1. Visualizing data in Excel
Time to introduce you to the concept of data visualization and how we can use Excel's various charts to display our data.
2. Data visualization cheat sheet
We'll cover the core principles of visualizing data within Excel, but we recommend checking our data visualization cheat sheet for more guidelines on data visualization options.
Choosing the right visualization option is important to communicate information effectively to our intended audience. It can also help clarify complex datasets by easily highlighting patterns, trends, and relationships that might otherwise be obscured.
3. What is data visualization?
So what is data visualization? Data visualization is the graphical representation of data using charts, graphs, and other visual tools.
It enables us to easily present complex data that'll help us identify trends and discover extreme values.
Visual representations of our data enable us to enhance our understanding of large quantities of information and retain this knowledge. It is a critical part of the decision-making process within a data-driven organization.
4. Excel for data visualization
Excel offers various ways to visualize your data, from simple 2D charts to more complex 3D models. Excel has many different chart options available that can be used to customize your visuals, including adding legends which are the text descriptions that accompany data points in a graph, adding styles, which are the design elements within a chart, and adding labels that provide context to each plotted data point. Excel has many built-in color schemes available to help customize your overall design.
5. Visualization options
Many different visualization options are available depending on the data you have and the goal you're trying to achieve.
Some well-known options include pie charts, bar charts, histograms, line charts, area charts, and scatter plots.
6. Visualization options
But the visualization options don't stop there. There are more advanced visuals that Excel has available for use. These include treemaps, box and whisker plots, waterfall charts, radar charts, maps, and combination charts.
7. Let's test your skills!
Now let's put the knowledge you've learned to the test!