4: Creating Charts

Components of a Chart 1 Chart types 2 Data tables 4 The Chart Wizard 5 Column Charts 7 Line charts 8 XY(Scatter Charts) 9 Line and XY Charts Compared 9 Modifying a Chart 10 Combination Chart 12 Stepped Graph 13 Adding a new series 13 Semi-log charts 15 Gantt charts 17 Other topics 18

Components of a Chart
Before we see how to make charts in Excel, it will be useful to know the correct terminology for the parts of a chart. This will help you understand the various dialog boxes used to make or modify a chart, and to follow instructions in the Help facility. The left hand chart in Figure 1 shows that areas have a fill and a border. You may specify the colours for each of these separately. I am not recommending the colours used here! They were selected to make it easy to identify various areas. The areas are:

100 Profit (000s) 80 60 40 20 0 1992 1993 Year 1994 Hailguard Rainguard

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1992 1993 1994

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

Figure 1 Chart area: The entire chart shown with a blue fill and dark blue border. All borders may be formatted to change their weight (thickness) and style (solid or dotted lines). The area used for charting the data - white with red border. Had the plot area been formatted with fill set to none, it would have the same colour as the chart area. The two axes override the colour of the border at the bottom and left side.

Plot area:

Creating Charts in Microsoft Excel 2 Legend: Columns: Small box with text - yellow with purple border. The legend identifies the various data series. A chart with one data series does not need a legend. The columns for the different data series are generally shown with different colours. It is also possible to separately colour the columns for a single data series.

In addition to simple colours, areas may be given a colour gradient and/or a pattern such as herringbone or brickwork. The chart on the right in Figure 1 identifies these components: X-category-axis: The horizontal axis shown in blue. The font was also formatted blue for this axis. The small lines at right angles to the axis are tick marks. Y-axis: The axis to the left (red) is the y-axis. The values on the axis range from 0 to 100; these can be changed. There are tick marks every 10 units; we could change this to some other value. Secondary axis: The chart is shown with a secondary y-axis in green. A secondaryaxis is useful when two data series have very different ranges of values. It is inappropriate in the current case. When a chart has a secondary y-axis, it is possible also to have a secondary x-axis. Lines, markers: The two data series in the chart are displayed with lines and markers. We can chose (i) lines only, (ii) markers only, (iii) lines and markers, and (iv) no lines, no markers - the data series is invisible! The lines and the markers for one data series are generally given the same colour but they can be made different. The shape of the markers may also be changed; the colours for the foreground (border) and the background (fill) may be changed independently. In Figure 5.18 of Quantitative Approaches in Business Studies, a jagged line is used to indicate that a chart has y-axis that begins at a non-zero value. Unfortunately, it is not possible to do this in Excel.

Chart types
Four of the basic chart types supported by Excel are shown in Figure 2 while Figure 3 shows some enhancements to these four types. The chart titles show the names used by Excel for these types. Note that Excel uses the term column chart for what most of us call a bar chart and bar chart for a horizontal bar chart. The line and XY(scatter) charts appear to be almost the same but there are important differences, as we will see later. For now, look at the year axes in the two charts and compare the positions of the tick marks (the scale dividers on the axis) with the markers (the solid squares on the lines.) With a line chart the markers are located between tick marks; with an XY chart they are directly above the tick marks on the axis. We can format a Line chart to align the tick marks and markers. The bar chart has been turned into a pictogram, and the titles and axes have been given a blue font. In the column chart, a blue fill has been given to the chart area, and the gap between columns has been reduced thereby widening the columns. Data labels have been

Creating Charts in Microsoft Excel 3 added. The line chart has been converted into an area chart with drop down lines and a data table has been added. The chart title was moved in the XY chart and large open circles replace the squares used for the markers.
A Bar Chart
1999 1998 1997 1996 0 50 100
Profit (000s)

A Column Chart
180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1996 1997 Year 1998 1999

150

200

Profit (000s)

