Add Chart to Excel Using Office 2007

In this short 5 mins video, we walk through a couple formulas and then add a chart to an existing Excel spreadsheet. Learn how to setup your worksheet to use formulas to show data, then use the results of those formulas to show the data graphically.

Why would you want to add a chart? 

Well, you know a picture paints a thousand words (or more). Charting gives you the capability to show what is often very boring data in a graphical, eye-appealing form. Let's look at some samples of how you might use it. In this presentation, I create a graphical view of some data collected in evaluations. Not many IT guys do evaluations. However, you might find if you did your own surveys for your organization that some of the data could help you greatly improve the service you offer to customers. What's that, you do not service customers? I beg to differ... Everyone in your organization is your customer. In fact, I would suggest that not only everyone in your organization, but also any partners, and in some cases, vendors. 

Really though, why does an IT person need charting? Think about all the scenarios where your company uses Excel spreadsheets or Access databases, or any kind of database. Excel can connect to almost any data source and generate graphical rollups of data. ...ever tried to do a dump of your event logs and report on that? What a mess that kind of data would be without looking at it in a chart format. How about when you need to go to the boss to get more money to implement a project? Do you think you will have more success if you show him/her where the money is already going? Will they understand that if they are just looking at data? Probably not. 

How about graphing the number of service calls you get in a week or month? You might graph how much time you spend on the phone instead of doing the "stuff" that really needs to be done. Getting this data into a spreadsheet and showing what is going on graphically can make a mountain of difference in your ability to get more money, get more help, provide better service to your customers, evaluate vendor proposals and many, many, many more things. So, happy charting... :)

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Checkout other great videos from Dan Stolts at his Edge landing page. You might want to checkout Dan's blog here.