How to Make a Chart on Spreadsheet

Turning a wall of numbers in a spreadsheet into a clear, insightful chart can feel like a superpower. Suddenly, trends, comparisons, and outliers jump off the screen. This guide will walk you through exactly how to create charts in both Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel, step-by-step, so you can start visualizing your data in minutes.

Why Turn Your Data into a Chart?

Before jumping into the "how," let's quickly cover the "why." Rows and columns of data are precise but often hard to interpret at a glance. When you're trying to spot a trend or explain your performance to someone else, a spreadsheet of numbers is where conversations go to die. Charts fix this by making your data instantly understandable.

A good chart can help you:

• Spot Trends and Patterns: Is revenue growing month-over-month? Did website traffic dip after a specific event? A line chart makes this immediately obvious.
• Compare Different Categories: Which marketing channel is bringing in the most leads? Which product is your bestseller? A bar chart shows you the winner at a glance.
• Communicate Insights Faster: Showing your team a chart is far more effective than asking them to read a table of numbers. You can make your point in seconds, not minutes.

In short, charts turn raw data into a story that people can quickly understand and act on.

First, Choose the Right Chart for Your Story

The type of chart you choose completely depends on the story you want your data to tell. Using the wrong one can be confusing or even misleading. Here are the most common types and when to use them.

Bar or Column Charts

Use them for: Comparing distinct categories.

Bar and column charts are workhorses for a reason. They're perfect for comparing values across different groups. The length of the bar represents the value, making it incredibly easy to see which category is bigger or smaller. There’s a subtle difference: use a column chart (vertical bars) when comparing categories over time, and a bar chart (horizontal bars) when category names are long.

Examples:

• Monthly sales figures for different products.
• Website traffic from different sources (e.g., Google, Social Media, Direct).
• Number of tickets closed by each support agent.

Line Charts

Use them for: Showing trends over a continuous period of time.

If you want to track a value over time — days, weeks, months, or years — a line chart is your new best friend. By connecting data points, they make it easy to see upward trends, downward trends, and volatility. They excel at showing the journey of a metric.

Examples:

• Daily user sign-ups over the last 30 days.
• Your company's stock price over the last year.
• Monthly website page views.

Pie Charts

Use them for: Showing the composition of a single total (parts of a whole).

Pie charts are designed to show how a single total is broken down into percentages. Each slice represents a category, and altogether the slices make up 100%. A word of caution: pie charts become hard to read with more than five or six slices. If you have many small categories, a bar chart is usually a better option.

Examples:

• The percentage breakdown of your marketing budget by channel.
• Survey results showing what percentage of customers chose each answer.
• The demographic makeup of your customer base by region.

Scatter Plots

Use them for: Showing the relationship between two different numerical variables.

Feeling a bit more advanced? A scatter plot is perfect for seeing if two variables are correlated. Each dot on the chart represents a single data point with two values. By looking at the pattern of dots, you can see if there is a positive, negative, or no relationship between the two variables.

Examples:

• Ad spend vs. revenue generated to see if they move together.
• A student’s hours of study vs. their exam score.
• Temperature vs. ice cream sales.

How to Make a Chart in Google Sheets: A Step-by-Step Guide

Google Sheets makes creating charts straightforward. Let's create a simple column chart showing quarterly sales for a few products.

Step 1: Organize Your Data

Before you do anything else, make sure your data is set up cleanly. Your first row should have clear headers, and your first column should contain your labels. All related data should be in neat columns. Garbage in, garbage out!

For example:

Step 2: Select Your Data

Click on the top-left cell of your data set (in this case, "Product") and drag your mouse to highlight all the cells you want to include in the chart. Be sure to include both the headers and the numerical data.

Step 3: Insert the Chart

With your data selected, navigate to the menu at the top of the screen and click Insert > Chart. Google Sheets will instantly analyze your data and create what it thinks is the most appropriate chart. In this case, it will likely create a column chart.

Step 4: Customize Your Chart

This is where you make the chart your own. As soon as the chart is created, the Chart editor panel will appear on the right side of your screen. If you close it, you can reopen it by double-clicking on your chart.