Year

A Line Chart
180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1996 1997
Year

An XY Chart
180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1996

Profit (000s)

1998

1999

Profit (000s)

1997

Year

1998

1999

Figure 2
Year

A Bar Chart
180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0

A Column Chart
165 140 120 80

1999 1998 1997 1996 0 50 100 Profit (000s) 150 200 Profit (000s)

1996

1997 Year 1998

1999

An Area Chart
200
Profit (000s)

180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20

An XY Chart

Profit (000s)

150 100 50 0
Profit

1996 80

1997 120

1998 140

1999 165

0 1996

1997

Year

1998

1999

Figure 3

Creating Charts in Microsoft Excel 4 Figure 4 shows some examples of pie charts. The data for a pie chart may be displayed as the values or as percentages. We may display the category values (truck, car, etc) either next to their slices or in a legend The chart may be exploded or you may explode only those slices you wish to emphasise. The third chart (left on second row) is a 3D chart. Excel allows you to make bar, column and pie charts three dimensional. Before you use a 3D chart, ask yourself if the 3D effect adds anything or does it hide information. The original purpose of a pie chart was to have slices whose areas were proportional to their values. Does the 3D chart preserve this feature? The fourth chart is called a doughnut chart by Excel. The doughnut chart is not limited to just one data series as is the pie chart.

buses 11%

other 4%

trucks 19%

300

100

500 trucks cars bicycles buses other 1000

bicycles 30% cars 36%

800

100
buses 11% other 4% trucks 19%

300

500 trucks cars bicycles buses 1000 other

bicycles 30%

cars 36%

800

Figure 4

Data tables
Data to be charted may be entered as columns or as rows as shown in Figure 5. If we were planning to make a bar, column or line chart from this data the values 1992, 1993, 1994 would be referred to as the category data. The other three sets of data with headings Hailguard, Rainguard and Total are called data series. However, Excel expects category data to be text data such as Monday, Tuesday, etc. We need to prevent Excel from treating the year values as numbers. The simplest way to do this is to enter them as text. Rather than typing 1992, type 1992. The single quote (apostrophe) will cause the entry to be treated as text but the symbol will not be displayed in the cell.

Creating Charts in Microsoft Excel 5

Year 1992 1993 1994 Hailguard Rainguard 70 19 82 46 93 68 Total 89 128 161 Year Hailguard Rainguard Total 1992 70 19 89 1993 82 46 128 1994 93 68 161

Figure 5

The Chart Wizard

The process of making a chart may be somewhat oversimplified to three steps (1) enter the data, (2) select the data, and (3) click on the Chart Wizard icon on the Toolbar. We will begin by making a pie chart similar to that in Figure 5.2 of Quantitative Approaches in Business Studies. Open a new Excel workbook and, on Sheet 1, enter the values shown in A1:B6 of Figure 6. Remember to type a single quote before each year value (1992) to make it text.
A B C 1 Before tax profits for 1994 2 53,000 3 Hailguard (M) 40,000 4 Hailguard (F) 46,000 5 Rainguard (M) 20,000 6 Rainguard (F) 7 8 9 10 Rainguard (F) 13% 11 Hailguard (M) 12 33% 13 Rainguard (M) 29% 14 15 Hailguard (F) 25% 16 17 18 19 D E F G H

Rainguard (F) 13%

Hailguard (M) 33%

Rainguard (M) 29% Hailguard (F) 25%

Figure 6 Select the range A3:B6 with the mouse and click the Chart Wizard icon. In Step 1 of the Chart Wizard process we select the type of chart we require. On the right side of the Step 1 dialog box (see Figure 7), click on the pie chart and on the left side click on the top sketch to select that sub-type. Experiment with the Press and Hold bar to preview your chart. Click the Next button to move to the next step. In Step 2 (Figure 8) we can see that Excel has correctly decided that our data is in a column form. There is seldom any reason to change anything in Step 2 although occasionally options on the Series tab can be useful. Clicking the Next button will move you to Step 3.

