A chart exists to make one point faster than a table would. Most charts fail because the person making them tried to show everything at once.
Bar chart for comparing things: sales by branch, hours by person. Line chart for change over time: sales per month. Pie chart for parts of one whole, and only when there are few slices.
Give it a title that says the point, not the topic. "Sales by branch" describes it. "Durban is our strongest branch" makes the point, and your manager reads the point rather than working it out.
You want to show sales for twelve months.
What happens: Nobody can compare twelve slices by eye, and a pie cannot show change over time at all. It is the wrong shape for the question.
What happens: The trend is visible instantly, which is the only thing anyone wanted to know from twelve months of sales.
How do I make one?
Select your data including the column headings, then choose Insert and Chart. The software suggests a type, and you can change it. Selecting the headings matters, because that is where the labels come from.
My chart looks cluttered
Remove things rather than adding them. Take out gridlines you do not need, remove the legend if there is only one series, and cut the number of colours. A chart with less on it is almost always clearer.
Before you move on
- Bar to compare, line for time, pie only for few slices
- Title it with the point, not the topic
- Remove clutter rather than adding decoration
Check what you know
3 questions. Have a look at what this lesson asks.
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