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Learn how to create a simple chart in Excel.
Example Excel Spreadsheet
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In the teachers' notes, there's a simple
Excel file which contains hypothetical
0:00
production costs for
different mines around the world.
0:04
So here we are looking at
a very simple spreadsheet
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which contains data on production costs
for different mines around the world.
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The mines are identified
by site names in column A.
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And the production costs are in column B,
based on dollar cost per pound produced.
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Let's assume that all of these mines
are producing the same commodity.
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Let's create a column
chart out of this data.
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So I'm going to select all
the data I want to chart.
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Then I'm gonna use a keyboard shortcut to
insert the chart that I know from previous
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experience.
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So ALT, N for insert, and
then C to get to the column chart.
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And there you go.
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Now we have created a chart
that allows us to much more
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quickly compare the different
mines to each other.
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Let's cover some vocabulary
related to charts in Excel.
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First of all, we have data series.
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This is the name of a set
of data in a chart.
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We can add or subtract data series
by right-clicking on a chart, and
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going down to Select Data.
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And I'll add one here.
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And I'll say Hypo for short hypothetical.
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And the data series,
I'll just select all this.
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There's nothing in it right now,
but you see me enter 24 there.
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And I'll just drag this across
all the different cells.
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And here we have our
hypothetical second data series.
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But I don't want more than
one data series in this set.
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So I can come here and delete it or
I can go over here and drag this back.
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And you see that the second
data series disappeared.
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So let's go ahead and
delete all this extra data.
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When I created the chart for the first
time, I didn't include data header rows.
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And you can see that the chart output
shows the chart name as Chart Title.
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You can rename the chart
by clicking on it, And
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change the name this way,
so Mine Production Costs.
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Or you can select the data header row when
you create the column chart to begin with,
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and skip a step.
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So let's walk through that example,
as well.
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I'm gonna delete the old chart.
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I'm gonna select all the data, including
the data header row here at the top.
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I'm gonna use my keyboard shortcut of
Alt+N+C to get to the column insertion,
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and there you go.
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You can see that it's now got a title
in there which is highlighted red here,
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dollars per pound.
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This is more valuable when you're
working with more data series.
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And we'll work more on this later on,
but for
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now you know this is a single
series column chart.
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Here we are looking at this simple
single series column chart which
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very clearly contrasts
mine prediction costs.
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We have Anatalo here that's pretty high.
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We have Madagascar which is low,
and a full range of mine costs.
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I want to show you that you can create
more than one chart from the same
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set of data.
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So if I select this again, Alt+N+C,
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and return, I have another chart.
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So, again,
this is a very simplified example.
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But it's just to highlight that in
the future, if you're working with
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more complex data sets, you can create
multiple charts off the same data set.
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You're not limited to just creating one.
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Another thing is here we're looking at
the charts on the tab with the data.
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You can also move the chart to be its own,
separate sheet.
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So I'm gonna call this $/lb.
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No slashes allowed.
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I'll delete that, and just keep it as $lb.
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And here we are,
we have the chart as its own sheet.
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And it no longer shows up on
the original source of data.
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Going back to the column chart we first
created, which is this fellow right here.
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I would rather see the chart display
the mines from least to most expensive to
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produce, going from left to right.
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How about you try and
create that column chart?
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And in the next video,
I'll show you how to do it.
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