Presenting Data with ExcelD.A. Whatley (SMG ‘15) – SMG ITS Student Consultant
Agenda
Charting Concepts Selecting Proper
Charts “Big Four” Charts Common Chart Styles
Chart Tools (Editing Charts)
Design Tab Layout Tab Format Tab
Chart Building General Rules Creating A Quick
Chart How To Graph Specific
Data How To Graph
Contiguous Data How To Graph on a
New Worksheet
Inserting Excel Charts into PowerPoint
As a Picture As a Link
Charting Concepts
Selecting Proper Charts
Subjective to you, your professor’s or company’s conventions
Over 70 basic chart types available
We will focus on what is known as the “Big Four” of Charts
“Big Four” Charts
Column – great for accentuating volumes
Line – great for showing trends
Bar – same as Column, but rotated at 90 degrees
Pie – showing how categories make up for a total amount (e.g. a breakdown by regional sales)
Common Chart Styles
Clustered Default, basic view Not recommended for dealing with lots of data
Stacked Good for displaying total sales as a whole and raw
numbers Hard to read with data across numerous periods
100% Stacked Somewhat of an alternative to a pie chart as it shows
numbers as a percentage of a whole Focuses more on a number’s proportion of a whole
rather than its raw value
Chart Tools (Editing Charts)
Design Tab
Change Chart Type Allows us to go and choose another chart to convey our
data
Switch Row/Column To swap the data located on the x- and y-axis
Quick Layout 12 template styles to apply titles and other pertinent
information to your chart
Quick Styles A fast way to easily change the data lines/bars/etc.
appear on your chart
Layout Tab
Insert – applying pictures, shapes, and text boxes Great for pointing our a significant event on your chart
Labels Allows for customization of labels within charts
Axes Adjusting major and minor gridlines and the axes titles
Background Customize the background of the chart with colors or
pictures
Format Tab More options to customize the colors, text, and other elements within the graph itself
Chart Building
General Rules
Before creating any graph, hold the left mouse button and highlight any data you want to be graph
Don’t graph averages, percentages, and totals with raw data.
Creating A Quick Chart
After highlight the data you wish to graph, hold ALT and press F1 to create a quick chart.
It will appear immediately on the current worksheet that has your data.
More often that not, however, the chart might not contain everything we need (e.g. chart titles, legends, etc.).
Use the Chart Tools tab to fix your chart.
Graphing Specific Data
Sometimes we might not want to include certain data in our graph.
To include a few elements you want, hold down the CTRL button and highlight the data you want to graph.
Graphing Contiguous Data
If working with a huge amount of data (e.g. sales for the late 10 years), select one cell within the data and hold down ALT and press F1 for a quick graph
How To Graph on a New Worksheet
To avoid having your graphs appear on the same worksheet, select the data you want graphed and then press F11.
Inserting Excel Charts into PowerPoint
As A Picture
Best for using a graph with static data – data that won’t be updated in the future
Select the chart you want to be incorporated in your PowerPoint.
Go to the Home tab of the Ribbon and go to the Clipboard section.
On the Copy dropdown menu, select Copy as Picture.
On the pop-up menu, don't change any of the options and select OK.
Open PowerPoint.
Under the Home tab of PowerPoint,
Go to the Clipboard section
Under the “Paste” dropdown menu, select Picture.
There you go! Adjust the graph as you would with any picture
As A Link
Best for using a graph with dynamic data (Data that will be changing in the future.)
Same steps as up to the Copy step.
Instead of Copy as Picture, click Copy.
Open PowerPoint.
Use Destination Theme & Link Data
Keep Source Formatting & Link Data
When you go the Paste dropdown menu this time, choose one of two options.
The former of the two options allows us to incorporate our graph into presentation's theme.
The latter allows us to keep the graph's current style as-is and place it into the presentation.
Upcoming TechShops
Advanced Excel - Monday, November 18th
More sophisticated Excel techniques which demonstrate Vlookups and Macros
Bloomberg Terminal Training – Monday, November 18th
How to use the Bloomberg Terminals for finance operations
Presenting Data with Excel – Monday, December 2nd
Learn how to create easy-to-understand graphs to visually display information quickly and accurately
Thank You! Please make sure you signed in Please reply to the email survey you will receive in the
next few days
Top Related