I have to make a tutorial with Microsoft Excel in school... except, I haven't used it in ages. Help!?

Question

I volunteered to show everyone how to use Excel, but I've totally forgotten how to use it. I need to know how to change things into a bar graph or line graphs, etc. For example, in our project, we have been given data on percipitation, snow fall, and amount of rainy days, in certain countries. How would I change this into a graph once I've inputted the data?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Follow this short tutorial I wrote up for you. Hope it helps.

Let's say you are graphing the monthly rainfall for two countries in the same graph, side by side.

You have all the rainfall data for one country in one column, the next country in the next column, etc. In the A2 cell, enter Jan. Click on the A2 cell, and drag that little black square in the lower right corner down through cell A13. Excel will automatically fill in the rest of the months for you.
Type the first country's name in cell B1. You enter their January rainfall in cell B2, their February rainfall in B3, etc through December in B13. Enter one more country the same way in the C column.

Save your spreadsheet after you have entered the data for two countries. (I always save after I've entered my data just in case.)

Go to the Insert menu > Chart. We'll make the clustered column chart (the one that's already selected in the upper left corner). Click next.

Click the series tab. Click the Add button. Where it says Name, click the little button to the right of the white space. Click on cell B1, which contains the name of the country for this series. Hit enter. This will automatically enter the value in that cell for the name of the series. Where it says Values, click the little button, then click and drag the mouse to hilight all the cells containing your rainfall data for the first country, which is cells B2 - B13. Hit enter. Add the data for the other country by clicking the Add button, naming it, and entering the data from C2 - C13. Where it says Category x axis labels, click the little button again, and hilight cells A2 - A13, which contain the names of the months. Hit enter. You will see a sketch of your chart in the little window.

Click next. Click the Titles tab. Enter "Monthly Rainfall by Country" for the Chart Title, enter "Month" for Category x-axis, and enter "Rainfall in inches" (or cm) for Category y-axis. The stuff in the other tabs isn't necessary to fool with, but go ahead and experiment with it to see if there's anything you like. Click next.

Now you decide whether the chart will go in the same spreadsheet with the data you entered, or if it will have its own page. If you will be printing your graphs separately, you should select "As new sheet" to put it in its own page. Use the little gray tabs at the bottom of the screen to switch between your spreadsheet with your data and your pages with your graphs on them.

Answer 2

Ummm...read the manual ha ha

Seriously, select the data you want to make into a chart. Click on the Chart Wizard button on the tool bar. Or go to Insert | Chart.

Follow the white rabbit (the wizard) and it is as easy as pie (or bar, or line) chart....ha ha ha.

Most importantly, always first select the data you are going to turn into a chart.