BET: Microsoft Excel Charts - Chart Types

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Microsoft Excel > Charts > Chart Types

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Step 1 - What is a Chart Type ?

	There are 14 different types of charts you can create.
	Each chart type has different attributes which can be further customised for your data.
	The type of chart you will use is normally determined by the type of the data although trial and error is often the best way to find the most suitable chart type.
	It is best to choose a chart type that conveys the message in the simplest possible way.

Step 2 - Different Chart Types

Area

Good when you want to emphasis an amount of change over time. Each line represents a data series.

The area below each line is filled in.

Bar

Good for displaying the same item at several different points in time.

Good when you want to emphasis big differences between positive and negative.

Each horizontal bar represents a value in a data series.

This is useful for showing the differences between values.

Bubble

A bubble chart requires an additional set of data to define the size of the bubbles.

Column

Good to display two or more values side by side.

This chart is similar to a bar chart except that the bars are vertical and not horizontal.

Cone

Displays a column chart with a cone shape

Cylinder

Displays a column chart with a cylindrical shape

Dougnut

Similar to a pie chart except that is can display more than one data series at a time.

Each ring represents a different data series.

Line

Trends over time. This is good for showing the rate of change over time.

You have a choice whether to display markers.

Each x-value on a line chart is placed one after the other at equal spaces regardless of its actual value.

By default the data points are placed between the tick marks on the x-axis

Pie

Displays data as a percentage of the whole. This shows each value in a data series as a piece of a pie.

A pie chart can only display one data series at a time. Useful for displaying percentages.

Pyramid

Displays a column chart with a pyramid shape

Radar

Shows frequency and change relative to a central point.

This represents each data series as a line around a central point.

Stock

Displays 3 series of values in the order of high, low and close

Surface

Shows a 3D chart showing trends in values across 2 dimension in a continuous curve.

Emphasises the totals, allowing 2 very different variables to be compared.

XY Scatter

Shows two values and tries to show relationships, usually independent of time.

This shows the correlation between two or more data series.

This type of chart is useful when the x-values are numeric.

This is used when you need to plot ordered pairs of data to observe the dependence of one value to another.

Step 3 - Line and XY Scatter Charts

	There is often some confusion with these two chart types.
	Both these chart types can display their data in line or marker format.
	An XY Scatter chart is often used when the x-values are numeric.
	A line chart is often used when the x-values are text or dates.
	Even when a line chart is used with numeric values the numbers are treated as text.

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