Creating Charts in Microsoft Excel 6

Figure 7 Figure 8 In Step 3 (Figure 9) we will have Excel display the data label and the percentage values on the chart. It is interesting to note that Excel does not provide an option to display labels and actual values so we cannot readily make a chart the same as Figure 5.2 of Quantitative Approaches in Business Studies. You may wish to explore the other tabs on the dialog box before clicking the Next button. In Step 4 (Figure 10) we have two choices for the location of our chart: on a separate chartsheet or on the same worksheet as the data. When you have a complex worksheet it may be convenient to place the chart on its own sheet. Having it on the worksheet has the advantage of being able to see how the chart changes when the data is altered. We will select this option before clicking the Finish button.

Figure 10

Figure 9 You may be a little disappointed with the chart you have just made. Later we see a number of ways of modifying a chart but here are three quick things to do. Click just inside the border of the chart to get eight fill handles (small black squares). Drag the chart to the

Creating Charts in Microsoft Excel 7 position you want it. Move the cursor over one of the fill handles - the cursor changes shape to a two-headed arrow (6). Click and drag the mouse to resize the chart; Excel will keep the pie as a circle. Finally, right click on any of the words in the chart to cause a popup menu to appear. Use the Format Data Labels item on the menu and on the Font tab select a more appropriate size for the font. The chart is now complete. You may wish to save the workbook. Later we will change the chart to resemble the lower one in Figure 6.

Column Charts
We will make the column charts displayed as Figures 5.3 to 5.6 in Quantitative Approaches in Business Studies. The Excel results are shown in Figure 11. The data in the worksheet was extracted from Table 5.3 of the book. As we start to make the simple column chart, it becomes obvious that there is a small problem. We need to select the Years and the Totals columns but they are not side-by-side. There is a trick to selecting non-contiguous data. Select A3:A6 in the normal way and then hold down the C key while dragging the cursor over D3:D6. With the data selected, click the Chart Wizard. In Step 1 specify a column chart using the top right hand sub-type (clustered column). Move on to Step 2 where there is nothing to do and then to Step 3. On the Titles tab enter Years for the x-category title and Profit (000s) for the y-axis title. Move to Step 4 and set the location as the worksheet. Your chart should resemble the first one in Figure 11. Later we will modify it to look like the second chart.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 A B C Pretax profit for year 1992 - 1994 Year 1992 1993 1994 Hailguard Rainguard 70 19 82 46 93 68 D E
180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1992 1993 Year 1994

W eatherguard Profits
200 161
Profit (000s)

Profit (000s)

Total 89 128 161

150 100 50 0 1992 89

128

1993 Year

1994

200 Profit (000s) 150

Rainguard Hailguard

100 90 80 Profit (000s) 70 60 50 40 30 20 10

Hailguard Rainguard Percentage of Profits

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Rainguard Hailguard

100 50 0 1992 1993 Year 1994

0 1992 1993 Year 1994

1992

1993 Year

1994

Figure 11

Creating Charts in Microsoft Excel 8 The next three charts have two data series the Hailguard and the Rainguard data. To make a chart similar to the first one in the bottom row of the figure, select A3:C6 and start the Chart Wizard. In Step 1 select Column as the type and the second sub-type (stacked column). Continue to Step 3 where the titles may be added. The other charts may be made in the same way, selecting the appropriate sub-types. There is a quick way to make the second two charts. Select the first column chart with the two data series and perform a Copy & Paste operation. Right click the new chart and open the Chart Type menu item. A dialog box identical to Step 1 of the Chart Wizard opens up. Select the required sub-type and click the OK button.

