Exploring charts
1. Exploring charts
To explore some of the problems you may encounter when trying to make a chart to analyze the data you've gathered, let's look at the spreadsheet from the basics course, "On the Rise monthly sales figures." Sometimes, there's too much information to show a chart with meaning. Be careful the data range you select. You may only want to select a smaller section of the information. Column A is the North American region; row one lists the quarters. While this information is helpful when looking at the data in the spreadsheet, it may not be helpful as you create the chart. You wouldn't want to select cells A1 through N10 to create a chart. Consider selecting only B2 through N10 to find information about the monthly sales for each region. To create a chart, select Insert from the toolbar, and select "Chart." In the Chart editor, select the Chart type "Line chart." For Data range, type in B2:N10. For X-axis, select "Region" if it's not already selected by default. Under Series, check "Switch rows/columns" and "Use column B as the header," so that the chart illustrates the sales by month for each region. Under Customize, click on the arrow at Chart & axis titles, and type in "Monthly Sales by Region" for the chart title. When you need to select information to show or not show in a chart, you can hide rows or columns. For example, if you only want to see information for North America, you can hide rows eight through ten, and all you'll see in the chart are now the monthly sales for North American regions. But there is something important to note. If you have sums at the end of each row or column and you hide some of the rows or columns, the sums calculated for each row or column will still include the values in the hidden rows or columns. Sometimes you may want your information to be in columns to be able to use the information in the best way. Select the data that you want to transpose, B2 through N10, copy the data, right click and select copy or use the keyboard shortcuts, select the cell where you want to paste the transposed data, right click and within "Paste special," click on "Paste transposed." If you're interested in showing what percentage a particular segment comprises of total business, consider using a pie chart. If you're interested in showing a trend, consider using a line chart. If you'd like to show the relationship between various points of data, consider using a scatter chart. If you're interested in identifying regional information, consider using a map.2. Let's practice!
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