Charting Your Success With Excel 2007

One of the most common reasons why people use Microsoft Excel is to create custom charts that best convey the data they are trying to impart. So what can the user of Excel 2007 expect when they come to formulate their data into charts?

One of the most common reasons why people use Microsoft Excel is to create custom charts that best convey the data they are trying to impart. Over the years and the various different versions of the program there have been refinements made to the way pie, column and line graph charts can be constructed; some of these changes have been for the better whilst others proved miscalculations at the time.

So what can the user of Excel 2007 expect when they come to formulate their data into charts? Well, a significant change from previous versions of the program is that the chart wizard is no longer available to guide you through the process via dialogue boxes. Instead the insert ribbon now holds a number of chart options with which you can structure and format your chart.

Deciding which chart suits your data best is a crucial consideration. For example a pie chart is most useful for highlighting one aspect of the data in relation to the whole. The visual impact of differing sizes of 'slice' can emphasise major disparities within the entirety of the information.

A column chart (more commonly referred to as a bar graph or chart) allows you to compare two sets of information in a way that pie charts do not. This means that factors such as time and location can be added into the mix to enable more sophisticated analysis of the data at hand.

Line graph charts display information as a series of points connected by a straight line and as such are ideal for mapping trends over a chronological period of time. Choosing the correct chart is integral to the accurate assessment of your data, as visual displays of information can be highly misleading and ambiguous if not presented in the most logical way.

The methods for creating all of these kinds of chart are straightforward in Microsoft Excel 2007. When you have entered the appropriate data on your spreadsheet simply highlight it and select the chart types option from the drop down menu. From here there are a number of formatting options that you can apply. These range from basic requirements such as giving the chart a title to more exciting developments like 3D rotation. When creating a pie chart it is possible to visually emphasise one segment of the pie to contrast it more effectively with the other slices. This is known as 'exploding' the pie.

The clarity and common sense organisation of Microsoft Excel 2007 means that, unlike previous versions of the program, everything is pretty much where you would expect it to be. Therefore the loss of the Chart Wizard, whilst initially rather off-putting, makes perfect sense in this context and doesn't mean the user gets lost amid the functionality.

There is more facility for fashioning eye catching graphs and charts than ever before with Microsoft Excel 2007. Increased customization leads to countless options for colouring, bevelling and tinkering with fonts to ensure that your chart is presented just the way you want it to be.