........................................26

    Introducing the Format Task Pane ..............................................27

    Using Commands on the Design Tab .....................................30

    Micromanaging Formatting Using the Format Tab .......................31

    Using Commands on the Home Tab ......................................31

    Changing the Theme on the Page Layout Tab ..............................32

Moving Charts .......................................32

    Moving a Chart Within the Current Worksheet .......................33

    Moving a Chart to a Different Worksheet ..............................34

Next Steps................................................................34

 

2 Customizing Charts .................................35

Accessing Element Formatting Tools ...................................35

Identifying Chart Elements ...........................................37

    Recognizing Chart Labels and Axes ...................................37

    Recognizing Analysis Elements ...........................................39

    Identifying Special Elements in a 3D Chart ........................40

Formatting Chart Elements ...................................................41

    Moving the Legend .......................................................41

    Changing the Arrangement of a Legend ............................42

    Formatting Individual Legend Entries .........................................43

    Adding Data Labels to a Chart .......................................................43

    Adding a Data Table to a Chart .........................................................46

    Formatting Axes ..........................................................47

    Displaying and Formatting Gridlines .............................................55

    Formatting the Plot Area and Chart Area .............................................61

    Controlling 3D Rotation in a 3D Chart ..............................................65

    Forecasting with Trendlines .......................................................66

    Adding Drop Lines to a Line or Area Chart ..............................................69

    Adding Up/Down Bars to a Line Chart ............................................................70

    Showing Acceptable Tolerances by Using Error Bars .................................71

Formatting a Series ................................................72

    Formatting a Single Data Point ........................................................73

    Replacing Data Markers with Shapes............................................................73

    Replacing Data Markers with a Picture ......................................................73

Changing the Theme Colors on the Page Layout Tab ....................................74

Storing Your Favorite Settings in a Chart Template ..................................75

Next Steps.......................................................................75

 

3 Creating Charts That Show Trends .......................77

Choosing a Chart Type ............................................................77

    Column Charts for Up to 12 Time Periods ........................................77

    Line Charts for Time Series Beyond 12 Periods ............................77

    Area Charts to Highlight One Portion of the Line ..................................79

    High-Low-Close Charts for Stock Market Data .................................79

    Bar Charts for Series with Long Category Labels .......................................79

    Pie Charts Make Horrible Time Comparisons .............................................80

    100 Percent Stacked Bar Chart Instead of Pie Charts ............................80

Understanding Date-Based Axis Versus Category-Based Axis in Trend Charts ...........80

    Converting Text Dates to Dates..........................83

    Plotting Data by Numeric Year .................................88

    Using Dates Before 1900 .......................................................89

    Rolling Daily Dates to Months Using a Pivot Chart ..................................91

    Using a Workaround to Display a Time-Scale Axis .......................................93

Communicate Effectively with Charts ...................................................................96

    Using a Long, Meaningful Title to Explain Your Point ..................................96

    Highlighting One Column .......................................................100

    Replacing Columns with Arrows .....................................................101

    Highlighting a Section of a Chart by Adding a Second Series .........................102

    Changing Line Type Midstream .......................................................103

Adding an Automatic Trendline to a Chart.........................................................105

Showing a Trend of Monthly Sales and Year-to-Date Sales ..............................106

Understanding the Shortcomings of Stacked Column Charts ......................................108

Shortcomings of Showing Many Trends on a Single Chart ...........................................110

Next Steps.............................................................111

 

4 Creating Charts That Show Differences .........................113

Comparing Entities ....................................113

Using Bar Charts to Illustrate Item Comparisons .......................................113

    Adding a Second Series to Show a Time Comparison ........................................115

    Subdividing a Bar to Emphasize One Component ..........................116

Showing Component Comparisons ......................................................117

    Using Pie Charts ..........................................................................120

    Switching to a 100 Percent Stacked Column Chart ..............................126

