Excel 2016 Charts: Complete Introduction & How-To Guide

Introduction to Excel 2016: Introduction to Charts

This PDF serves as a thorough introduction to creating, editing, and formatting charts in Microsoft Excel 2016. Designed as a companion guide for users who want to enhance their data presentation skills, it walks through fundamental concepts about charting within Excel, detailed steps for inserting charts, understanding various chart types, and customizing chart elements for better readability and impact.

Whether you are new to Excel or have some experience, this guide emphasizes practical use of Charts—visual tools that convert raw data into insightful graphs such as column, bar, line, pie, and several new chart styles unique to Excel 2016 (like Treemap and Sunburst charts). Alongside building technical skills, the booklet stresses making data easier to understand and communicate, which is crucial for business reporting, academic work, or personal projects.

Users will benefit from learning not only how to insert and adjust charts, but also how to add key components like titles, legends, axis labels, and how to apply pre-designed layouts and styles. This fosters confidence in presenting visually appealing and informative charts that aid in decision-making and data analysis.

Topics Covered in Detail

• Using Recommended Charts: How to let Excel suggest optimal charts based on selected data for quicker visualization.
• Inserting Charts: Step-by-step instructions for selecting data and embedding various chart types into a worksheet.
• Most Commonly Used Chart Types: Overview of column, bar, line, and pie charts including when and how to use them effectively.
• New Chart Types in Excel 2016: Introduction to modern chart forms like Treemap, Sunburst, Waterfall, Histogram, Pareto, and Box & Whisker charts and their benefits.
• Understanding Chart Elements: Breakdown of key parts such as chart titles, data series, legends, and axis labels, and how to manipulate these components.
• Adding Chart Titles and Labels: Methods to create descriptive titles and informative axis labels to clarify chart purpose.
• Applying Pre-Defined Chart Layouts and Styles: Utilizing built-in layout and design options to enhance visual appeal and consistency.
• Chart Formatting Shortcuts: Tips for quick visual enhancements without extensive manual formatting.
• Using Chart Elements, Styles, and Filters Buttons: Leveraging on-chart clickable tools for dynamic editing and data filtering.
• Managing and Moving Charts: Instructions on organizing charts within worksheets or moving them to standalone chart sheets.

Key Concepts Explained

1. Chart Types and Choosing the Right Visual: Excel 2016 offers a variety of chart types tailored for different data presentations. For example, column and bar charts are best for comparing values across categories, while line charts help show trends over time. Pie charts visualize proportions within a whole. New additions like Treemap and Sunburst help display hierarchical data, revealing patterns and layers in complex datasets. Understanding these types ensures that you pick a chart that accurately communicates your key message.

2. Chart Elements and Their Roles: Every chart consists of essential parts: the chart title succinctly describes what the chart shows; data series represent the actual plotted data; vertical and horizontal axes display values and categories; legends explain colors associated with data sets. Manipulating these elements through Excel’s interface lets users clarify information and tailor presentation to specific needs.

3. Formatting and Styling Charts: Beyond just inserting charts, Excel 2016 allows formatting charts with styles and layouts that improve readability and aesthetic appeal. Users can apply predefined layouts combining multiple elements or use styles to change colors and effects quickly. Shortcut buttons on the chart surface simplify making these changes without needing advanced skills.

4. Using Chart Filters: Chart filters enable users to selectively display data by hiding or showing particular series or categories. This functionality is useful when dealing with large datasets or focused presentations, as it avoids clutter and highlights relevant points. Filters can be applied through easy-to-use button menus directly linked to charts.

5. Practical Application of New Chart Types: New chart types like Waterfall charts help break down cumulative data to show positive and negative changes over time, such as financial profits and losses. Histograms and Pareto charts assist with statistical analysis through data distribution and prioritization visuals. Box & Whisker charts summarize data variability and identify outliers. These enrich data storytelling possibilities in Excel 2016.

Practical Applications and Use Cases

Visual data representation is crucial across many real-world scenarios. Business analysts use Excel charts to quickly summarize sales trends, detect seasonal patterns, or compare product performances. Marketing teams utilize pie charts to show customer demographics distribution or bar charts for campaign results.

Financial professionals often apply Waterfall charts to visualize changes in net income or budget variances, providing clear insight into how different factors contribute to financial health. In education and research, histograms aid in understanding test score distributions or experiment results.

Project managers use Gantt charts (though not covered in this PDF) alongside Excel’s chart tools to track task progress and resource allocation. The hierarchical Treemap and Sunburst charts are especially helpful in IT and organizational data to visualize system components or departmental structures clearly.

By mastering chart customization, users craft presentations and reports that enhance communication and decision-making efficiency.

