Creating charts from start to finish

Creating charts has never been a one-step process, but we've made it easier to complete all of the steps in Excel 2013. Get started with a chart that's recommended for your data, and then finalize it in another few steps so your chart looks professional and has all the details you want to show.

Tips before you start

• Let Excel do it for you    If you're overwhelmed by the many chart options, or you miss the Chart Wizard that was available in earlier versions of Excel, try getting started with an Excel recommended chart.

• Fine-tune your chart in a few steps    You'll find three buttons right next to your chart that let you add chart elements such as titles and data labels, change the look and layout of your chart, and define the data you want to show without having to peruse the Chart Tools ribbon to find what you want.

• Copy your chart to other programs    While you can create charts directly in other Office programs like Word and PowerPoint, copying charts from Excel into another program, with or without a link to the data in Excel, is often a fast and effective way to include charts in the other files.

• Use Power View to create charts    If you've got Office Professional Plus, try using the Power View add-in. Power View helps you turn Excel table data into charts and other visualizations and presents them in powerful, interactive reports that look professional.

Create your chart

Available chart types	If you're new to charting, start by exploring the charts you can create in Excel and learn a little more about best ways to arrange your data for each of them.
Select data for a chart	Then, enter your data the way it should be for the chart you want, and select it to create your chart.
Create a chart	When you're ready to create your chart, select your data and pick the chart you want from a list of recommended charts.
Create a PivotChart	If you have a lot of data and want to interact with that data in your chart, create a standalone (decoupled) PivotChart. It has interactive filtering controls that let you analyze a subset of your data. Excel can recommend a PivotChart for your data, and you don't need to create a PivotTable to go with it.

Fine-tune your chart

Add a chart title	You can replace the placeholder chart title with an appropriate chart title, format it the way you want, or move it to a different place in the chart.
Add data labels to a chart	Make a chart easier to understand by adding data labels that show details about a data series or its individual data points.
Change axis labels in a chart	Axis labels are shown for any horizontal, vertical, and depth axes in your chart. Labels automatically display text from the source data to describe the data that's shown, but you can use your own text instead.
Add error bars to a chart	Error bars show margins of error at a glance. You can add them to all data points in a data series as a standard error amount, a percentage, or a standard deviation.
Add a trend or moving average line to a chart	Show data trends or moving averages by adding a trendline to your chart. A trendline can also help you predict future values by showing upward or downward trends.
Add or remove a secondary axis in a chart	When the numbers in your chart vary widely, or when you've got mixed types of data (for example, price and volume), you can plot the values of one or more data series on a secondary vertical axis.
Change the color or style of a chart	If standard colors and chart styles don't strike your fancy, it's easy to change both. You can quickly pick what you like from a wide range of options in the color and style galleries.
Format elements of a chart	A formatting task pane makes it easier to format any chart element. To open it, right-click any chart element.
Save a custom chart as a template	If you plan to use the chart you've created again, you can save it as a template that you can apply just like any other chart.

Change the data in your chart

Add a data series to your chart	When you enter more data in your worksheet, you can quickly include it in your chart.
Change the data series in a chart	To change the data that's shown in your chart, use chart filters to show or hide data series. You can also edit and rearrange the data in your data series by using the Select Data Source box.

Use your chart in another program

Copy an Excel chart to another Office program	To show an Excel chart in a PowerPoint presentation, a Word document, or an Outlook message, copy it, and use the paste options in the other Office program to insert the chart in a number of ways.
Insert a chart from an Excel spreadsheet into Word	When you don't have much data to plot, try creating a chart directly in Word—no need to go to Excel first. However, if you have a lot of data to plot, or if your data changes regularly and you want to keep your chart up to date, consider creating the chart in Excel, and copying it into your document.

Use Power View to create interactive charts

Start Power View in Excel 2013	If you're using Office Professional Plus, you've already got the Power View add-in installed. Just click Insert > Power View to start it.
Create charts and other visualizations in Power View	Create charts and other visualizations in a dashboard-like Power View sheet, and then play with your data. Interact with one of the visualizations on the sheet and see how that cross-filters the others, highlighting relationships you may not have seen before. Important: Power View charts and other visualizations only work in Power View. You can't copy them from a Power View sheet to an Excel sheet. You can't copy Excel charts or PivotCharts to a Power View sheet either.
Watch Power View videos	If videos suit your learning style, you'll like this collection of videos about creating and interacting with different kinds of visualizations in Power View.