GOOD VS EVIL CHARTS: Basic Guides To Effective Charting in Excel

Almost in any job that uses a computer must use Excel. From Excel you might have to prepare a presentation and make charts to show something to your boss. Today we will share some tips on types of charts in Excel and how to use them effectively!

First and foremost i would highly recommend using Excel instead of SPSS because excel charts looks better and is easier to edit.

Column Charts

• These charts are the most commonly used when representing data
• It is easy to read and understand
• it is usually used to compare discrete items

A good bar chart is easy to read and understand. It is good to use alot of colours to make it visually attractive.

A Common Mistake: Most people try to fit a huge number of bars into one single chart. Some suggestions is to use 2 charts, or group similar classes together. This example uses only one colour, is pretty cluttered. The axis should be from 0 to 100 (since maximum is 100) the vertical axis is also missing.

A better way is using multiple colours, resizing the chart, or you could group columns together into group (however this will lose detailed information)

Bar Charts

• This is the same as column charts, but they are rotated 90 degrees.
• Suitable for charts with long labels

Line Charts

• Useful to show trends and for time series data.
• It is highly recommended that the points between the data are EQUAL

Pie Charts

• Shows proportion.
• Maximum 5-7 Slices. Too many will make it hard to read.

Scatter Plot

• Is very useful to show relationships between variables.
• Also ideal to display dispersion.
• 1 dot = 1 data

 Well, Thats about it. These are just basic info on how to make simple and easy to chew charts. For more info, or if you want to learn more about charts. Feel free to contact us! This is a very valuable skill!