Everyone knows Excel is great for number-crunching, but it’s also fantastic with charts and graphics. Adding them to your Excel worksheets can help you tell a story with your data: perhaps you're seeing a trend or interesting point in the data and want to convey that to your audience. Rather than just adding a comment or some random text in the workbook, you can use a chart to make your point. Plus, it’s fun!
In the case below, we see in the data (wins and losses) that Teri Moren has more wins compared to other IU Women’s Basketball coaches. We want to quickly and visually emphasize Coach Moren’s success with a chart (plus a photo)!
To begin, let's open a blank workbook in Microsoft Excel.
Open Microsoft Excel.
To open a blank workbook, near the top left corner of the Excel window,
Click Blank Workbook
With a blank workbook open, we can copy and paste the data into the worksheet.
To select the data,
Press & Drag this table:
Coach
Years
Wins
Losses
Kathi Bennett
2000-2005
72
75
Sharon Versyp
2005-2006
19
14
Felisha Legette-Jack
2006-2012
87
100
Curt Miller
2012-2014
33
32
Teri Moren
2014-present
172
89
To copy the data, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + C
To deselect the chart,
Click in a blank area of the screen
Return to Microsoft Excel.
To make cell A1 the active cell,
Click in cell A1
To paste the data into cell A1, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + V
To deselect the pasted data,
Click in a blank area of the worksheet
Because the background of this page is white, the copied data may also have a white background. That white background may cover the lines between the cells. We can fix this by changing the Fill color of the pasted cells.
To select the data, if necessary,
Press & Drag A1:D6
To change the Fill Color, if necessary, on the Ribbon,
Click , Click No Fill
To see the resize cursor, in the header row,
Point between the column A header and the column B header
To widen column A, in the header row,
Press & Drag the column A header to the right
To use the resize cursor to widen column B, in the header row,
Point between the column B header and the column C header, Press & Drag the column A header to the right
To deselect the data,
Click in a blank area of the worksheet
Creating a pie chart
Pie charts are a good way to show how individual amounts contribute to a total amount. For example, with a pie chart, you can show what parts of total household expenditures are spent on various categories of spending.
In our case, we’re showing what portion of IU Women’s Basketball’s total wins (since 2000) was under each coach. (Spoiler alert: Teri Moren has the most!)
We will begin creating the chart by selecting the data we want to be represented. In this case, the coaches' names and the number of wins.
To select non-contiguous data, we will hold down the Control key while we press & drag the values.
To select data in the Coach column,
Press & Drag A1:A6
To select the Wins, on the keyboard, press and hold:
Control key, Press & Drag C1:C6
With the data selected, we are ready to create the pie chart.
To move to the Insert tab, on the Ribbon,
Click the Insert tab
To insert a 2-D pie chart,
Click , Click
The pie chart appears in the worksheet.
While this chart accurately represents our data, we can make it more attractive and easier to understand.
Formatting a chart
There are many changes we can make to the chart to make it look nicer and easier to understand. Let's begin by adding data labels to the chart. These labels can give us more information about the data by including categories and percentages. Let's open the Format Data Labels pane and make some formatting choices.
When the chart was added to the worksheet, new contextual tabs appeared on the Ribbon. The tools on these tabs can be used to make many different adjustments to the chart.
To open the Format Data Labels pane, on the Chart Design tab,
Click , Point Data Labels, Click More Data Label Options...
There are now data labels in each slice of the pie chart. These are the number of wins for each coach.
In addition to the data labels, the Format Data Labels pane opens:
Currently, the Format Data Labels pane is showing the Label Options. We can check or uncheck these options to add or remove elements from the data labels. The Value and Show Leader Lines options are checked. The other options: Value From Cells, Series Name, Category Name, Percentage, and Legend key are not selected. There is a drop-down menu where we can choose what character we want to separate data within the data labels. There is a button to reset the text of the labels if necessary. And options for where the data labels should appear in each slice of the pie: Center, Inside End, Outside End, or Best Fit. By default, Best Fit is selected.
Let's add each coach's name to their corresponding slice of the pie chart. To do this, we will check the Category Name checkbox.
To add Category Name to the data labels, in the Format Data Labels pane,
Click the Category Name checkbox
The data labels now contain the coach's name followed by their number of wins. By adding the names to the chart, the legend is no longer needed. We'll remove the legend and then make the chart larger.
To remove the legend, on the Chart Design tab,
Click, Point Legend, Click None
To make the chart larger,
Press & Drag the bottom right handle down and to the right
The chart gives us a lot of information about Indiana Women's Basketball coaches. Because Coach Teri Moren is the current coach and is still winning games, we want everyone to know that this is her record as of the end of the 2021-2022 season and does not include her wins after that. Let's change the title of the chart to reflect this.
To select the chart title placeholder,
Click the chart title
To select the current title,
Double-Click the contents of the placeholder
To change the chart title, type:
Wins to #IUWBB by Coach 2000 - March 2022
To accept this new title,
Click in a blank area of the chart
The chart should look like this:
Adding an image to a chart
Let's add a photo of Teri Moren, the current coach of IU Women's Basketball.
To copy this photo of Teri Moren,
Right-Click the following image of Teri Moren:, Click Copy image
To select a blank area of the worksheet, if necessary,
Click in a blank cell of the worksheet
To paste this image into the chart, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + V
To resize the photo,
Press & Drag the upper right handle down and to the left
To move Coach Moren's photo,
Press & Drag the photo next to her pie slice
To deselect the photo,
Click a blank area of the chart
The chart now looks like this:
Before the chart is complete, we need to add a few more elements.
Adding alternative text
Before our chart is complete, we need to add alternative text to both the chart and the image of Coach Moren. Alternative text is read by screen reading software and is essential for people who use that software to understand the content of the chart.
Alternative text should be as detailed as necessary to give users an accurate understanding of the content.
To open the Alt Text pane,
In Microsoft Excel for Windows, Right-Click a blank area of the chart, Click Edit Alt Text... In Microsoft Excel for macOS, Right-Click a blank area of the chart, Click View Alt Text...
To add the alternative text, in the Alt Text pane, type:
Pie chart showing the number of wins by Indiana University Women's Basketball coaches from 2000 to March 2022.
The photo of Coach Moren had alt text applied when it was added to these materials. That alt text should have been copied and pasted with the photo. Let's confirm that this happened as expected.
To select the photo of Coach Moren,
Click the photo of Coach Moren
To open the Alt Text pane, if necessary,
In Microsoft Excel for Windows, Right-Click a blank area of the chart, ClickEdit Alt Text... In Microsoft Excel for macOS, Right-Click a blank area of the chart, Click View Alt Text...
The alt text for Coach Moren's photo should read "Photo of Teri Moren with her name in the lower-left corner."
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