Numbers can usually be represented quicker and to a larger audience in a picture format. Excel has a chart program built in. You can find all the chart options by going to the Insert menu. Have a look at the Charts section. You can also click on the symbol on the bottom right of the Charts section, which will open up the entire selection of charting options.
There are many types of charts. The two most widely used are the bar chart and the pie chart.
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The BAR Chart is usually used to display a change (growth or decline) over a time period. You can quickly compare the numbers of two different bar charts to each other. Nowadays Excel splits BAR Charts into BAR chart if bars are sideways and COLUMN chart if bars are displayed vertically. You can add legends, titles, and change many of the display variables. |
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The PIE Chart is usually used to look at what makes up a whole Something. If you had a pie chart of where you spent your money you could look at the percentages of dollars spent on food (or any other category). You can add legends, titles, and change many of the display variables. |
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The SCATTER chart has two value axes, showing one set of numerical data along the x-axis and another along the y-axis. It combines these values into single data points and displays them in uneven intervals, or clusters. You can add legends, titles, and change many of the display variables. Scatter charts are also suitable for regression analysis as they give a first idea on the relationship of two types of data. |
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The LINE chart is a basic type of chart common in many fields. It is an extension of a scatter graph, and is created by connecting a series of points that represent individual measurements with line segments. A line chart is often used to visualize a trend in data over intervals of time, thus the line is often drawn chronologically. You can add legends, titles, and change many of the display variables. |
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You may choose to combine different types of charts in order to best represent your data. Furthermore, you may also choose to show three-dimensional surfaces to express the relationship of one dependent variable on two independent ones. Whatever you do, please bear in mind that a graph is there to express a relationship! People end up showing nice charts just because they look nice and not because they express connected information. The more complex a graph, the more likely you are in losing your audience so just as in so many other parts of life: KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID!
Here's my final little "multi-facetted chart for the day":
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