Question

different elements of chart and label them in any bar or column chart

Answer 1

. Colin Cameron, Dept. of Economics, Univ. of Calif. - Davis

This January 2009 help sheet gives information on how to construct charts

Chart basics

Column chart

Column chart: Customizing

Pie Chart

Pie Chartt: Customizing

Line Chart

Line Chartt: Customizing

Printing and Copying Charts

Resizing and Repositioning Charts

It is easiest to learn chart making by hands-on experience.

CHART BASICS

To create a chart

Select the data to appear to appear in the chart (with labels if relevant)

Use the Insert tab and Charts Group and click on the relevant chart in this group.

The main types of chart used in analysis of economcis data are:

Column chart: for comparing data across categories

Pie Chart: for showing the relative shares of categories in a total

Line Chart: for showing trends in a series over time

Scatter Plot: for showing the relationship between two series (given later).

It can be useful to first modify the data for better presentation on the chart. For example, for a pie or column chart we may want to order the data by value.

Charts often automatically select chart title and/or axis or category labels from the above data, so it is useful to choose clear short names where possible.

Excel defaults usually lead to a chart that is reasonable but still needs customizing.

The general approach is to note that the chart has a number of areas:

Chart Title

Plot Area (the actual chart)

The x-axis (for charts other than pie chart) which is called a category axis for column or line chart and a value axis for a bar chart.

The y-axis (for charts other than pie chart) which is called a value axis for column or line chart and a category axis for a bar chart.

Legend Entry (explains the symbols used in the chart)

Labels for the x-axis

Labels for the y-axis.

To edit an existing chart one can select the chart (click inside the chart and the border becomes highlighted).

Then select within the chart that part of the chart you wish to change and right click to obtain the menu for reformatting the chart.

In some cases the Chart Tools group with subgroups Design, Layout and

Further details are given below.

COLUMN CHARTS

As an example consider categorical data on 1997 U.S. Health Care Expenditures.

The data are in file