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They have sent you files in format standing out which you need to process and enrich with pie charts, and then display them in a meeting. You are very happy to have received this assignment, but unfortunately, having not used Excel very often, you are not sure how to proceed. Therefore, he has opened Google for a guide that can explain to him How to make a pie chart in Excel and you ended up here, in this tutorial of mine.
That’s exactly how it is, isn’t it? Then don’t worry, because in today’s guide you will find all the information you need to create a pie chart both in the classic Microsoft Excel desktop client and through its online platform and app for mobile phones and tablets.
Are you curious about the topic? Perfect! In this case, we do not waste any more precious time and start working. What you need to do is just sit back and carefully read all the advice in the following chapters. All that remains for me is to wish you a good read and, above all, a good job!
How to make a pie chart in Excel
If you want to create a pie chart for the data you have prepared in your Excel sheet, what you need to do is carefully follow all the procedures that I will show you in the next chapters.
Create a pie chart in Excel
Before taking action and discovering How to make a pie chart in Excel, you must verify that the data you have available is suitable for this type of representation. For this reason, in the following paragraphs, I will give you some guidelines to follow to ensure that your work is not useless.
First of all, you need to make sure that some essential rules are followed in order to follow a pie chart for your data. First, there must be only one data set, that is, for these there must be only one match. In other words, each item on a line item must correspond to a single data item in the next column.
If, for example, you have a data set divided by annuity (for example, the type of products sold from year to year), you can’t put the latter back into a pie chart, but a histogram would be ideal. If, on the other hand, you want to create a chart for the categories of products sold in a specific year, the pie chart might be for you.
Also, a pie chart, since it has the representation of a unit as a percentage, zero or negative values cannot be displayed and are therefore not allowed. Null values will not be represented simply, while negative values will be taken in absolute value.
Finally, consider not creating a pie chart if you have more than seven categories of data, to avoid making the chart unreadable. For this purpose, however, Microsoft Excel provides some types of pie charts called cake cake either cake barswhich allow you to see, with an additional graph, all those values that are too small and do not display well in the main one.
That being said, in the example that I will give you in this guide of mine, I will prepare the data related to the use of various browsers to browse the Internet by users.
First, in a new Microsoft Excel document, indicate the labels for columns a and bto indicate the type of data it will enter: in my case, I will assign the label browser a column Awhile I will attribute use a column b.
That done, in the column A you must indicate the data categories for which you will enter values. These can be of any type, depending on the data set you have: in my case, I will indicate the most used web browsers, therefore chrome, safari, internet explorer, edge, Firefox and finally Other browsers.
At this point, all you have to do is enter the data corresponding to the categories you have indicated: these data must be entered in the next column (the B. ), exactly in correspondence with the categories indicated in the column a. My advice is to indicate them in percentage, to avoid that some data is not represented correctly.
Now that you have your data set, it’s time to create a pie chart. First, highlight the table by selecting the column values the and b. Also include column labels during this procedure.
After doing this, go to the tab get inwhich you find above, and press the button Recommended tables. On the screen that appears, then select the tab all graphics and click on the item Pie chartwhich you will find in the sidebar.
Alright. At this point, you need to decide which chart type to choose: the classic version ( Pie chart ), the 3D ( 3D cake ) or one of two graphs for the representation of numerous categories ( cake cake either cake bars ). Finally, you can also choose the ring view ( ring ), which displays the data in the crown of the pie chart.
When you have decided which type of pie chart to use, simply press the button Wellto confirm its insertion in the Excel spreadsheet, right next to the corresponding data set.
Customize a pie chart in Excel
The representation of a circular graph in MS Excel It can be customized in all aspects. For example, when you click on the graph, you will be shown icons on the right: the one that a shape of a funnel allows you to filter the data to remove some from the representation, while the brush icon allows access to a small panel to change the style and colors of the graph
That being said, although the tool in question allows you to customize the color and style of the pie chart, my advice is to act directly from the cards design and Formatwhich you will find in the upper bar.
These sections, in fact, include many more tools to customize the chart, for example, changing the colors of the text or the padding borders, changing the colors of the chart, or choosing a different layout, which could show percentages or labels on each slice or even hide them.
Finally, pressing the icon + on the chart, you can decide whether to show or hide some chart elements, such as the title, data values, or legend.
How to make a pie chart in Excel Online
You don’t have a PC with Microsoft Excel available and therefore don’t know how to create the pie chart for your data set? In this case, you don’t have to worry, because you can work on excel online : The Microsoft tool to create spreadsheets directly from the browser, without the need to install any software.
You need to know what you can take advantage of excel online completely free, as long as you have a Microsoft account, which is required to access this Microsoft service.
After that, go to the Excel Online website and sign in with your Microsoft account credentials by following the onscreen sign-in procedure. Now, you have several alternatives to start working: you can create a new document ( New empty workbook ), select one present on OneDrive from the list below or import the spreadsheet file from your PC, using the button Up and open.
At this point, on the Excel document screen, adjust the data as I explained above. When you have your dataset, highlight it, including the values and column labels, and get to the tab get inlocated at the top.
After that click on the icon cake and from the options shown, choose whether to create a classic pie chart ( 2D Cake ) or the ring ( ring ). Unfortunately, unlike the desktop version of Microsoft Excel, you can’t create other types of pie charts in Excel Online, so you’ll have to make do with the only two available.
Furthermore, while in the desktop version of the software there is the possibility of customizing the graph in all its aspects, as I explained to you in the dedicated chapter of the tutorial, in the web version of Excel you cannot change anything. The only operations that are allowed refer to the display of some elements on the chart, such as the legend, the labels or the title, acting from the card graphicabove, and making the necessary changes to these parameters in the section labels.
Want to save a copy of your project for offline viewing on your PC? In this case, select the items File > Save As > Download a Copyto download a copy of the file to XLSX. If instead you simply want to share it with other users, click on the entries File > Share > Share with other users.
How to make a pie chart in Excel from mobile phones and tablets
If you have no way of using the desktop version of Excel or the online version, you might consider working on your spreadsheet directly from Excel app for Android and iOS.
The app is basic free, but if you use a device with a screen size larger than 10.1 inches, to use it, you need a subscription to Office 365. The same applies to features that allow you to add or modify chart elements, which are only available in the subscription version of Office, starting at 7 euros / month either 69 euros / year.
That being said, after installing the app MS Excel and once launched, sign in with your Microsoft account, and on the main screen, open a spreadsheet from device memory, selecting the items Open > This Device. Alternatively, you can open one at onedriveplaying the voices Open > Personal OneDrive. To create an empty sheet, instead press the leaf iconlocated at the top right, and select the option empty book.
After that, after you have organized the data following the guidelines I gave you before, all of them (including the labels), by touching a cell and moving the ball icon. At this point, from the mobile phone, press the icon ▲ (Android) or ⋮ (iOS) and select the item get in from the drop-down menu that is proposed. From the tablet, tap the card instead get in What do you find above?
Among the options that are shown to you, choose first graphic and then cake. Then choose the type of chart you want to insert between Pie chart, 3D cake, cake of the cake, cake bars either ring and ready
If you followed my instructions to the letter, a pie chart will be placed right next to the selected data set. Tapping the chart will take you to a series of tools that will allow you to customize its style and colors, with the ability to enable or disable the display of certain elements, such as the title, legend, or values, similar to what Lo I described above.
