A bar chart is used to rank values from largest to smallest, usually in a single series of data. Creating a bar chart in Excel or PowerPoint is simple, but making it look professional requires you to change some of the defaults in the chart. Here are 8 steps to turn a default bar chart…
Category: Excel Charts
7 steps to make a professional looking line graph in Excel or PowerPoint
A line graph is used to show a trend, usually over time. There can be a single data series to show one trend or multiple data series to show trends that can be compared to each other. It is simple to create a line graph in Excel or PowerPoint but to make it look professional…
7 Steps to make a professional looking column graph in Excel or PowerPoint
A column graph or chart is used to compare values to each other. It typically compares values in only a single data series. It is simple to create in Excel or PowerPoint, but making it look professional takes attention to the details of the graph. Here are 7 steps to turn the default column graph…
Overlapping bar progress graph
One of the common messages reported in financial or operational reports is progress towards a goal. It could be a spending goal, production goal, or any other important metric that is tracked. The decision makers want to see the goal, where we expected to be at this time, and actual progress. Instead of the typical…
Using the CONCAT function to create custom data labels for an Excel chart
You are familiar with data labels for Excel graphs, typically they are used for adding the values to columns or bars (part of my suggestions for making professional column or bar charts). Next level usage is to replace the legend in a line graph with series name labels on the end of each line (part…
Marking the current date on a line chart in Excel
In this video I show how to add a current date line that will always show the current date on a line graph.
Marking the breakeven date on a line chart in Excel
In this video I show how to add a breakeven line to a line graph to show when the values change from negative to positive. You can adapt the technique in this video to other situations of values passing a criteria over time.
Add/Insert an Excel chart/graph on a PowerPoint slide
If you are using an Excel chart in a presentation, you will want to insert or add the chart to one of your PowerPoint slides. There are a number of ways you can do this. I recommend four methods, two where the graph in PowerPoint is not linked to the Excel worksheet and two where…
Conditional formatting for donut chart
Jon Acampora of Excel Campus has created two videos on creating a donut chart that has conditional formatting so that the segment that represents progress changes color based on the percentage value. The first video goes over the basic steps to create a donut chart. The second video extends this to add conditional formatting to…
How to choose the right chart in Excel
How do you choose the right chart to report results or analysis? Don’t select a chart or graph just because it looks cool or pretty. In this video I share the two big issues with putting spreadsheets on slides, the three reasons business professionals put spreadsheets on slides, and introduce a structured way to identify…