How to Make a Graph in Excel

Creating a graph in Excel can instantly turn a wall of numbers into a clear, compelling story. But if you’re staring at a spreadsheet full of data, knowing where to start can feel overwhelming. This guide will walk you through the entire process, covering how to prepare your data, create different types of charts step-by-step, and customize them to look professional.

First Things First: Prepping Your Data for Graphing

Before you even think about charts, your data needs to be organized properly. Excel is smart, but it needs a little help understanding what you want it to visualize. Trying to graph messy data is the most common reason charts don’t work as expected.

Follow this simple rule: Organize your data in columns and rows, with clear headers.

• Headers: The first row should contain the names for each data category (e.g., "Month," "Website Traffic," "Sales"). These will become the labels for your graph's axes and legend.
• Columns: Each column beneath a header should contain the values for that category. For example, under "Month," you’d list January, February, March, etc.
• Rows: Each row represents a complete record. For instance, a single row might contain "January" in the first column and its corresponding "Website Traffic," "10,500," in the second.

Here’s an example of perfectly structured data ready for graphing:

Avoid empty rows or columns within your data set, as this can confuse Excel and break your graph. With clean data like this, you’re ready to start building.

How to Make a Graph in Excel: The Basic Steps

The core process for inserting almost any chart in Excel is the same. Once you learn these four steps, you can create the visuals you need in seconds.

1. Select Your Data: Click and drag your cursor to highlight all the cells you want to include in your graph, including the header row and column.
2. Navigate to the Insert Tab: At the top of the Excel ribbon, click on the "Insert" tab. You'll find a section called "Charts."
3. Choose a Chart Type: You can either click "Recommended Charts" to see what Excel suggests based on your data structure, or you can pick a specific chart type like a Bar, Line, or Pie chart icon.
4. Insert and Position Your Graph: Once you click a chart type, Excel will instantly create the graph and place it on your worksheet. You can then click and drag it to position it wherever you like.

That’s it! Now, let’s go deeper into the most common types of charts and when you should use each one.

A Practical Guide to Common Excel Charts

The chart you choose can make or break your message. Using a pie chart to show a trend over time is just as confusing as using a line chart to compare static categories. Here’s a breakdown of the essentials and how to build them.

1. Creating a Bar Chart (or Column Chart)

When to use it: Bar charts are perfect for comparing distinct categories against each other. They’re one of the most common and easily understood charts. Use them to answer questions like, "Which product generated the most sales?" or "How do our social media followers stack up across different platforms?"

Note: Column charts are just vertical bar charts. Excel separates them, but they serve the same purpose.

Step-by-Step Example: Comparing Q1 Sales by Product

Imagine you have this data:

1. Select the data: Highlight all cells from A1 to B5.
2. Insert the chart: Go to the Insert tab, click the bar chart icon, and select a "2-D Clustered Bar" or "2-D Clustered Column" chart.
3. Your chart appears automatically: Excel will instantly generate a chart with products on one axis and revenue on the other. It correctly uses column headers ("Product" and "Q1 Revenue") to label the chart appropriately.

2. Creating a Line Chart

When to use it: Line charts are the best way to visualize trends over a continuous period, like days, months, quarters, or years. Use them to see patterns, acceleration, or deceleration in your data. It’s the go-to chart for answering questions like, "How has our website traffic grown this year?" or "Are our sales increasing month-over-month?"

Step-by-Step Example: Tracking Monthly Blog Views

Let's use the following data set:

1. Select the data: Highlight all the cells in your table.
2. Insert the chart: Go to the Insert tab and click the line chart icon ("Insert Line or Area Chart"). Choose the first option under "2-D Line," which is a standard line graph.
3. Analyze your trend: A line chart will appear instantly, showing you the upward trend of your blog views over six months, including the slight dip in April.

3. Creating a Pie Chart

When to use it: Pie charts show the composition of a single whole - how different parts make up 100%. Use them when you want to illustrate proportions. They are ideal for questions like, "What percentage of our traffic comes from each marketing channel?" or "How is our quarterly budget allocated across departments?"

Word of caution: Pie charts become cluttered and hard to read with more than 5-6 categories. If you have many categories, a bar chart is a better choice.

Step-by-Step Example: Visualizing Marketing Channel Traffic

Here's your data:

1. Select the data: Highlight all the channel and share data.
2. Insert the chart: Go to the Insert tab, click the pie chart icon, and choose a "2-D Pie" chart.
3. Review your chart: Excel will create a pie chart with each channel represented by a colored slice corresponding to its percentage. A legend is automatically created to identify each channel.

4. Creating a Scatter Plot

When to use it: A scatter plot (or XY plot) is used to observe the relationship between two different numeric variables. It helps you spot correlations and identify outliers. Use it to answer questions like, "Does spending more on ads lead to more sales?" or "Is there a relationship between an employee's years of experience and their performance rating?"

Step-by-Step Example: Ad Spend vs. Sales

Consider this weekly data:

1. Select your data: Just as before, highlight all the cells containing your data.
2. Insert the chart: Go to the Insert tab and click the scatter plot icon (it looks like a set of dots). Choose the first option.
3. Interpret the relationship: Excel places your first column ("Ad Spend") on the horizontal X-axis and your second column ("Sales") on the vertical Y-axis. The resulting plot will show a strong positive correlation - as ad spend increases, sales tend to increase, too.

Making Your Graph Look Good: Quick Customizations

A default Excel chart does the job, but with a few tweaks, you can make it easier to read and more professional-looking.

When you click on your new chart, two new tabs will appear on the Excel ribbon: Chart Design and Format. These are your command centers for customization.

Add and Edit Chart Elements

On the Chart Design tab, look for the "Add Chart Element" button on the far left. Here you can add or modify:

• Chart Title: Always give your chart a descriptive title. Click on the default "Chart Title" box and type in your own.
• Axis Titles: Label your X and Y axes so viewers know exactly what they're looking at (e.g., "$ in Revenue" or "Month").
• Data Labels: Add the exact numerical value next to each bar, point, or pie slice. This makes your chart much easier to read without having to guess values based on the axes.
• Legend: Move or remove the chart's legend. For simple charts with only one data series, you can often remove the legend entirely to save space.

Change Colors and Styles

Want a look that fits your brand or presentation? On the Chart Design tab, you can:

• Use Chart Styles: This gallery offers professional-looking pre-built designs. Hover over them to see a live preview.
• Change Colors: Click this button to apply a different color palette to your chart instantly. You can choose from colorful or monochromatic schemes.

For more granular control, you can double-click any individual element on the chart (like a single bar in a bar graph or a single pie slice) to open a formatting pane where you can change its color, border, and add effects.

Final Thoughts

Building a clear, insightful graph in Excel is a skill that empowers anyone to communicate complex data effectively. By structuring your data correctly and choosing the right chart for your message, you can transform static spreadsheets into a powerful tool for storytelling and decision-making.

While creating charts in Excel is a foundational skill, the manual process of exporting CSVs from all your different platforms - like Google Analytics, Shopify, and Facebook Ads - and updating them constantly can take up hours every week. We created Graphed to automate that entire process. You connect your data sources once, and instead of clicking through menus, you can just ask in plain English for the dashboard you need: "Show me a chart of Shopify sales vs. Facebook ad spend over the last quarter." Graphed builds it instantly with real-time data, giving you back time to focus on insights instead of manual work.