How Do I Make A Pie Chart

Colors Fonts And Backgrounds

If the default chart appearance or available themes and quick settings dont fit your needs, you can change the appearance of the pie slices by applying different fonts and adding a color or texture to the background.

ColorsTo change the appearance of a pie slice, click on the slice and then double-click it to open the Format Data Point window. Click Fill to change the color, add a texture, or even fill the slices space with a picture.

FontsOnce youve added data labels, you can change the size, color, and other appearance factors. Click the data label once, right-click on it, and click Format Text. The changes made will affect all selected text .

You can also perform the same action on any other text in the pie chart, such as the legend or a title.

BackgroundsIf you dont like the default background, right-click on an empty space in the chart, and then click Format Chart Area. Not only can you change the background color, but you can also add textures, gradients, and patterns. You can also change the thickness and color of the charts border, and add other effects .

Should You Be Using Pie Of Pie Or Bar Of Pie Charts

While I am not a fan, I will not go as far as forbidding you to use these charts.

I have seen these charts being used in management meetings and one reason these are still being used is that it helps in letting you tell the story.

If youre presenting this chart live to an audience, you can command their attention and take them through the different slices. Since youre doing all the presentation, you also have the control to make sure things are understood the way its supposed to be, and there is no confusion.

For example, if you look at the chart below, someone may misunderstand that the green slice is bigger than the gray slice. In reality, the entire Pie chart on the right is equal to the gray slice only.

Adding data labels definitely helps, but the visual aspect always leaves some room for confusion.

So, if I am using this chart with a live presentation, I can still guide the attention and avoid confusion, but I wouldnt use these in a report or dashboard where I am not there to explain it.

In such a case, I would rather use a simple bar/column chart and eliminate any chance of confusion.

Creating A Pie Chart In Excel

To create a Pie chart in Excel, you need to have your data structured as shown below.

The description of the pie slices should be in the left column and the data for each slice should be in the right column.

Once you have the data in place, below are the steps to create a Pie chart in Excel:

The above steps would instantly add a Pie chart on your worksheet .

While you can figure out the approximate value of each slice in the chart by looking at its size, its always better to add the actual values to each slice of the chart.

These are called the Data Labels

To add the data labels on each slice, right-click on any of the slices and click on Add Data Labels.

This will instantly add the values to each slice.

You can also easily format these data labels to look better on the chart .

Recommended Reading: Entenmann’s Coconut Custard Pie

Example Of Data Structure

Data for a pie chart can be summarized in a table like the above, where the first column indicates a category, and the second the proportion, frequency, or amount of that category. Usually, the total does not need to be specified separately unless it is to be listed somewhere else on a generated figure. Alternatively, some tools can just work with the unaggregated data as in the below table, essentially performing the aggregation into the table above at time of pie chart creation.

What Is A Pie Chart

I will not spend a lot of time on this, assuming you already know what it is.

And no.. it has nothing to do with food .

A pie chart is a circular chart, which is divided into slices. Each part represents a percentage of the whole. The length of the pie arc is proportional to the quantity it represents.

Or to put it simply, its something as shown below.

The entire pie chart represents the total value and each slice represents a part of that value .

Let me first cover how to create a Pie chart in Excel .

But I do recommend that you go on and read all the things covered later in this article as well .

Recommended Reading: Mermaids Cupcakes Denver

How To Show Percentage In Pie Chart In Excel

This article is talking about how to show or display the percentage value in pie chart in Excel.

Show percentage in pie chart in Excel

Please do as follows to create a pie chart and show percentage in the pie slices.

1. Select the data you will create a pie chart based on, click Insert> Insert Pie or Doughnut Chart> Pie. See screenshot:

2. Then a pie chart is created. Right click the pie chart and select Add Data Labels from the context menu.

3. Now the corresponding values are displayed in the pie slices. Right click the pie chart again and select Format Data Labels from the right-clicking menu.

4. In the opening Format Data Labels pane, check the Percentage box and uncheck the Value box in the Label Options section. Then the percentages are shown in the pie chart as below screenshot shown.

Tips: If you check both the Value andPercentage boxes, the value and the percentage will be displayed in the pie chart. See screenshot:

Relative Articles:

In Excel, a Bubble chart is a variation of a Scatter chart and its data is pointed as bubble. And if your each series has three data, creating a Bubble chart will be a good choice to show the data series vividly. This tutorial provides methods to help you create a bubble chart in Excel.

Have you ever wanted to create a funnel chart to show the data ascending or descending in Excel? In Excel, there is no a direct way to create a funnel chart, but this tutorial will show you a circuitous method to create a funnel chart in Excel.

Rotating The Pie Chart

To rotate the pie chart , right-click on the chart, click Format Data Series, click Options, and enter a value into the Angle of first slice box. Youll have to experiment to get the chart to look exactly as you envision.

If the goal is to have a particular slice at the top of the chart, its easier to rearrange the order of the rows of data, placing the one you want to appear at the top of the chart in the first row of the data column.

You May Like: Gordon Ramsay Key Lime Pie

Changing The Style And Color

Excel already has some neat pre-made styles and color combinations that you can use to instantly format your Pie charts.

When you select the chart, it will show you the two contextual tabs Design and Format.

These tabs only appear when you select the chart

Within the Design tab, you can change the Pie chart style by clicking on any of the pre-made styles. As soon as you select the style that you want, it will be applied to the chart.

You can also hover your cursor over these styles and it will show you a live preview of how your Pie chart would look when that style is applied.

You can also change the color combination of the chart by clicking on the Change Colors option and then selecting the one you want. Again, as you hover the cursor over these color combinations, it will show a live preview of the chart.

