How to Make a Chart in Excel

Creating a chart in Excel is one of the fastest ways to turn a dense spreadsheet into an insightful, easy-to-understand visual. A well-designed chart can reveal trends, highlight comparisons, and tell a story that raw numbers alone can't. This article will walk you through exactly how to make a chart in Excel, from structuring your data to customizing your final visualization.

First, Prepare Your Data

Before you even think about charts, your data needs to be organized properly. Clear, structured data is the foundation of a good chart. Think of it like organizing your ingredients before you start cooking - it makes the entire process smoother and gives you a better result.

For most charts, Excel likes data arranged in columns or rows. Make sure:

• Each column has a clear header. This header will become a label in your chart (like "Month" or "Sales"), so make it descriptive.
• Your data is in a contiguous block. Avoid blank rows or columns within your data set. This helps Excel automatically detect the entire data range you want to chart.
• Use the right format. Ensure dates are formatted as dates, and numbers are formatted as numbers (e.g., currency, percentage). Poor formatting can cause errors when creating a chart.

Here’s an example of a simple, well-structured table for a chart showing monthly sales figures for two different products:

How to Make a Chart in Excel: Your Step-by-Step Guide

Once your data is clean and organized, creating a basic chart takes just a few clicks. We'll use our sample data from above.

Step 1: Select Your Data

Click and drag your mouse to highlight the entire range of data you want to include in your chart, including the headers. In our example, you would select the cells from "Month" down to the last sales figure for "Product B" in June.

Pro Tip: A keyboard shortcut to select your entire data table is to click any single cell within the table and press Ctrl + A (on Windows) or Cmd + A (on Mac).

Step 2: Choose to Insert a Chart

With your data selected, navigate to the Insert tab on the Excel ribbon. You'll see a section in the middle labeled "Charts.” This section is your command center for all things visualization.

Step 3: Pick a Recommended Chart (Or Choose Manually)

Excel is smart enough to analyze your data and suggest chart types that will work well. Click on Recommended Charts to see a few options. This is a great starting point if you're not sure which chart type to use.

Alternatively, if you know what you want, you can browse the icons for specific chart types like bar, line, or pie charts. For our example, a column or line chart would be perfect for showing sales trends over time.

Once you click a chart type, Excel will instantly create the chart and place it on your worksheet.

Choosing the Right Chart for Your Story

The chart you pick can make or break your data presentation. The goal is to choose a format that makes your point as clearly as possible. Here are the most common chart types and when to use them:

Column or Bar Chart

Use When: You want to compare values across different categories.

Column charts (vertical bars) and bar charts (horizontal bars) are classics for a reason. They excel at showing direct comparisons. For example, you could compare the sales performance of different salespeople, traffic from different marketing channels, or, in our data, the total sales per month.

Example: "Which product generated more sales in March?"

Line Chart

Use When: You need to show a trend or progress over time.

When you have time-series data (e.g., daily, monthly, quarterly data), a line chart is your best friend. It connects data points to show how a value has changed over a period, making it easy to spot upward or downward trends, seasonality, and volatility.

Example: "How did sales for Product A trend from January to June?"

Pie Chart

Use When: You want to show the composition of a single total, or parts of a whole.

A pie chart is great for illustrating percentages or proportions. Use it when all your parts add up to 100%. The key is to keep it simple - pie charts get confusing and hard to read if you have more than five or six slices.

Example: "What percentage of our total website traffic came from organic search, social media, and paid ads last month?"

Scatter Plot (XY Chart)

Use When: You're looking for the relationship or correlation between two different numeric variables.

A scatter plot helps you see if one variable impacts another. Each point on the plot represents an observation at the intersection of two values. This is incredibly useful for spotting patterns or identifying outliers.

Example: "Is there a relationship between our daily ad spend and the number of sales we make?"

Customizing Your Excel Chart for Maximum Clarity

Excel’s default charts are a great starting point, but the real power comes from customization. A few small tweaks can turn a confusing graph into a compelling visual story. When you click on your chart, two new tabs will appear on the ribbon: Chart Design and Format.

You can also use the three icons that appear to the top right of the chart for quick adjustments:

Adding and Removing Chart Elements (+)

Click the plus (+) icon to add, remove, or modify key components of your chart:

• Chart Title: Always give your chart a clear, descriptive title. "Sales Chart" is bad. "Product A vs. Product B Sales Performance (Jan - Jun)" is good. To edit it, just click on the title text directly on the chart.
• Axis Titles: Label your horizontal (X) and vertical (Y) axes so viewers know exactly what they're looking at. Is the Y-axis showing sales in dollars, units sold, or something else? Your axis title should answer that.
• Data Labels: Sometimes it's helpful to show the exact value for each bar or data point. Data labels add these numbers directly onto the chart, so your audience doesn’t have to guess.
• Legend: If you have multiple data series (like our "Product A" and "Product B"), the legend tells the viewer what each color or pattern represents. You can change its position to the top, bottom, left, or right.
• Gridlines: These background lines can help align the eye from an axis label to a data point. Sometimes, removing them creates a cleaner, less cluttered look. Experiment to see what works best for your data.

Changing Style and Color (Paintbrush Icon)

The paintbrush icon lets you quickly change the visual aesthetic of your chart. You can browse through a variety of pre-set Styles that change everything from line thickness to background shading. You can also click the Color tab to switch to a different color palette, which is especially useful if you need to match brand guidelines.

Filtering Your Chart Data (Funnel Icon)

This handy feature lets you temporarily hide certain data points without having to delete them from your source table. For example, if you wanted to see the sales trend for just Product A, you could use the filter to uncheck Product B, and the chart would instantly update. This is great for an interactive analysis during a presentation.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

As you build more charts, keep these common pitfalls in mind:

1. Using the Wrong Chart Type. The most common error is picking a chart that doesn't fit the data. A line chart for categorical data (like regions) doesn't make sense, just as a pie chart for showing change over time is ineffective. Always ask yourself: "What is the primary message I am trying to communicate?"
2. Creating a Cluttered Chart. Too many colors, unnecessary gridlines, 3D effects, and a lack of clear labels can overwhelm your audience. Simplicity is your friend. A clean chart is an effective chart.
3. Misleading Axes. Be careful with your axis scales. A bar chart's vertical axis should almost always start at zero. Starting it higher can visually exaggerate differences between bars and mislead the viewer.

Final Thoughts

Learning how to make a chart in Excel is a fundamental skill for anyone working with data. By structuring your data correctly, choosing the right chart type, and customizing it to be clear and readable, you can transform intimidating rows of numbers into professional and persuasive insights.

Once you've mastered creating individual charts, the next step is often building a full dashboard with data from multiple sources. We built Graphed to automate this entire process. Instead of manually downloading CSVs and building charts one by one, you can connect your data sources - like Google Analytics, Shopify, or Facebook Ads - and simply ask in plain English for the analysis you want. Say "create a dashboard comparing Facebook Ad spend and Shopify sales by campaign for last month," and Graphed builds a live, interactive dashboard for you in seconds.