Making a chart in excel

To learn how to use Excel to make charts and graphs, please open the linked Excel File and follow the directions below.

Once you have opened the excel file, highlight the high and low temperatures (only), and then select the chart icon from the menu:

When the drop down menu opens select the Line type of graph:

Then hit Next

Select the Series tab at the top of the next window:

Series one is highlighted in the menu to the left. Type in a legend title for Series1 such as “Low Temp”. Then highlight Series2 and type in a legend title for that one.

Click Next to get a window that lets you write a tile for the chart and label each axis:

After filling in the Title information click Finish and the chart will appear on the spreadsheet.

Now, as an exercise to learn about the formatting options available with Excel, right-click on every aspect of the chart, background, white boarder, text, gridlines, data series symbols, etc. and change them to be as ugly as possible (just for the fun of it, not for publication). For instance, if you wanted to make the chart’s grey plot area a picture, right click the grey background and select Format Plot Area then select Fill Effects.

Select the Picture tab at the top of the box

Then click on the Select Picture button to browse to any picture you have stored on your computer. (You can get pictures from the internet and put them on your computer for this part).

Double click on the picture you want and then click the OK button on the selection window, and then again on the Fill window and the picture will be in the background of your graph. You can also use colors, shading, or anything else you prefer.