How to Use Charts: Advanced Excel 2007 Training in Canberra, Melbourne

There are six major parts to an Excel 2007 chart.

To gain expertise in Excel 2007, consider using MS Excel 2007 Advanced Training Course from pdtraining in Canberra, Melbourne and other cities in Australia.

Knowing the different parts will help you understand what information you will need in your Excel 2007 data set to make the chart relevant to your audience.

Here are the major parts of a chart in Excel 2007:

Horizontal Axis: This part of the chart is the bottom section or line of the chart. This is usually the category of the data for example. It could represent years, product, sales person, department, etc. Typically, there are no values in this area of the chart.
Vertical Axis: This is the part of the chart is the left side or vertical line of the chart. This part of the Excel 2007 chart usually contains the values as it relates to the horizontal categories. It could represent units, money, percentages, etc.
Legend: Explains what each plotted data set represents. For example, it could distinguish that each bar represents in a column chart or what each piece of the pie represent on a pie chart.
Chart Area: This is the area outside of the plot area. This area can be changed to have different colours and looks.
Plot Area: This area contains the data in an illustrative format like columns, pie pieces, etc. The plot area could contain grid lines or not.
Series: This is a set of similar data grouped by category. For example, sales could represent one series and cost another.
Chart Title: This is usually located above the graph and it usually is a summary of what the data represents like projections, or quality report.

Now that you know the parts of a chart, let us look at how to change the chart style.

Excel 2007 lets you change the style of your chart with a few clicks of the mouse. You can add interesting visual effects to your chart, engaging your audience.