Introduction

• About Spreadsheets
• Pre-Requisites

About Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets were originally only designed as calculation tools. People seemed interested only in the numerical results of their calculations. However, it rapidly became apparent that having done the calculations they needed to present the results in a manner that was interesting and clear to other people. Spreadsheets therefore became data presentation tools as well as numerical calculation tools.

Charting is one of the clearest methods of presenting bulk numerical data. The way you present it, however, depends on what you want your audience to gain. There are two main reasons for drawing charts:

1. as part of some data analysis so that you can see more clearly what the numbers mean.
2. as part of a presentation to impress other people.

Excel has a total of nine 2-D graph types, and six 3-D graph types. All of these types have options, and together they lead to a potential 90 different types of graph. The graph types are a mixture of graphs appropriate to analysis and presentation.

This document gives a set of exercises in charting with Excel, and these exercises should be appropriate to anyone wanting to use Excel to draw graphs. The document gives practice on editing different areas of the chart.

Pre-Requisites

It is assumed that you already know how to open, close, save and print an Excel spreadsheet and that you know how to enter data, edit data and create simple formulae. If you are new to Excel it will be necessary for you to read and work through at least one of the following documents before attempting these exercises:

• Getting Started with Microsoft Excel

• Introductory Exercises with Excel

If you wish to investigate some of the other facilities in Excel, then the following documents are also available:

• Formatting Data in Microsoft Excel

• Writing Formulae with Microsoft Excel

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