Excel has a nice "bar graph wizard" which will let you choose among several styles of bar graphs to achieve the visual effect you are seeking when you choose to display your table data in a graph.
The technical side of a bar graph requires the visual effect focus the viewer's attention on the length of the bar rather than the "thickness" of the bar. One could use a line segment to achieve this technical requirement. However, the thickness of a line is generally considered not practical as it is too small to make the bar visible. Hence, the width's of the bars in the graph are required to be the same. Excel handles the bar widths perfectly!
Let's explore making a bar graph with Excel's Graph Wizards.
First,
we start with a simple data table. (We will use this table
to explore other types of graphs.
For purposes of this example, we want to display the sales force and their accomplishments to date.
If that is our goal, we must select the particular cells from the table that will provide Excel what it needs.
We
will select the column headings and sales information
from the table by clicking in Cell A1 and dragging to Cell B6.
Note there are other ways to select this block of cells. Left-handed developers may find it easier to drag the other diagonal.
We
now look for a way to tell Excel we want to graph the selected data. You
may use the Insert + Chart from the Menu or you may click
on the Chart Wizard button on the Toolbar.
This will bring out the Chart Wizard. This wizard will give you a series of different panels with things to do to customize the "look" and "content" of your graph. Let's follow along the different Panels of the Chart Wizard. This first lets you select the type of graph you wish to use.
We
did indicate that we planned to have a Bar Graph to show
our data.
The left panel of the wizard gives you categories or types of graphs from which to pick. By selecting one of these types, you will see the different choices of graphs of that type in the right window.
Also, if you click once on a particular type of graph displayed, a small phrase describing that graph will appear.
We will use the vertical bar graph or column graph in this example.
You get a preview of the graph to check.
There are some choices to make here, but we will accept the default settings and move on.
Next we will "dress up" our graph by completing some of the Chart Options.
You probably will need some supplemental information to help the viewer understand what your chart is all about. You could enter a Title and label for the listing of Salesmen.
Next we get to locate the graphic. The choices would give you the opportunity to put the graphic on top of the spreadsheet table or place it in a different sheet in the spreadsheet "book", but on a different sheet from the data table. We will accept the default suggestion.
The bar graph is placed on top of the spreadsheet document containing the table. The graph is a drawing object. As such, it is adjustable by all of the tools you can adjust drawing objects. This would include moving, sizing, etc.
A "neat" feature is the linking of the data table to the graph. If you should make a change in the data table, the graph would automatically make the associated graph change. Consider this example when Tom adds a little to his sales total.
Just as soon as the value in Tom's sales is entered, the bar for Tom is changed from its former size.
There are many variations on this theme as you take different actions and make changes throughout interacting with the Wizard. We strongly recommend you "play" with some of these actions and see if you can achieve a degree of control of the final outcome by "tweaking" the options presented on different Wizard panels.
Return | See a Movie of the Process