Line charts
By following the steps above and replacing Line chart for Column chart in Step 1 of the Chart Wizard you may quickly make line charts with the same data, as shown in Figure 12 below. When selecting the sub-type you must decide if you want just a line, just markers, or both. You also decide if you want a trend chart, a stacked chart or a percentage chart. Just click on the Press & Hold button to check if you have opted for the right sub-type.
Line Chart
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1992 1993 Year 180 160 140 Profit (000s) 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1994 1992 1993 Year 1994 Rainguard Hailguard

Stacked Line Chart

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%

Percentage Line Chart

Percent of profit

Profit (000s)

Rainguard Hailguard

Hailguard Rainguard

1992

1993 Year

1994

Figure 12

XY(Scatter Charts)
XY or Scatter charts are the types of charts you plotted in algebra class. Each data point has two values an x-value and a y-value which determine the position of the point on the chart. Actually, we may now speak of a graph if we so wished. When the increments between successive x-values are constant, a line chart and an XY chart will be very similar. When the increments vary, a line chart would be totally inappropriate. In an XY chart we have x-values, in all other charts we have x category labels. The reader should have no problem making the left hand XY chart from the data shown in Figure 13 using the same steps as before but selecting this time an XY chart in Step 1 of the Chart Wizard. We will shortly see how to modify the chart to appear like the second one in the figure.

Creating Charts in Microsoft Excel 9

A B 1 Advertising Revenue 2 3.05 87.31 3 4.72 92.35 4 6.91 94.51 5 8.01 109.64 6 11.83 103.19 7 8 9 10 11 C
120.00 100.00 80.00 60.00 40.00 20.00 0.00 0.00

F
120 Sales revenue 110 100 90 80 70

Sales revenue

5.00

10.00

15.00

10

12

Advertising expenditure

Advertising expenditure

Figure 13

Line and XY Charts Compared

As we stated earlier, Line and XY charts appear to be very similar. We will now see that there is a fundamental difference. Figure 14 shows a Line and an XY chart produced from the same data. Note that the steps in the x-values are not equal. The Line chart, however, plots them with equally spaced markers, while the XY chart places the markers at positions that relate to their x-values. The Line chart is totally misleading (at least to the casual observer who fails to note the unequal steps in the x-values) in that it suggests that sales will keep rising as more is spent on advertising. The XY chart clearly shows that there is a diminishing return as advertising expenditures increase. The moral is: When the x-values are numeric use an XY not a Line chart.
Advertising Sales (000) (000,000) 80 200 100 345 110 500 230 900 300 1000
Line chart
1200 1000
Sales Sales

XY chart
1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0
80 120 160 200 240 Advertising 280

800 600 400 200 0 80 100 110

Advertising

230

300

Figure 14

Modifying a Chart
We will now see how we can modify, or format, the various components in a chart. At the top of Figure 11 there are two similar charts. We wish to enhance the first to give the second. Right click on the chart area (i.e. just inside the outer border) to display a popup menu as shown in Figure 15 and select the Chart Options item to bring up the Chart Options dialog box. This is very similar to Step 3 of the Chart Wizard. Open the Titles tab (Figure 16) and add Weatherguard Profits as the chart title. By the way, the Excel Spell

Creating Charts in Microsoft Excel 10 Check feature checks text in charts as well as in worksheet cells.

Figure 16

Figure 15

If you look at the menu shown in Figure 15 you will see an item called Chart Type. You can use this to open a dialog box that resembles Step 1 of the Chart Wizard and hence change the chart type should you wish to do so. The first item in the menu is Format Chart Area. This is because we right clicked within the chart area. You could use this item to change the colours of the chart area fill and border. Experiment with this, ending with a simple column chart. The next task is to change the appearance of the columns. Right click on any one of the columns to display a popup menu which is an abbreviated version of that shown in Figure 15. The first item is Format Data Series. Click on this and open the Patterns tab (Figure 17). Select a new colour for the column fill and for the border if you wish. Open the Options tab (Figure 18) and decrease the gap to 50. Note there is no tool for widening the column but changing the gap automatically changes the columns width. The overlap setting has meaning only when there are two or more data series. Compare the two charts in Figure 13; the right hand one has (i) no fill in the plot area, (ii) values on the two axes that display no decimal places, and (iii) a y-axis scale that starts at 70. The first change is readily made by right clicking the plot area, selecting Format Plot Area, and on the Pattern tab clicking in the None radio button in the Area region. The two axes display values with two decimals because this is the format of the source data. When you right click on the x-axis and open the Format Axis dialog box you find a Number tab which in all respects is the same as the dialog used to format a cell. Specify 0 decimals. Repeat this for the y-axis. With the Format Axis dialog box open for the y-axis, open the Scale. This is where you can specify the minimum and maximum values for the axis we need 70 and 100. You will also see that you can set the major units to some other value in this dialog. Experiment with this and other features of the dialog, observing the effect on the chart.

