Excel offers several two- and three-dimensional bar graphs from which to choose.
Presenting your data in a bar graph can amaze, amuse or intrigue your audience if presented well. You can turn virtually any data into a chart or graph with Excel. If you organize your data correctly before you create the graph, Excel will automatically turn that data into an attractive graph with a few inputs from you.
Instructions:
1. Open Excel to a blank spreadsheet.
2. Enter your numbers in cells in table form and add labels for each column and row. For example, if you want to compare men to women and the percent who smoke vs. the percent who do not smoke, you would create a 2x2 table. You would label one column "Men" and one column "Women." To the left, you would label the first row "Smoke" and the second row "Don't smoke." When entering numbers in each cell, add the percent sign to let Excel know that these are percentages. For example, you should enter "32%" instead of "32."
3. Select the table you created by clicking and dragging to highlight the cells.
4. Click the "Insert" tab on the ribbon.
5. Click "Bar" in the Charts group. Select a bar style that suits your needs. Excel will automatically create a bar graph with percentages for either your X or Y axis.
6. Click inside the chart to customize colors, sizes, fonts and background. Click the "Design," "Layout" or "Format" tabs in the Chart Tools section of the ribbon to select custom features.