Smarties Graphing

in Excel 2007

J. Kellow

The TaskYou will be predicting the most common Smarties colour then checking your answer

and graphing the results.

You will need:1 packet of Smarties (or M&Ms/Skittles/Pebbles)

A plate or clean piece of paperComputer with Excel

Predict

Before you start you need to predict which colour is the most common.

Record your prediction

Excel

• Open Excel from the desktop shortcutOR• Go to the Start Menu – Programs – Microsoft

Office – Microsoft Excel 2007

Set up the table

Head up the next column ‘No. of Smarties’

List all the possible Smarties colours

Click in a cell to make it ’live’. ‘Enter’ to move to the next cell.

Count your Smarties

Record Results

Enter the results into the spreadsheet

Create a graphHighlight the table with the data

Click the Insert Tab

Select the type of graph e.g. Bar

Choose the chart type

Edit your graphClick on the graph and three new tabs (Design, Layout, Format) will appear under the heading Chart Tools

The graph will be inserted.

In the Design menu you can change the chart type, layout and style.

Edit your graph

In the Layout menu you can edit the chart title, data labels, axes etc.

Edit your graph

In the Format menu you can change how your graph looks – Borders, Word Art styles etc.

Change Bar ColourClick on one of the coloured bars. This will select all the bars. If you make changes now they will apply to all of the bars.

Change Bar ColourIf you only want to change the colour of one bar then you need to double click on that bar after you have selected all the bars.The bar you select will have handles (dots) in each corner.

Change Bar Colour

Right click on the bar you wish to change and select Format Data Point.

Change Bar ColourSelect Fill

Select Solid Fill

Click on the down arrow beside Colour and choose the colour you want the Close.

Legend

You can get rid of the Legend if you don’t want it by clicking on it then hitting Delete.