Creating Charts in Microsoft Excel 11

Figure 17

Figure 18

If you select a legend by clicking on it, it may be dragged to any position. Similarly, the text on a pie chart may be repositioned and in this manner make the first chart in Figure 6 resemble the second. However, you must click twice not a double click but two independent clicks. The first selects all the text (at this stage you may format all the text at once), the second selects just one label which may now be dragged to a new position. It takes a little practice, so be patient.

Combination Chart
A combination chart has a mixture of chart types. The chart in Figure 5.15 of Quantitative Approaches in Business Studies has one data series displayed as columns and another as a line. We can create charts like this in Excel as shown by the second chart in the figure below. We begin by making a column chart the first chart in Figure 19. The last entry in the Age column is clearly text, so Excel does not treat this column as a data series. Right click on one of the bars of the Cumulative data columns in the chart and select the Chart Type menu item. In the resulting dialog box, specify Line type. If you have difficulty selecting the data series, temporarily change one of its values for example, change C8's value to 50 to enlarge one of the columns to facilitate its selection. Right click again on the Cumulative data, select the Format Data Series item and on the Axis tab specify Secondary Y Axis. Other formatting may now be done: format the secondary axis to show 0 decimals; add a secondary axis title (right click anywhere on chart, open Chart Options item, open Titles tab); format the fonts to a smaller size (Excel 97 and 2000 seem to make the text too large for most uses), etc.

Creating Charts in Microsoft Excel 12

Age distribution data 40 Age 20 30 40 60 60+ Frequency 2 8 30 20 0 Cumulative % 3.33% 16.67% 66.67% 100.00% 100.00% Frequency 30 20 10 0 20 30 40 Age 60 60+
Frequency Cumulative %

35 30 Frequency 25 20

120% 100% 80% 60% Cumulative %

15 10 5 0 20 30 40 Age 60 60+ 40% 20% 0%

Frequency Cumulative %

Figure 19

Stepped Graph
To construct the stepped graph shown on page 92 of Quantitative Approaches in Business Studies, begin by setting up a worksheet similar to Figure 20. Note that the date is repeated when the interest rate changes. Construct an XY(Scatter) chart. Format the yaxis to start at 10% and the x-axis to display the required date format. Click on the fourth data point and then click once more, now right click. The first menu item should be Format Data Point not Format Data Series. Open the Format menu and set No Marker for this point. Repeat the process for the fifth data point and set the Line Style to a dotted line. Point four (with no marker) should now be joined with a dotted line to the marker of point five. Do the same with the ninth and tenth point, respectively.

Creating Charts in Microsoft Excel 13

Stepped chart Date Interest (%) 01-Aug-99 16% 01-Sep-99 16% 01-Oct-99 16% 01-Nov-99 16% 01-Nov-99 14% 01-Dec-99 14% 01-Jan-00 14% 01-Feb-00 14% 01-Mar-00 14% 01-Mar-00 12% 01-Apr-00 12% 01-May-00 12% 01-Jun-00 12% 01-Jul-00 12%

