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Face to face / Online public schedule & onsite training. Restaurant lunch included at STL venues.
Designed for Excel 365
From £300 List price £350
- 1 day Instructor-led
- Courses never cancelled
- Restaurant lunch
Syllabus
Who is this course for?
Our Charting with Microsoft Excel course is suitable for those with a working knowledge of Excel and familiarity of charts.
Prerequisites
Attendance of Excel Introduction or equivalent experience.
Benefits
At the end of this course you will have a greater understanding of charting concepts, shortcuts and fine tuning.You will learn more advanced techniques for chart layout tabs and chart formatting options & types.
Armed with all of this you will have greater competence at producing more comprehensive Excel charts based on your working data.
Also, learning VBA may be a good option for you!
Course Syllabus
Excel Charting Concepts
Understanding chart terminology
- Identifying chart elements (such as like plot area, chart area, gridlines, and legends)
- Selecting the right chart type
- Understanding the Ribbon and the Design, Layout, and Format tabs
Creating Basic Charts Quickly
- Selecting data to display as a chart
- Creating charts instantly with shortcuts
- Creating presentation-ready charts with just a few adjustments
- Creating graphic-in-cell charts with Sparklines
Fine-Tuning Charts with Design Tab Choices
- Switching rows and columns for a different view of the data
- Setting a default chart type and creating a template
- Dealing with empty and hidden cells
- Choosing a chart style from 48 colourful variations
- Changing the location of a chart
- Moving and resizing a chart
Layout Tab Options
Inserting Pictures, Shapes, and Text Boxes
- Using pictures as chart elements
- Adding shapes and arrows
- Adding floating text and text boxes
Adding Titles, Labels, and Legends
- Adding and editing chart titles
- Adding horizontal and vertical titles
- Linking titles to content
- Showing different scales
- Specifying the position of tick marks and axis labels
- Changing the numeric format on labels
- Adding, editing, and removing legends
- Adding and editing data labels
- Showing the source of a chart's data
Using Axes and Gridlines
- Modifying axis scaling
- Working with gridlines
Using the Analysis Tools
- Analyzing existing and future data with trendlines
- Adding drop lines
- Adding high-low lines and up-down bars
- Adding error bars
Format Options
Adding Shapes and WordArt Styles
- Selecting shape fill and outline
- Adding shape effects
- Applying WordArt styles
Using Other Formatting Tools
- Formatting lines and borders
- Filling an area with a colour gradient
- Specifying line style and weight
- Working with chart text
- Changing the rotation of chart text
Adjusting Specific Chart Types
- Column, line and pie charts
- Area, stock, and XY charts
- Doughnut, bubble, and radar charts
- Creating a Waterfall chart
Changing a Chart's Data Source
-Pasting new data into a chart
-Creating charts from multiple data sources
-Adding new data using a table
Printing and Sharing Charts
- Printing charts
- Copying and linking charts with Word and PowerPoint
Prices & Dates
What you get
"What do I get on the day?"
Arguably, the most experienced and highest motivated trainers.
Face-to-face training
Training is held in our modern, comfortable, air-conditioned suites.
Modern-spec IT, fully networked with internet access
Lunch, breaks and timing
A hot lunch is provided at local restaurants near our venues:
- Bloomsbury
- Limehouse
Courses start at 9:30am.
Please aim to be with us for 9:15am.
Browse the sample menus and view joining information (how to get to our venues).
Refreshments
Available throughout the day:
- Hot beverages
- Clean, filtered water
- Biscuits
Online training
Regular breaks throughout the day.
Learning tools
In-course handbook
Contains unit objectives, exercises and space to write notes
Reference material
Available online. 100+ pages with step-by-step instructions
24 months access to Microsoft trainers
Your questions answered on our support forum.
Training formats & Services
Training Formats & Services
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Testimonials
The British Academy
Fiona Asokacitta,
ECRN Assistant
Martin was excellent and very helpful. He had a great curriculum and practice workbook set up which was very easy to follow along and proceeded at a logical and manageable pace.
