Chart Elements: Customizing your Chart

re: Chart Elements: Customizing your Chart

cityeconomist — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 19:46:28 GMT

If this is lab is looking at how to get people started in Excel, I wonder if it couldn't be taken in steps rather than being presented with all the options all at once.

Why can't you just start with the elements of a simple chart and then offer additions? The way children in Asia - and adults in the West - learn complicated kanji - starting with simple ones like a square for guchi (mouth) and then a square with a plus sign in it for rice paddy.

So a simple chart would be three years and three numbers. Horizontal line/scale = x axis for year. Vertical line/scale = y axis. Put the years horizontally in the table. Put the measure (e.g., revenues) in the row title. Then you have three numbers to fill in and a bar chart.

Then add years and show a line chart.

Then add profits to revenues and show a chart with two lines or a line and a bar.

Now you have started from scratch and brought someone along. The bells and whistles should be available but not in the way.

Just a thought.

re: Chart Elements: Customizing your Chart

J-Walk — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 22:43:19 GMT

By the way, I just discovered the trick to traversing a task pane with the keyboard: Press F6.

re: Chart Elements: Customizing your Chart

Beezix — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 03:39:32 GMT

Making charts easier to style and customize is a great new feature. And being able to quickly try out different chart formats will help people find the best type of chart to convey the information they want. With the recent (and warranted) excitement over infographics, we'll be seeing lots of people turning to charts to present information in ways that connect with audiences. This added attention to the chart tools in Excel 2013 is a fantastic development.

re: Chart Elements: Customizing your Chart

J-Walk — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 23:31:11 GMT

Of all the new features in Excel 2013, I like this one best. Customizing charts has always been fairly non-intuitive for non-expert users. This changes things. I also like how easy it is to create combination charts.

Good work, Microsoft. Well, except for that mouse (or touch) only interface in the task pane. That's kind of step backwards.