Creating Other Chart Types

A few other chart types that you can create in Excel are organization charts and picture charts .

Excel's organization chart program lets you illustrate the structure of authority and responsibility (chain of command) in an organization. You don't have to draw boxes and lines with the program because it automatically inserts the boxes and lines for you. After you build the organization chart, you can change the font, font size, and font color for the text in the boxes; the box style; the line style; and the background color for the chart.

A picture chart contains pictures in each data series instead of a solid color or pattern.

Creating an Org Chart

The Organization Chart feature enables you to build an organization chart in an Excel worksheet from scratch. You can access this program with Excel's Insert Picture Organization Chart command. When you create an organization chart, Excel treats it as an object in a worksheet.

You can show the levels of hierarchy and various members of departments within your company in a chart with boxes and lines.

In the following To Do exercise, you create an organization chart and examine how it works. First you insert a new sheet in the Sales 1st Qtr Workbook so that you can place the org chart on a sheet by itself.

To Do: Create an Org Chart

1. Click the Sheet3 sheet tab. Choose Insert, Worksheet. Excel inserts a new sheet between the Detail and Sheet3 sheets, named Sheet1.

2. To rename the sheet, double-click the Sheet1 tab, type Org Chart , and press Enter. This sheet is where you create the org chart.

3. Choose Insert, Picture, Organization Chart. An organization chart object and the Organization toolbar appear, as shown in Figure 13.1.You should see placeholder text in boxes and lines connecting the boxes. You click in the Click to add text placeholder text in a box and then type a name in the empty box.

   Figure 13.1. An organization chart object.

   

4. Click in the top box, type a name and press Enter.

5. Then type a title for an individual who should be included in this box.

6. For the rest of the boxes, click the placeholder text and type names and titles for the individuals you want to include in the boxes.

7. Click in any cell to deselect the org chart. Your org chart should look similar to the one in Figure 13.2.

   Figure 13.2. An organization chart.

   

Modifying an Org Chart

You can add more boxes to your org chart if you want. Several types of boxes are available: a subordinate box, a co-worker box, a manager's box, and an assistant box. The Organization Chart toolbar, accessed by double-clicking on the chart, supplies a set of tools for modifying an org chart, as shown in Figure 13.3.

Figure 13.3. Organization Chart toolbar.

To add boxes, click the button on the Organization Chart toolbar that matches the relationship to an existing box that you want to create. For example, to add a subordinate to a box that is already on the chart, click the Subordinate button and then click the box to which you want to attach it. A box with placeholder text appears in the chart. Then you can fill in the name and title in the box.

To delete a box, select it and then press the Delete key. You should no longer see the box on the org chart.

Because an organization chart is handled as an object in an Excel worksheet, you can move and resize the organization chart, just as you would any object in Excel.

To move the organization chart, point to the chart in the worksheet and, when you see a four-headed arrow, drag the org chart to the new location.

If you want to resize the org chart in the worksheet, move the mouse pointer to a side border or corner until you see a double-headed arrow. Then drag the border to stretch or shrink the chart.

Formatting an Org Chart

After you add and remove boxes in your org chart, you can format it with the AutoFormat command on the Organization Chart toolbar.

In the next To Do exercise, we add color, a shadow to the boxes, and change the line style and color of the connecting lines.

To Do: Format an Org Chart

1. Click the AutoFormat button on the Organization Chart toolbar. The Organization Chart Style Gallery dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 13.4.

   Figure 13.4. Choices in the Organization Chart Style Gallery.

   

2. Click on different styles in the Diagram Style list to see which format you like best. When you find the one you like, click on the style and click Apply. The diagram style in Figure 13.5 is Double Outline.

   Figure 13.5. An organization chart formatted with Primary Colors AutoFormat.

   

3. Click in any cell to deselect the org chart. Notice that the connecting lines in the org chart have a new line style.

Creating a Picture Chart

To create a picture chart, which is a chart that has pictures representing each data series, first create a chart using the Chart Wizard. Then select a data series in the Chart Objects list on the Chart toolbar. Click the Format Data Series button on the Chart toolbar. Next click the Patterns tab. Click the Fill Effects button at the bottom of the Area section, and the Fill Effects dialog box appears. Click the Picture tab.

Click the Select Picture button and change to the drive and folder that contain pictures. Pictures are stored either in the My Pictures subfolder under the My Documents folder, in a subfolder under the Program Files folder, or on a CD-ROM. Select a picture file and click OK. The picture appears in the Picture box on the Picture tab, as shown in Figure 13.6. Click OK to return to the Picture tab displaying a sample of the selected picture. Click OK to insert the picture in the data series. Figure 13.7 shows a picture chart.

Figure 13.6. The Picture tab in the Fill Effects dialog box.

Figure 13.7. A picture chart with stacked columns .