Glossary of Key Terms

• Chart Title: The heading describing what the chart illustrates.
• Data Series: A set of related data points plotted on the chart (rows or columns from Excel).
• Vertical Axis (Y-Axis): The axis that usually represents values or measures in a chart.
• Horizontal Axis (X-Axis): The axis that often shows the categories or groups being compared.
• Legend: Area identifying what each color or symbol in a chart represents.
• Treemap Chart: A chart visualizing hierarchical data using nested rectangles sized and colored according to values.
• Sunburst Chart: Circular hierarchical chart showing levels of data in concentric rings.
• Waterfall Chart: A chart illustrating incremental positive and negative values leading to a total.
• Histogram: A chart showing the frequency distribution of numeric data.
• Pareto Chart: A combination chart with bars and a line showing individual values and cumulative totals.

Who is this PDF for?

This guide is designed for Excel users ranging from beginners to intermediate levels, especially those interested in improving their data visualization skills. Students, business professionals, analysts, educators, and researchers who routinely handle numeric data will find it informative and practical.

Users looking to enhance reports, presentations, or dashboards will benefit from tips on chart customization, formatting, and choosing the best chart type that fits different datasets and communication goals. Additionally, it introduces several new Excel 2016 chart types, helping users stay current with modern tools for richer data representation.

Whether your goal is to quickly generate standard charts or develop compelling visual data stories, this booklet equips you with essential knowledge and workflows to create clear, appealing, and informative charts in Excel 2016.

How to Use this PDF Effectively

To get the most out of this guide, follow along with your own Excel workbook by practicing each step as you read. Experiment with recommended charts on your datasets, insert various chart types, and customize labels and styles to see immediate effects.

Try applying chart filters to large datasets to focus your analysis and practice moving charts on the worksheet or to separate sheets. If available, use sample data similar to your work context for greater relevance.

Take notes on the parts of each chart and the shortcuts to format them. Repeated usage will build confidence and help embed these skills into your Excel workflow for efficient and professional data visualization.

FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I choose the best chart type for my data in Excel 2016? A: Consider the nature of your data and the story you want to tell. Use column/bar charts for comparison, line charts for trends, pie charts for proportions, and explore new types like Treemap for hierarchical data. Excel’s Recommended Charts feature can also help suggest suitable chart types.

Q: Can I customize chart elements like titles and legends? A: Yes, Excel 2016 allows easy editing of chart titles, axis labels, and legend placement. Use the Chart Elements button to add or remove components and edit text for clarity.

Q: What are Chart Filters and how do they improve my charts? A: Chart Filters let you selectively display or hide specific data series or categories, making it easier to focus on relevant information without creating multiple charts.

Q: Are there quick ways to change the look of my chart? A: Excel provides Chart Styles and Layouts buttons that apply predefined formats and color schemes, letting you enhance your chart’s visual appeal with just a few clicks.

Q: How do new chart types in Excel 2016 like Treemap or Waterfall help? A: These new charts visualize complex or hierarchical data and incremental changes clearly, enabling deeper insights and more effective communication in specialized areas like finance or organizational data analysis.

Exercises and Projects

The PDF does not contain explicit exercises or projects listed as such. However, given the comprehensive coverage on chart types, chart elements, and how to insert and modify charts, relevant projects can be designed to reinforce learning and practical application of these skills.

Suggested Projects with Detailed Steps:

1. Creating Basic Charts from Data

• Select a dataset with clear categories and numerical values.
• Insert different chart types such as column, bar, line, and pie charts.
• Add and customize chart elements like chart titles, axis titles, and legends to make the chart easier to understand.
• Practice switching rows and columns to see different views of the data.

2. Exploring New Chart Types in Excel 2016

• Use sample data suited for hierarchical or distribution views.
• Create Treemap and Sunburst charts to visualize data hierarchy clearly.
• Build a Waterfall chart to show running totals and how initial values are affected by a series of additions or subtractions.
• Generate Histogram charts to analyze frequency distributions.
• Construct Pareto (Combo) charts to highlight major factors with cumulative percentages.
• Make Box & Whisker charts to explore data quartiles, including means and outliers.

3. Customizing and Formatting Charts

• Use the Chart Elements button to insert or remove components such as data labels and gridlines.
• Edit chart titles and axis labels by double-clicking placeholders.
• Apply pre-defined chart layouts and styles using the Chart Styles button.
• Utilize chart formatting shortcuts and filters to tailor the appearance and data displayed.

Tips for Completing These Projects:

• Always begin by selecting accurate data ranges including headers to ensure charts correctly interpret labels and values.
• Experiment with adding and removing chart elements to learn their impact on chart readability.
• Use the recommended charts feature to explore suggestions Excel makes based on your data.
• Take advantage of visual previews when inserting charts to choose the most effective representation.
• Save favorite chart formats as templates for reuse in future projects.

By working through these projects, users will deepen their understanding of Excel's charting capabilities, improve their data presentation skills, and become proficient in customizing charts to best communicate their data insights.