Interest (%) 17% 16% 15% 14% 13% 12% 11% 10%

25-Jun

1-Jul

31-Jul

28-Nov

29-Sep

Figure 20

28-Dec

26-May

29-Oct

30-Aug

27-Jan

27-Mar

26-Feb

26-Apr

25-Jul

Creating Charts in Microsoft Excel 14

Adding a new series

From the data in A1:B13 you have made the chart shown to the left in Figure 21. Now you wish to show the average value as in the right chart. Enter the formulas shown for C2 and C3 and copy the latter down to row 13. Select C2:C13 and click on the Copy tool. Activate the chart by clicking on it and use the command Edit|Paste Special to open the dialog box shown in Figure 22. Make sure the New Series box is checked before clicking the OK button. Your new series has been added to the chart. You may need to format it to show just a line without markers.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 A Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec B Attendence 200 234 345 456 566 600 635 678 589 456 345 255 C 446.58 446.58 446.58 446.58 446.58 446.58 446.58 446.58 446.58 446.58 446.58 446.58 D E
Monthly Attendence 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0
Nov May Feb Mar Sep Jan Aug Dec Apr Jul Jun Oct

I
Monthly Attendence

800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0

May Sep Nov Feb Mar Jan Dec Apr Aug Jun Oct Jul

=AVERAGE(B2:B13)

=C2

Figure 21

Figure 22 This technique may be used to produce control charts as discussed in Chapter 12 of Quantitative Approaches in Business Studies. Figure 23 shows an example of this. The inset Figure 24 shows the formulas used in the worksheet.

Creating Charts in Microsoft Excel 15

A 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 x 0.70 1.77 2.74 3.79 4.88 5.64 6.92 7.85 8.82 9.83 10.64 11.78 12.86 13.68 15.02 15.76 16.72 17.93 18.94 19.96 20.77 21.84 22.98 23.88 24.96 B y 348.78 347.16 352.65 344.34 346.54 351.34 350.66 347.42 352.49 350.82 351.29 349.46 350.30 350.30 348.83 346.22 351.60 349.62 347.89 349.88 351.60 346.22 344.86 349.98 351.60 C D E Average = 349.3 0.70 349.30 24.96 349.30 UCL = 355.6 0.70 24.96 LCL = 343.4 0.70 24.96 F G H I J K L

UCL = 355.6
353

355.6 355.6

Average = 349.3

343.4 343.4

348

LCL = 343.4
343 0 5 10 15 20 25

Figure 23

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

D ="Average = "&E2 =A2 =A26 ="UCL = "&E6 =A2 =A26 ="LCL = "&E10 =A2 =A26

E =ROUND(AVERAGE(B2:B26),1) =E2

355.6 =E6

343.4 =E10

Figure 24 To make the chart begin by making an XY chart with the data in columns A and B. Format it as required including the scale of the axis. Select D2:E3 and use the Copy tool. Click on the chart to activate it. Use Edit|Paste Special and in the dialog box select the items New Series and Category (X values) in First Column. With the chart still selected, type an equal sign, point and click on cell D1, and click the green check mark in the Formula Bar. This will add the text box Average = 349.3. You may need to drag one side to make it long enough to display all the text. To do this, it may be necessary to first make the text box higher so as to display the centre fill handle that you must drag to elongate the box. Of course, you can decrease the height after the elongation. Repeat this process for the other two lines and labels. You may find that, using the mouse, it is difficult to select text boxes later to move or format them. Selection is easier if you use, instead, the navigation keys t, b, l, and r. By using the up and down keys t, b alternatively with the left and right keys l, r, you will be able to select any object on the chart it may take patience! Once it is selected (its fill handles will be showing), use the command Format|Selected Object.

Semi-log charts
Semi-log charts, introduced in Chapter 17 of Quantitative Approaches in Business Studies, are readily made in Excel. In Figure 25 the data has been plotted as an XY chart left hand side. By formatting the y-axis and specifying Logarithmic scale (see Figure 26) the right hand chart may be made.