Excel Charting
Maitland
Sonia Pimm,
Talent And Learning Manager
Fab lunch!
Very good directions! Love the different angles and photographs (very helpful for someone like me!)
Suggestions of other courses by the trainer very helpful.
Emailing the exercises home great idea!
Being able to see other versions on the course to prepare for future upgrades is great too!
Excel Charting
Intellian Ltd
Yeji Lee,
Sales Support Associate
Martin was a great teacher, the course was really helpful and it covered everything that I wanted. He didn't bothered any questions from me and also introduced further courses that I could take in the future. I would love to introduce STL to my colleagues and friends if possible. I cannot wait to use the functions that I learned today! Thank you for the great teaching!
Excel Charting
Learning & Development Resources
Blog
- Charts from a dropdown list
- Excel Charts - beginner’s guide to creating a pie chart
- Excel Data Visualisation: A Powerful Decision Making Tool
- How to Use Sparklines in Excel to Visualise Data Trends
- Using Excel to build a simple dashboard
- Create Stunning Charts in Excel and Impress Your Clients
- How To Split A Stacked Chart In Excel
Training manual sample
Below are some extracts from our Excel training manuals.
Excel Charting
Unit: Working with Charts
After creating a chart, you may need to rearrange the data or move the chart to a new location.
Moving a Chart Within the Current Worksheet
Excel had an annoying habit of locating new charts near the bottom of your data. With a large spreadsheet, you may need to move the chart to the proper location thousands of rows away. Some methods are faster than others.
There are several ways to move a chart within the current worksheet.
Drag and Drop Method
When a chart is selected, a border appears around the chart. Eight resizing handles appear in the border. To move a chart, you click the border but avoid the resizing handles. You can then drag the chart to a new location.
Because it is somewhat difficult to click on a thin chart border, you might try clicking inside the chart in order to drag the chart to a new location. This approach works as long as you can click on some whitespace between the plot area and the chart border.
You can easily drag a chart anywhere in the visible window. If you accidentally drop the chart just a pixel outside of the visible window, the chart boomerangs back to its original position.
Cut and Paste Method
Instead of dragging and dropping, the fastest way to relocate a chart might be to cut and paste it. You follow these steps to quickly move a chart within the current worksheet:
- Select a chart.
- Press Ctrl+X to cut the chart from the worksheet.
- Press F5 to display the Go To dialog.
- Type the address of the cell that you want to contain the top-left corner of the chart and click OK.
- Press Ctrl+V to paste the chart in the new location.
Reversing the Series and Categories of a Chart
Excel follows strict rules in deciding whether rows should be series or categories. Luckily, you can reverse this decision with a single button click.
If Excel chooses the wrong orientation for the data in a chart, you can click the Switch Row/Column icon in the Design ribbon.
You will see that the years have changed from being category labels to being series labels. The products have changed from being series labels to being category labels.
To reverse the orientation of data in a chart, you click Switch Row/Column.
If your data has more columns of data than rows, the headings in the first row become category labels.
The eight columns of monthly data become category labels, and the three rows become series.
If your data has more rows than columns, the headings in the first column become category labels.
Changing the Data Sequence by Using Select Data
The Select Data icon on the Design ribbon allows you to change the rows and columns of your dataset, and it also allows you to resequence the order of the series. When you click this icon, the Select Data Source dialog appears.
Buttons in the Legend Entries side of the Select Data Source dialog allow you to add new series, edit a series, remove a series, or change the sequence of a series. A single Edit button on the right side of the dialog allows you to edit the range used for category labels.
For example, use the Select Data Source dialog, as follows:
- Select the chart and choose Design, Select Data. The Select Data Source dialog displays.
- Click Switch Rows/Columns to move the city names to the left side of the dialog.
- Click Alice Springs on the left side and then the up arrow button until Alice Springs is the first series.