    Using a Doughnut Chart to Compare Two Pies ....................................127

    Dealing with Data Representation Problems in a Pie Chart ..............................129

Using a Waterfall Chart to Tell the Story of Component Decomposition ...........................136

    Creating a Stacked and Clustered Chart ..................................138

Next Steps............................................................................145

 

5 Creating Charts That Show Relationships .......................147

Using Scatter Charts to Plot Pairs of Data Points ..................................148

    Creating a Scatter Chart ...........................................................149

    Adding Labels to a Scatter Chart in Excel 2013 .....................................................149

    Showing Scatter Chart Labels in Excel 2010 ..................................................150

    Adding a Second Series to a Scatter Chart ..............................................151

    Joining the Points in a Scatter Chart with Lines...............................................153

    Using a Scatter Chart with Lines to Replace a Line Chart ..................................154

    Drawing with a Scatter Chart ..........................................................155

    Testing Correlation Using a Scatter Chart .....................................................157

    Adding a Third Dimension with a Bubble Chart ..................................................159

Using Charts to Show Relationships ...................................................161

    Using Paired Bars to Show Relationships .........................................161

    Using a Frequency Distribution to Categorize Thousands of Points .....................163

    Using Radar Charts to Create Performance Reviews ..........................................166

Using Surface Charts to Show Contrast .................................................................167

    Using the Depth Axis ..........................................................................168

    Controlling a Surface Chart Through 3D Rotation ................................168

Next Steps.................................................................................169

 

6 Creating Stock Analysis Charts ...............................171

Overview of Stock Charts ...................................................................171

    Line Charts ...............................................................................171

    OHLC Charts ....................................................................................172

    Candlestick Charts .......................................................................173

Obtaining Stock Data to Chart .....................................................................173

    Rearranging Columns in the Downloaded Data ................................174

    Dealing with Splits Using the Adjusted Close Column ......................................175

Creating a Line Chart to Show Closing Prices ..................................................177

    Adding Volume as a Column Chart to the Line Chart ...............................180

Creating OHLC Charts .............................................................182

    Producing a High-Low-Close Chart .................................................182

    Customizing a High-Low-Close Chart ............................................183

    Creating an OHLC Chart .........................................................................184

    Adding Volume to a High-Low-Close Chart .................................................186

Creating Candlestick Charts .......................................................191

    Changing Colors in a Candlestick Chart ...............................................................191

    Understanding High-Low Lines and Up-Down Bars .....................................192

Next Steps.................................................................196

 

7 Advanced Chart Techniques .........................................197

Mixing Two Chart Types on a Single Chart .........................................197

Moving Charts from One Worksheet to Another .........................................200

Making Columns or Bars Float .........................................................................200

Using a Rogue XY Series for Arbitrary Gridlines..............................................202

Showing Several Charts on One Chart by Using a Rogue XY Series ....................207

Creating Bullet Charts in Excel 2013 ...........................................................212

Creating a Thermometer Chart ..........................................................217

Creating a Benchmark Chart ...........................................................219

Creating a Delta Chart ...........................................................................220

Next Steps.............................................................................................221

 

8 Creating Pivot Charts and Power View Dashboards ..................223

Creating a PivotChart Using Recommended Charts ..........................................223

    Changing the Fields in the Pivot Chart .............................................................225

    Sorting the Pivot Chart ..........................................................226

    Grouping Daily Dates in the Pivot Chart .......................................................228

    Filtering Pivot Charts Using the Filter Fly-out Menu ............................230

    Filtering Pivot Charts Using Slicers .................................................230

    Connecting Multiple Pivot Charts to One Slicer ...................................231

Using PowerPivot and Power View .......................................................232

    Enabling PowerPivot and Power View...........................................................233

    Loading Your Excel Data to PowerPivot ..........................................................233

    Adding a Date Lookup Table .........................................................234

    Format Your Data in PowerPivot .............................................................235