Pro Tip

Adding the data labels to a Pie chart is super easy.

Right-click on any of the slices and then click on Add Data Labels.

As soon as you do this. data labels would be added to each slice of the Pie chart.

And once you have added the data labels, there is a lot of customization you can do with it.

Quick Data Label Formatting from the Design Tab

A quick level of customization of the data labels is available in the Design tab, which becomes available when you select the chart.

Here are the steps to format the data label from the Design tab:

Other Types Of Pie Charts

In addition to 3-D pie charts, you can create a pie of pie or bar of pie chart. These charts show smaller values pulled out into a secondary pie or stacked bar chart, which makes them easier to distinguish. To switch to one of these pie charts, click the chart, and then on the Chart Tools Design tab, click Change Chart Type. When the Change Chart Type gallery opens, pick the one you want.

Don’t Miss: Campbells Mini Chicken Pot Pie

Pie Chart Pros And Cons

Although Pie charts are used a lot in Excel and PowerPoint, there are some drawbacks about it that you should know.

You should consider using it only when you think it allows you to represent the data in an easy to understand format and adds value for the reader/user/management.

Lets go through the Pros and Cons of using Pie charts in Excel.

Lets start with the good things first.

How To Create A Pie Chart In Google Sheets

Become acquainted with the information necessary to perform this fundamental skill in Google Sheets. This will allow you to better consolidate and digest data.

Google Sheets offers three types of bar charts: the simple bar chart, the stacked bar chart, and the 100% stacked bar chart. This tutorial is a straightforward guide on inserting a bar chart in Google Sheets with some notes on the type of data that it requires you to have.

You May Like: Chocolate Covered Key Lime Pie On A Stick Key West

How To Create A 3d Pie Chart

Another type of pie chart that you can create in Google Sheets is the 3D pie chart. Just like pie chart and doughnut chart, the choice of using a 3D pie chart depends on the aesthetics. Note, however, that the use of 3D pie charts is discouraged because it causes misinterpretations regarding the data visualized.

Nonetheless, here are the steps in creating a 3d pie chart:

Step 1: Select the range of data that you want to visualize.

The dataset to be visualized, selected

Step 2: Click Insert, then click Chart.

Insert option selected on the main menu, drop down box, Chart highlighted

Step 3: The selected chart type is not a 3D pie chart by default. On the right side, the Chart editor sidebar is loaded. Click the drop-down box below the Chart type. A list of possible chart types will be loaded. Look for the 3D pie chart, and click it.

Chart editor, Setup tab, Chart type, 3d pie chart selected

Step 4: We now have a 3d pie chart. To add a title to the chart, go to the Customize tab in the Chart editor, then click Chart axis & titles.

Chart editor, Customize tab. Chart & axis titles option highlighted.

Step 5. If you want to add a chart title, make sure that the drop-down box displays the option Chart title. On the text box below the drop-down box, type the title of the chart.

Chart & axis titles option. Chart title selected. Title text: Annual Sales 2020.

Step 6. Here are some options in modifying the title of the chart:

We now have the following chart!

Creating Pie Of Pie And Bar Of Pie Charts

For example, if you have several companies that operate on the market, you canrepresent a part of every company on the market as a slice.

This data contains five slices that fall below 10%.

To make smaller slices more visible in a pie chart, Microsoft Excel provides thePie of Pie , and Bar of Pie chart sub-types.

Each of these chart sub-types separates the smaller slices from the main pie chart anddisplays them in a supplementary pie or stacked bar chart. To create a Pie of Pieor Bar of Pie chart, follow these steps:

1. Select the data range .

2. On the Insert tab, in the Chartsgroup, choose the Pie and Doughnut button:

Choose Pie of Pieor Bar of Pie

3. Right-click in the chart area. In the popup menu,select Format Data Series…

4. On the Format Data Series pane, inthe Series Options tab, select which data to display in the second pie :

There are several ways to choose which categories to display in the secondarypie or bar chart:

• Split series by Position
• Split series by Value
• Split series by Percentage Value
• Split series by Custom

You can then make any other adjustments to get the look you desire:

• Pie Explosion detaches the slice from the primary chart and moves itcloser to the secondary chart
• Gap Width controls the distance between charts
• Second Plot Size specifies the relative size of the second chart.

Also Check: Hersheys Chocolate Cream Pie

How To Create Pie Of Pie Or Bar Of Pie Chart In Excel

The pie chart can reflect the number of relations between part and part, part and whole, it used to show the percentage. If there are several tiny slices even less than 10 percent of your pie chart, it is hard for you to see them. In this case, you can use the pie of pie or bar of pie chart to make your chart more coherent. However, how to create a pie of pie or bar of pie chart in Excel?

Create a pie of pie or bar of pie chart in Excel

A pie of pie or bar of pie chart, it can separate the tiny slices from the main pie chart and display them in an additional pie or stacked bar chart as shown in the following screenshot, so you can see the smaller slices more visible or easier.

The following steps can help you to create a pie of pie or bar of pie chart:

1. Create the data that you want to use as follows:

2. Then select the data range, in this example, highlight cell A2:B9. And then click Insert> Pie> Pie of Pie or Bar of Pie, see screenshot:

3. And you will get the following chart:

4. Then you can add the data labels for the data points of the chart, please select the pie chart and right click, then choose Add Data Labels from the context menu and the data labels are appeared in the chart. See screenshots: And now the labels are added for each data point. See screenshot:

5. Go on selecting the pie chart and right clicking, then choose Format Data Series from the context menu, see screenshot:

Demo: Create a pie of pie or bar of pie chart in Excel

Kutools for Excel