Here are the key customization options in the "Setup" and "Customize" tabs:

Chart Type

If Google Sheets didn’t guess correctly or you want to try a different visual, you can easily change it. In the "Setup" tab of the Chart editor, click the dropdown under "Chart type" and select a different option, like a line chart or a bar chart.

Chart & Axis Titles

Your chart needs a clear title. In the "Customize" tab, find the "Chart & axis titles" section. Here you can write a descriptive title for your chart (e.g., "Quarterly Sales by Product") and label your horizontal (X) and vertical (Y) axes so viewers know exactly what they're looking at.

Series

This section allows you to change the colors of your bars, lines, or pie slices to match your branding or make specific data points stand out. You can also add things like data labels to show the exact value on each bar, which can save people from having to guess.

Legend

Under the "Legend" section, you can change the position of the legend (the key that explains your data categories) or its font style. This is crucial when you have multiple data series on one chart.

How to Make a Chart in Microsoft Excel: A Step-by-Step Guide

The process in Excel is very similar, though the menus and customization options are laid out a bit differently.

Step 1: Set Up Your Data

Just like in Google Sheets, start with well-organized data. Headers in the first row, labels in the first column.

Step 2: Highlight Your Data

Click and drag to select the entire data range you wish to chart, including headers.

Step 3: Insert Your Chart

Navigate to the Insert tab on Excel's ribbon. You’ll see a "Charts" section with icons for various chart types. You can either click the specific type you want (e.g., column, line) or click Recommended Charts. Excel will analyze your selection and suggest a few suitable options, which is a great place to start if you're unsure.

Step 4: Fine-Tune Your Chart

Once you've inserted a chart, new tabs called Chart Design and Format will appear on the ribbon whenever the chart is selected. This is where all the customization happens.

Adding Chart Elements

The easiest way to add titles, labels, or a legend is by clicking the green "+" icon that appears on the top-right corner of the selected chart. This opens a "Chart Elements" checklist. Simply check the boxes for "Axis Titles," "Chart Title," "Data Labels," or "Legend" to add them to your chart.

Changing the Style and Colors

In the "Chart Design" tab, you can quickly change the entire look and feel. The "Chart Styles" gallery provides a variety of pre-packaged designs. The "Change Colors" button lets you pick from different color palettes with one click, which is helpful for keeping visualizations consistent.

Switching Chart Type

Realize you need a line chart instead of a column chart? No problem. With your chart selected, go to the "Chart Design" tab and click Change Chart Type. A menu will pop up allowing you to select a better option without starting over.

Tips for Creating Charts That People Actually Understand

Making a chart is easy. Making a great chart requires a little more thought. Here are a few tips to level up your visualizations.

• Keep It Simple: Avoid clutter. That means no distracting 3D effects, background images, or too many different colors. The purpose is to communicate information, not create a piece of art. The cleaner, the better.
• Label Everything Clearly: Don’t make your audience guess. Give your chart a descriptive title that explains what it shows. Label both axes (X and Y) with what they represent, including units like dollars, percentages, or dates.
• Start Your Vertical Axis at Zero: For bar and column charts, the baseline should almost always start at 0. Starting it higher can dramatically exaggerate the differences between values and mislead the viewer.
• Use Color with Purpose: Use color to guide the eye or to group related categories. Sticking to brand colors is a great way to maintain consistency. Avoid using colors that are too similar or so bright they are hard to look at.
• Tell One Story Per Chart: A single chart should have one main takeaway. If you try to communicate too much information in one visual, it becomes a puzzle that no one wants to solve. If you have two different stories to tell, create two different charts.

Final Thoughts

Learning to create charts in a spreadsheet is a fundamental data skill. By organizing your data correctly, choosing a chart type that tells the right story, and using clear labels and titles, you can transform intimidating datasets into powerful communication tools.

Manually creating these reports, especially when you're pulling data from different platforms like Google Analytics, Shopify, and your ad accounts, can quickly become repetitive and time-consuming. That's actually why we built Graphed. We wanted to skip the CSV exports and spreadsheet wrangling entirely. You just connect your sources once, then ask for a chart in plain English — like, “Show me a line chart of daily revenue from Shopify for the last 30 days” — and it instantly creates a live dashboard for you.