CPSC 215 Chapter 4
How do you change the scale of a chart axis?
Click the Axes button in the Axes group on the Chart Tools Layout tab, select the axis you want to rescale, and then click the More Options button. Enter the new axis scale in the Axis Options of the Format Axis dialog box, specifying the minimum and maximum value of the new scale and the space between the minor and major tick marks.
How do you overlay a chart legend?
Click the Legend button in the Labels group on the Chart Tools Layout tab and select one of the overlay options, or open the Format Legend dialog box and deselect the check box to show the legend without overlapping the chart.
How do you add a data series to an already existing chart?
Click the Select Data button in the Data group on the Chart Tools Design tab. Click the Add button in the Select Data Source dialog box and select the range with the new data series.
What is a bar chart?
A bar chart is similar to a column chart except that the length of the bars, rather than the height of the columns, is used to indicate the data value.
Explain how 3-D charts can lead to a false interpretation of the data. What can you do to correct this problem?
Exaggerated perspective can obscure the relative size of different chart objects such as pie slices, making it difficult to compare the sizes of different elements. To prevent confusion, 3- D charts should include data labels explicitly identifying the values associated with different data markers and avoid extreme viewing angles that might cause the viewer to misread the data.
How do you create a chart sheet?
Select a chart, and then click the Move Chart button in the Location group on the Chart Tools Design tab. Specify the name of the chart sheet in the Move Chart dialog box.
What are spark-lines? Describe three types of spark -lines.
Sparklines are compact graphs containing very few chart elements that are displayed within a worksheet cell. The line sparkline displays data values in a line chart. The column sparkline displays values using a column chart. The win/loss sparkline displays positive and negative values.
What are the three components of a data series?
The series name, series values, and category values
When should you use a line chart in place of a column chart?
Use line charts in place of column charts when the number of categories is so large that the columns will be forced to be too small to read, and the categories have a natural, sequential order (such as time and dates) that you want to show in the chart.
A data series contains values divided into 10 categories. Would this data be better displayed as a pie chart or a column chart? Why?
A column chart is more appropriate because there are so many categories; in a pie chart, it would be difficult to compare one category to another.
What is a combination chart? Describe how to create a combination chart.
A combination chart combines two or more Excel chart types. To create a combination chart, select a data series from the chart and apply a different chart type to that series.
What are data bars? Describe how data bars differ from spark-lines
A data bar is a conditional format in which a horizontal bar is added to a cell background with the length of the bar proportional to the cell's value. Unlike sparklines, only a single marker or bar is displayed within each cell and the bar's value is based on the cell's value and not values from another cell range.
What are major tick marks, minor tick marks, and gridlines?
A major tick mark identifies each entry on the chart axis. Minor tick marks further divide the space between the major tick marks. Gridlines extend the tick marks into the plot area.
In what two locations can a chart be placed?
Embedded in a worksheet or in a chart sheet
What is the difference between the chart area and the plot area?
The chart area contains the entire chart, including the plot area. The plot area contains the region of the chart in which the data values are plotted.
