[...]... just looking at the data would Excel 2007 Charts Made Easy The most basic of charts in Excel is the column chart The column chart is so common it is the first chart listed in the Insert | Charts group of Excel 2007 When you create a column chart, the data in the cells are grouped by the columns they are in You can change the grouping, but the default is by column Column charts are good for showing how... stacked charts Stacked charts let you see all of the data for a single row in one bar This allows you to see how things total up Both of the charts shown in Figures 1-11 and 1-12 were created from the same data used in the other examples in this chapter The stacked column charts are useful if you are going to be looking at the overall totals Because you Excel 2007 Charts Made Easy Bar Charts vs Column Charts. .. beginning of the chapter Formatting Chart Parts While the easy way to format your chart is to use the default styles, your charts will stand out better if you learn how to tweak the default styles to improve the look of your charts Any part of the chart that can be seen can be tweaked and improved 21 Excel 2007 Charts Made Easy The Language of Charting Charts have a language all their own They use terms... shown in Figure 1-10 11 Figure 1-10  Rotated chart Bar Charts vs Column Charts When you look at the chart types you can insert and create from Excel 2007, you may notice that there are column charts and bar charts There really isn’t much difference between the two The biggest difference is that column charts run the data bars vertically and bar charts run the data bars horizontally Another difference... understand Excel charts In order to truly understand how data fits into the different types of charts, we feel that you need to see the data and the charts built from it So each chapter contains sample data and sample charts You can find the actual Excel files on the web site associated with this book (www.mhprofessional.com) Use the sample files to help you learn more about how to make your charts amazing Excel. .. person’s weekly loss, you not only see at a glance how much weight was lost, but also how much was lost each week Excel 2007 Charts Made Easy Another issue that comes up when creating charts is deciding what data to chart With some charts, you will want to show the full set of data With other charts, you will only want to show summary information In this case, charting possibilities include the actual... of data when they think of Excel In fact, when many think of Excel, they think of Mark Twain’s saying “Lies, damned lies, and statistics.” As users of Excel charting, the authors want to make sure that your data doesn’t fall into the “damned lies” category We want you to be able to tell the story from your data in ways that everyone can understand Excel 2007 Charts Made Easy is meant to change how... above, below, or any side To see how the third axis changes your chart, click Chart Tools | Design | Change Chart Type The list of available charts will show up For now, pick 7 Excel 2007 Charts Made Easy 3-D Clustered Columns (the fourth chart in the list of column charts) The chart appears to angle away from you, looking much like Figure 1-6 Adding a third dimension isn’t always a great idea When you... 3-D charts, as they apply differently to the two classes of column charts Creating and Formatting a Basic Bar Chart 2 If bar charts are column charts with the data bars running horizontally instead of vertically, why include a full chapter on them? Because this chapter covers formatting your bar charts by hand While you can format your bar and column charts with the default formatting available in Excel. .. column charts with the default formatting available in Excel 2007, you are quickly going to find that you need to make more detailed changes to your charts While the default styles, formats, and setups for charts create nice-looking charts, you need to be able to target the look of your charts to match the materials you are creating with the charts The illustration at left is a good example of a chart . files to help you learn more about how to make your charts amazing. Excel 2007 Charts Made Easy is not made for you to read straight through, although you. Excel MVP. He has written sixteen books as sole author, most recently Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Step by Step (Microsoft Press, 2007) and the Excel 2007