ENGR 1181 College of Engineering Engineering Education Innovation Center Excel Graphing

ENGR 1181 Introduction to Excel Excel is a powerful spreadsheet program which can be used for: –Creating graphical displays of data –Performing sophisticated data analysis –Problem solving Open Excel and follow along as we look through some of the features

ENGR 1181 Excel Layout Currently active cell(s): referenced by column and row. Fill Handle Tool Ribbon Note: Save and Print are under the File tab Fill Handle Formula Bar

ENGR 1181 Graphing Graphing data is an important skill for engineers It allows engineers to display data in a visual form to enhance the meaning behind the numbers If not done properly, poor graphing can obscure an important message or confuse the intended audience

ENGR 1181 Good Graphing Practices Choose an appropriate graph type for the data Excel offers many choices

ENGR 1181 Good Graphing Practices Every graph must have a title and axis labels. Axes labels must include units. When more than one data set is shown on the same graph, a legend is needed. Graphs must be neat and easily readable. Let’s work on an example…

ENGR 1181 Example: Current Majors of 1181 Let's conduct a quick survey of everyone in the room. What is your current or proposed major? Let's enter the data into our seed file. How can we present this data graphically?

ENGR 1181 Step 1: Enter the Data! 1.Left click on cell 2.Enter data 3.Press enter 4.Format the data Highlight data Right click Select format cells

ENGR 1181 Step 2: Select the Data

ENGR 1181 Step 3: Create Graph or Chart 1.Click Insert 2.Choose Column as the chart type 3.Choose Clustered Column as the chart sub-type

ENGR 1181 Step 4: Preview Graph

ENGR 1181 Step 5: Add a Title 1.Select Layout Tab 2.Select Chart Title 3.Select the desired title location

ENGR 1181 Step 6: Label Axes (with units!) 1.Select Axis Titles 2.Select Primary Horizontal Axis Title. Enter label. 3.Select Primary Vertical Axis Title. Enter label.

ENGR 1181 Step 7: Resize and Move the Graph 1.Click on the edge of the graph. 2.Click and drag one of the corners of the graph to adjust the size. Hold shift to prevent distortion. 3.Click and drag the chart area to move the graph.

ENGR 1181 Done!

ENGR 1181 Printing the Spreadsheet and Graph 1.Click File 2.Click Print 3.Select appropriate printer 4.When satisfied with the preview, choose Print! Note: If the graph is selected, only the graph will print. Select outside the graph to print both the graph and the data.

ENGR 1181 Changing the Chart Type 1.Click on the chart 2.Select the Design tab 3.Click Change Chart Type 4.Select new chart type

ENGR 1181 Chart Type: Pie Chart Is this a good chart to display our data? What are we trying to show?

ENGR 1181 Formatting Multiple Lines When there are multiple lines on one graph, you need to change the line style to improve clarity. What happens if we print this graph in black & white? What could we do to improve readability?

ENGR 1181 Changing Line Styles 1.Select the desired line on the graph 2.Select Format 3.Select Shape Outline 4.Select Dashes and choose desired style

ENGR 1181 Adding Excel Graphs to Word Docs It's easy! 1.Select the graph 2.Right click and select Copy 3.Open the Word document 4.Right click and select Paste