    VLOOKUPs? Replacing VLOOKUPs with Relationships ...............................236

    Creating a Power View Worksheet ...................................................237

    Every New Dashboard Element Starts as a Table ......................................238

    Converting the Table to a Chart ...............................................238

    Creating a New Element by Dragging ..........................................................240

    Every Chart Point Is a Slicer for Every Other Element ..........................................240

    Adding a Real Slicer ................................................................................241

    The Filter Pane Can Be Confusing .................................................................242

    Use Tile Boxes to Filter One or a Group of Charts ..........................................................243

    Replicating Charts Using Multiples .............................................................244

    Animating a Scatter Chart Over Time ....................................................................245

    Some Closing Tips on Power View .........................................................................246

Next Steps.................................................................................247

 

9 Using Sparklines, Data Visualizations, and Other Nonchart Methods .............249

Fitting a Chart into the Size of a Cell with Sparklines...............................................250

    Creating a Group of Sparklines ....................................................................251

    Built-in Choices for Customizing Sparklines ..........................................................253

    Controlling Axis Values for Sparklines ............................................................254

    Setting Up Win/Loss Sparklines .....................................................................256

    Showing Detail by Enlarging the Sparkline.......................................................256

    Labeling a Sparkline ........................................................................257

Using Data Bars to Create In-Cell Bar Charts ...................................................259

    Creating Data Bars ..............................................................................260

    Customizing Data Bars ....................................................................................261

    Showing Data Bars for a Subset of Cells .......................................................262

Using Color Scales to Highlight Extremes..................................................................263

    Customizing Color Scales .............................................................................264

Using Icon Sets to Segregate Data ............................................................................265

    Setting Up an Icon Set ............................................................................265

    Moving Numbers Closer to Icons ........................................................................266

    Showing an Icon for Only the Best Cells ....................................................................268

    Creating a 10-Icon Set Using a Formula ....................................................................269

Creating a Chart Using Conditional Formatting in Worksheet Cells ...........................271

Creating a Chart Using the REPT Function ................................................273

Next Steps........................................................................................274

 

10 Presenting Excel Data on a Map ............................275

Plotting Data Geographically .......................................................275

Importing Data to MapPoint ......................................................................275

Creating a Map in Power View ..........................................................................279

Creating a Map in GeoFlow ..............................................................284

Next Steps..............................................................................................286

 

11 Using SmartArt Diagrams and Shapes ...............................287

Using SmartArt .................................................................................288

    Elements Common Across Most SmartArt ............................................289

    A Tour of the SmartArt Categories ..........................................................289

    Inserting SmartArt .....................................................................................291

    Micromanaging SmartArt Elements ........................................................294

    Changing Text Formatting in One Element ..............................................294

    Controlling SmartArt Shapes from the Text Pane ..........................................296

    Adding Images to SmartArt .............................................................................298

    Special Considerations for Organization Charts ..............................................299

    Using Limited SmartArt ...............................................................................301

Choosing the Right Layout for Your Message .................................................302

Exploring Business Charts That Use SmartArt Graphics .......................................303

    Illustrating a Pro/Con Decision by Using a Balance Chart ................................................304

    Illustrating Growth by Using an Upward Arrow ...................................................304

    Showing an Iterative Process by Using a Basic Cycle Layout ............................................305

    Showing a Company’s Relationship to External Entities by Using a Diverging Radial Diagram .........305

    Illustrating Departments Within a Company by Using a Table List Diagram .....................306

    Adjusting Venn Diagrams to Show Relationships .............................................306

    Understanding Labeled Hierarchy Charts ...................................................307

    Using Other SmartArt Layouts ...................................................................308

Using Shapes to Display Cell Contents ...............................................................309

    Working with Shapes ......................................................................................311

    Using the Freeform Shape to Create a Custom Shape .....................................311

Using WordArt for Interesting Titles and Headlines .............................................312

