Introducing charts

Charts are an easy way to visually represent data. Charts are a good tool to be used in presentations or to convey data to other users.

Charts in Google Sheets are dynamic and will automatically adjust if data in the worksheet is changed.

Copying the practice workbook

If you are beginning this course at this point, you will need to copy the practice workbook to your Google Drive.

NOTE: If you have been working through the course, your file should be up to date and you will not need to copy the practice document. You may continue at Creating a chart.

To begin copying the practice workbook, click the following button:

Copy practice workbook

The file begins to open in a web browser. Before the document will open and can be edited, we need to make a copy of it.

To copy the workbook file,

Click

A copy of the file is now open and, by default, is saved in your Google Drive. The filename now has the words "Copy of" at the beginning.

Creating a chart

Let's create a pie chart to compare the number of items sold. Google Sheets makes it simple to create and format a chart.

To begin we will need to select the data we want to be included in the chart. In this case, the names of the items and the number of items sold (columns A and C). To select non-contiguous data in Google Sheets, we'll need to hold down the Control key while selecting the data.

To select the data in column A,
Press & drag A2:A6
To select the data in column C, on the keyboard, press:
Control key + Press & drag C2:C6

The selected cells look like this:

image of the worksheet with cells A2:A6 and C2:C6 selected

To insert the chart, on the menu bar,
Click Insert, Click Chart

A column chart appears in the worksheet and the Chart editor panel opens:

Chart editor panel

Formatting a chart

While the default column chart accurately displays our data, we have several other chart type options. We can use the Setup options of this panel to change the chart type to pie chart.

To see the chart type options, in the Chart editor panel,
Click
To change the chart type to pie chart,
Click

The chart looks like this:

Image of a pie chart titled Number sold vs item. Each pie piece is labeled with the name of the item and percentage of the total items sold.

The pie chart is showing each of the items as well as the percentage of the total each item represents.

Google Sheets makes it easy to modify a chart by using the Customize tab of the Chart editor panel. Let's add the total number of each item to the chart.

NOTE: If the Chart editor panel has closed, in the chart, Click , then Click Edit chart.

To move to the Customize tab of the Chart editor panel,
Click
To open the Pie chart options,
Click

To add the Value label, in the Pie chart options,
Click , Click Value

The number, or value, of each item, has been added to each slice of the pie. Using the options in the Chart editor panel, we could change the font, size, format, or color of these labels. For now, we'll leave them as they are.

The pie chart may be covering part of the data in the worksheet. If so, it is easy to move the chart to another area.

To move the pie chart,
Press & drag the pie chart below the data

To deselect the chart,
Click a blank area of the worksheet

The chart is now positioned below the data and the data is fully visible.

Introducing charts

Copying the practice workbook

Step 1. Copy the practice workbook.

Creating a chart

Step 1. Select the data in columns A and C.

Step 2. Insert the chart.

Formatting a chart

Step 1. Change the chart type to pie chart.

Step 2. View the pie chart options.

Step 3. Add the Value label to each slice in the pie chart.

Step 4. Move the pie chart below the data.

Step 5. Deselect the chart.