Chapter 19: Basic Charting Techniques

Overview

Charting in Microsoft Office Excel 2007 differs dramatically from charting in earlier versions. First, the new Ribbon-based user interface lets you format and customize your charts with fewer mouse clicks and fewer dialog boxes. Second, the current version boasts vastly enhanced presentation capabilities. Now, more than ever, it's easy to turn your spreadsheet numbers into gorgeous graphs. Moreover, because Excel 2007 shares its charting engine with other 2007 Microsoft Office system applications, transporting your charts into Microsoft Office Word 2007 and Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 documents is now simpler and more reliable as well.

In this chapter, you'll look at most of the tasks you can perform with charts directly using the Ribbon. In Chapter 20, "Charting Beyond the Ribbon," you'll explore some formatting options that take you into more traditional dialog boxes.