Next Steps............................................................................................315

 

12 Exporting Charts for Use Outside of Excel .....................................317

Presenting Excel Charts in PowerPoint or Word .........................................317

    Copying a Document from Excel and Pasting to PowerPoint Sets Up an As-Needed Link........319

    Copying and Pasting While Keeping Original Formatting .....................................................323

    Pasting as Link to Capture Future Excel Formatting Changes ...........................................324

    Embedding the Chart and Workbook in PowerPoint ........................................................325

    Copying a Chart as a Picture .......................................................................................325

    Creating a Chart in PowerPoint with Data Pasted from Excel ....................................327

Presenting Charts on the Web ...............................................................................328

Exporting Charts to Graphics Using VBA .....................................................................331

Converting to XPS or PDF .............................................................................................332

Next Steps....................................................................................................................332

 

13 Using Excel VBA to Create Charts .......................................333

Introducing VBA ......................................................................................................333

    Enabling VBA in Your Copy of Excel .................................................333

    Enabling the Developer Tab .....................................................................334

    Visual Basic Tools ...........................................................................................335

    The Macro Recorder .....................................................................................336

    Understanding Object-Oriented Code .............................................................336

Learning Tricks of the VBA Trade ...........................................................................337

    Writing Code to Handle a Data Range of Any Size ...........................................337

    Using Super-Variables: Object Variables ..............................................339

    Using With and End With When Referring to an Object ....................................340

    Continuing a Line of Code ......................................................................................340

    Adding Comments to Code .....................................................................................341

Understanding Backward Compatibility ...........................................................................341

Referencing Charts and Chart Objects in VBA Code ....................................................342

Understanding the Global Settings .............................................................................342

    Specifying a Built-in Chart Type ..........................................................................342

    Specifying Location and Size of the Chart .....................................................345

    Referring to a Specific Chart ...........................................................................345

Creating a Chart in Various Excel Versions ........................................................346

    Using the .AddChart2 Method in Excel 2013 ................................................346

    Creating Charts in Excel 2007–2013 ...................................................348

    Creating Charts in Excel 2003–2013 ............................349

Customizing a Chart .............................................350

    Specifying a Chart Title ............................................350

    Quickly Formatting a Chart Using New Excel 2013 Features ........................351

Using SetElement to Emulate Changes from the Plus Icon ..................................358

    Using the Format Method to Micromanage Formatting Options ..............................363

Formatting a Data Series .........................................................367

    Controlling Gap Width and Series Separation in Column and Bar Charts ...............368

    Spinning and Exploding Round Charts.......................................................369

    Controlling the Bar of Pie and Pie of Pie Charts ...................................................371

    Setting the Bubble Size ................................................................................375

    Controlling Radar and Surface Charts ...........................................................377

Creating Advanced Charts ...............................................................................381

    Creating True Open-High-Low-Close Stock Charts ............................................382

    Creating Bins for a Frequency Chart ..............................................................383

    Creating a Stacked Area Chart ..............................................................................386

Exporting a Chart as a Graphic ..........................................................................389

Creating Pivot Charts ............................................................................................390

Creating Data Bars with VBA .....................................................................392

Creating Sparklines with VBA ..............................................................................395

Next Steps........................................................................................................399

 

14 Knowing When Someone Is Lying to You with a Chart ..............401

Lying with Perspective ......................................................................401

Lying with Shrinking Charts ..........................................................................402

Lying with Scale .....................................................................................................403

Lying Because Excel Will Not Cooperate ............................................................405

Avoiding Stacked Surface Charts ..............................................................................406

Asserting a Trend from Two Data Points ...........................................................407

Deliberately Using Charts to Lie ...........................................................................408

Charting Something Else When Numbers Are Too Bad ...........................................409

Stretching Pictographs .............................................................................................409

Next Steps..........................................................................................................410

 

Appendix Charting References ...............411

 

Index .....................417