- Click Broome and then the up arrow button until Broome is the second series.
- Continue re-sequencing the cities until they are in the desired order.
- On the Horizontal (Category) Axis Labels side of the dialog, click the Edit button. The data initially points to B1:E1. Change the address in the Axis Labels dialog box to an array by entering the four new labels inside curly braces: ={“Summer”,“Fall”,“Winter”,“Spring”}. Click OK to close the Axis Labels dialog box and return to the Select Data Source dialog box.
Leaving the Top-Left Cell Blank
In the past, Excel would tell you to always leave the top-left cell of your dataset blank before creating a chart.
This old guideline was that if your series or category labels contained either dates or numeric labels, you should leave the top-left cell blank. Now, if your labels contain values formatted as dates, there is no need to leave the top-left cell blank. In addition, if your data has been converted to a table, using the Format as Table icon on the Home ribbon, it is impossible to leave the top-left cell blank.
In a few instances, your results improve if the top-left cell is blank.
Assume there are years in cells B1:D1 of a worksheet, and they are numeric. Consider A1:D1, you have text in column A, followed by three numbers in B:D. This is remarkably similar to the data in A2:D4. You have text in column A, followed by numbers in B:D. If you create a chart from this dataset, Excel assumes that you do not have series labels and assumes that A1:A4 represent four category labels. This erroneously produces the an incorrect chart.
Cells A11:D14 in the figure contain exactly the same data as A1:D4, except the Region label was cleared from A11. In this case, Excel correctly sees three series and three categories.
Moving a Chart to a Different Sheet
In Excel, charts always start out as objects embedded in a worksheet. However, you might want to display a chart on its own full-page chart sheet.
There are two options for moving a chart:
- Choose the Move Chart icon at the right edge of the Design ribbon.
- Right-click any whitespace near the border of the chart and choose Move Chart.
Either way, the Move Chart dialog appears, offering the options New Sheet and Object In. The Object In drop-down lists all the worksheets in the current workbook. The New Sheet option allows you to specify a name for a new sheet.
Note: When you choose to move a chart to a new sheet, the chart is located on a special sheet called a chart sheet. This sheet holds one chart that can be printed to fill a sheet of paper. You cannot have additional cells or formulas on a chart sheet.
Customising Charts Using the Design Ribbon
The Design ribbon allows you to quickly customize a chart with just a couple clicks. For example, the Chart Styles gallery allows you to change the colour scheme and effects for the entire chart.
The Chart Layouts gallery offers professionally designed combinations of chart elements.
Choosing a Chart Layout
Depending on the chart type you have chosen, the Chart Layouts gallery offers 4 to 12 built-in combinations of chart elements. When you choose a new chart layout from the gallery, you get a predefined combination of title, layout, gridlines, and so on.
The Chart Layouts gallery offers up to a dozen predefined layouts for the current chart type.
Choosing a Colour Scheme
The Design ribbon is also home to the Chart Styles gallery, which offers 48 variations of colour and effects. The gallery has columns for each of the six accent colours, monochrome, and mixed colours.
As you proceed down the first four rows of the gallery, each style has a bit more extreme effect applied to the bars. The styles in row 2 have a white border around the bars.
The styles in row 3 have a dark gradient. The styles in row 4 have a glass-like surface on the bars. The styles in row 5 have a dark border around the bars, combined with a light tint in the plot area. The final row has a dark background that is suitable, for example, if you are using the chart in a dark-themed PowerPoint presentation.
As shown in the figure above, you can choose from eight colour schemes when you use the Chart Styles gallery.
Modifying a Colour Theme
You can change to any of the 20 themes or create your own theme in order to easily access new colours and effects.
On the Page Layout ribbon, you can click the Themes drop-down to choose from the 20 built-in themes. If you choose a new theme from the Themes drop-down, Excel applies a new colour and set of effects to all of the charts in the current workbook. If you want to change only the colours or effects, you can use the Colours or Effects drop-down in the Themes group.
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