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Charts I: How to create a chart in Excel 2007

Excel data for salesperson Cencini appearing in three separate columns, one for each month

In this chart, the data from each worksheet cell is a column. Row titles (salespeople names) are the chart legend text on the right, and column titles (months of the year) are at the bottom of the chart.

As you can see at once in this column chart, Cencini (represented by the middle column for each month) sold the most tea in January and February, but she was outdone by Giussani in March.

Data for each salesperson appears in three separate columns, one for each month. The height of each chart is proportional to the value in the cell that it represents. The chart shows you how the salespeople stack up against each other, month by month.

Each row of salesperson data has a different color in the chart. The chart legend, created from the row titles in the worksheet (the salesperson names), tells which color represents the data for each salesperson. Giussani data, for example, is the darkest blue, and is the left-most column for each month.

The column titles from the worksheet, January, February, and March, are now at the bottom of the chart. On the left side of the chart, Excel has created a scale of numbers to help you to interpret the column heights.


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