Creating Charts in Microsoft Excel 16

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 A B SemiLog chart Year Meaglithic Minimal 1995 2400 80 C D E F G H I J K L M

1996 2700 92

1997 2950 106

1998 3280 122

1999 3640 140

4000 3500 3000 Turnover (000s) 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 0 1994

10000

Meaglithic
Turnover (000s) 1000

Meaglithic

100

Minimal

Minimal
1995 1996 1997 Year 1998 1999 2000 10 1994 1995 1996 1997 Year 1998 1999 2000

Figure 25

Gridlines have been added to the chart (right click the chart, open the Chart Options item in the pop up menu). These have been formatted to display with grey lines (actually 50% gray) to make them less obtrusive. The text boxes were formatted to have a white fill. Figure 26 shows the dialog box for this a yellow fill is shown for the sake of clarity.

Figure 26

Gantt charts
Progress or Gantt charts, introduced in Chapter 20 of Quantitative Approaches in Business Studies, may be constructed in Excel with a little work. Figure 27 show an example of this. The problem: A project has three steps. The first takes 25 days, the second takes 30 days and may begin on the day Step 1 is completed, and the third takes 35 days and may begin 4 days before Step 2 is completed. It is decided to start on 1-June.

Creating Charts in Microsoft Excel 17 The data in A2:A5 summarizes the project in terms of days while A7:C10 does so in date form. The first bar chart is made from the data in B3:C5. Note that Step 1 appears at the top. If you need the chart to read from top to bottom, reverse the order of the data in A2:C5 and A7:C10. We cannot remove the first series but we can hid it by making the bars the same colour as the plot area and removing borders. This gives the second chart. Optionally, you may add text boxes as explained above. Alternatively, note the values on the y-axis tick marks (50, 100 and 150.) Enter these into A13:A15 and enter the formulas shown in B13:B15. We now have dates corresponding to the axis labels the one for the origin is in cell 8. Using the method outlined above (type =, point and click on a date, click the green check mark in the Formula bar) make text boxes for the four labels and position them correctly. This gives the lower chart.

A 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
Gantt chart start Step 3 Step 2 Step 1 start Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 start 50 100 150

B
end 51 25 0 end 1-Jun 26-Jun 22-Jul 1-Jun 21-Jul 9-Sep 29-Oct

86 55 25

Step 1

A 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Gantt chart Step 3 Step 2 Step 1 start =C4-4 =C5 0

C
end =B3+35 =B4+30 =B5+25 end =$B$12+C5 =$B$12+C4 =$B$12+C3

Step 2 26-Jun 26-Jul 26-Aug

Step 3

50

100

150

Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 start 50 100 150

start =$B$12+B5 =$B$12+B4 =$B$12+B3 36678 =$B$12+A13 =$B$12+A14 =$B$12+A15

Step 1 Format series 1 area: same as plot area borders: none Optional: add text boxes

26-Jun

Step 2

26-Jul 26-Aug 22-Jul 0 50 100 150

Step 3

Step 1 Format y-axis Font foreground colour: same as chart area background: transparent Add text box

Step 2

Step 3 0 1-Jun 50 21-Jul 100 9-Sep 150 29-Oct

Figure 27

Other topics
A frequently asked question is How do I handle missing data? Suppose you kept records on the number of visitors at your front office each month. However, Jack lost the data for March. You enter the data in a worksheet with no value in the cells for March and make a line chart. The line is broken into two with a gap for March. To avoid this, type =NA() in the March cell this will display as #N/A. The chart will now join the February and April data points.

Creating Charts in Microsoft Excel 18 Quantitative Approaches in Business Studies concludes Chapter 5 with a mention of Excel Frequency function. For information on this and the Histogram tool see the unit called Regression in this supplement. A method to construct a box-and-whisker chart (Chapter 6 of Quantitative Approaches in Business Studies) is shown in the Statistics 1 unit. For more hints on charts, including how to make a dynamic chart, see the authors web site Bernard Liengme