How to make graphs

Hello, There are many ways to make graphs to represent your data. Throughout this very detailed tutorial you will learn to make bar graphs and pie charts. Lets begin.

The first thing you need to do is open up an EXCEL document

The second thing you need to do is to save your document.

Make sure you give your chart a name. Save it on your desktop or on your USB drive. Make sure you continuously save your information so that you don’t loose it in case the computer shuts down. Click “SAVE.”

Now your chart is saved and you can begin entering the data on the sheet that was given out by your instructor. As you begin typing in cell A1,you will notice that it doesn’t fit in the cell. To make the column wider follow the steps on the next slide.

Hover your mouse on the top cell and you should see a symbol like the one below. Once you see this symbol LEFT click on your mouse, don’t let go and drag the right side of the cell to the right for as wide as you need it to be.

When you start dragging the right side of the cell, you will see this other line appear that shows how wide your column is becoming. Once you are happy with the size of your column you can let go of the mouse and continue typing.

As you can see here the text is much bigger than the cell. Since it would be too long to widen up the column you need to do the following. Make sure you have clicked on the cell you want to make the changes to as shown here. Click on this symbol called, “WRAP TEXT.”

After clicking on “WRAP TEXT” you should have something similar to the figure below. Continue typing your data.

As you can see here, once again the data is too big for the cell so repeat the steps from slide 8 which are to “WRAP TEXT.” They are the same steps. Click on the cell desired and then click on the “WRAP TEXT” button.

Your table should now look something similar to the below figure, after you have wrapped the text and widened the columns to make the table neater. If you can’t get your table neat, don’t worry about it. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Proceed on to next slide.

Now you need to enter the numbers. If you want to insert the percent signs along with the numbers you can go ahead and do so. If you want an easier way that will become much faster with practice you can look at the next four detailed slides.

Your data should look like the one below unless you have already placed the percent signs next to the numbers.

So here is what you do next. Only highlight the cells containing numbers as shown below. Now click on this symbol.

After having clicked on this symbol, v the following box should have appeared. Click on “CUSTOM”. In here you will delete “GENERAL” and type what’s shown below exactly as is. Pound sign period pound sign backslash sign percent sign

I know these are a lot of steps but with practice they will serve as a great tool for future reference. So now you should have the following in front of you. Press “OK” and your data should now have % signs.

So finally you have all your data in and now you need to make your graph. Make sure all of your data is in columns A, B,C and D. Either wise your graph might not come out right. First highlight the cells as shown below. Go to next slide.

(1). Up at the top of the EXCEL document you have many tools. Find “INSERT” and click on the tab. (2). Click on the “COLUMN” graph. (3). Once you click on “COLUMN”, the following should appear. (4). Now click on “3-D CLUSTERED COLUMN.”

Finally here is your chart. You now need to give it a title. Go on to the next slides.

(1).Click on the chart once. You should see a thin border around it. (2).Up at the top you should be able to see “CHART TOOLS”. (3) Find the tab called “LAYOUT” and click on it. (4).Then click on “CHART TITLE”

After having clicked on “CHART TITLE” you should see the following. Click on “ABOVE CHART”.

Now change the name of the title to “Teen Abstinence, Condom Use and Academic Outcomes”. If your title is too big you can change the font by going to the “HOME” tab. Finally here is your end result.

Now on to pie charts.

On the same Excel document there should be more sheets at the bottom. Click on “SHEET 2 ”.

Begin by typing in the data just like the one shown below.

Now go ahead and highlight the cells as shown below. Don’t worry about the other data below. You will get to that later. Follow the steps you learned before. Go to Insert. Find the PIE chart symbol and click on it. Then choose any 2-D or 3-D pie chart type you want You should now be looking at the following image. Now you need to enter the percentages. Next slide.

Click on the chart once. You should see the thin grey border. Up at the top find “QUICK LAYOUTS” and click on the tool. Now click on LAYOUT #6. Since the computer labs mostly have black and white printers it would be wise to change the color of the charts. Click on the chart once and then go to “DESIGN” and click on the black and grey chart. If you have a color printer at home feel free to print it out in color.

Repeat the same steps for the second pie chart. Your end result should be similar to the following below. Any questions? me at:

The end….. Finally!