How To Make A Pie Chart In Microsoft Excel 2010 Or 2007
Pie charts are an effective way to analyze data sets visually. And since most people love pie, its a widely accepted format to present data to customers or management. All jokes aside, it might seem difficult to get started with a pie chart, but Microsoft Excel is an excellent tool for producing them with just a few simple clicks.
When Not To Use A Pie Chart
Lets get this out of the way pie charts are not ideal for every type of data. Dont use pie charts if:
- you want to display more than one data series .
- you want to display a trend over time. Since each variable will have only one value, pie charts are a snapshot of one moment in time.
- you have negative or zero values in your dataset. Negative values will be displayed as positive values, as zeros wont be displayed at all.
- you have more than seven categories. Pie charts are notoriously bad for displaying lots of data points, simply because the slices will be too small, making them meaningless for making a point visually.
Create A Pie Chart From The Pivot Table
With everything we need in place, its time to create a pie chart using the pivot table you just built.
Once you do that, Excel will automatically plot a pie graph using your pivot table.
Don’t Miss: The Original Key Lime Pie Company
Change The Chart Title
11. Lets start with changing the title of our pie chart. Just click it and type whatever you want. By right-clicking the title, you can choose Format Chart Title and then select the formatting options you want to apply.
12. First, well fill the title box with a green color. Use the task pane Format Chart Title on the right and select Title Options.
13. Expand the Fill menu and choose the Solid fill option.
14. Click the icon next to Color and choose any color you want .
15. Now lets make the font white and bold. Select the tab Text Options from the same task pane.
16. Click the icon next to Color and pick the color you would like for your font .
17. Expand the Text Outline menu and choose the Solid line option to make the text bold.
Pie Of Pie And Bar Of Pie Charts
If your Excel pie graph has too many small slices, you may want to create a Pie of Pie chart and display small slices on an additional pie, which is a slice of the main pie.
Bar of Piechart is very similar to the Pie of Pie graph, except that the selected slices are displayed on a secondary bar chart.
When you create a pie of pie or bar of pie charts in Excel, the last 3 data categories are moved to the second chart by default . And because the default choice does not always work well, you can either:
- Sort the source data in your worksheet in descending order so that the worst performing items end up in the secondary chart, or
- Choose which data categories to move to the second chart.
Choosing data categories for the secondary chart
To manually choose data categories that should be moved to the secondary chart, perform the following steps:
Don’t Miss: Tillamook Marionberry Pie Ice Cream Review
Click The Pie Chart Button In The Charts Section Of The Ribbon Then Choose The Pie Chart Style You Want To Add To Your Spreadsheet
Note that this Charts group in the ribbon has a variety of other types of charts or graphs that you could create instead. If a pie chart isnt what you need then you can simply click a different chart type and see if it provides the visual data layout you require.
You should now have a pie chart displaying your selected data. My pie chart is shown in the image below.
Our article continues below with additional information on working with Excel pie charts.
Draw Attention To Small Slices In A Pie
Pie-of-pie and bar-of-pie charts make it easier to see small slices of a pie chart. These chart types separate the smaller slices from the main pie chart and display them in a secondary pieor stacked bar chart.
In the example below, a pie-of-pie chart adds a secondary pie to show the three smallest slices. Compare a normal pie chart before:
with a pie-of-pie chart after:
If you dont indicate how many data points should appear in the secondary pie or stack, the chart will automatically include the three smallest. In this example, that is 3%, 3%, and 4%.
Follow these steps to do it yourself:
Right-click the chart and then click Change Series Chart Type.
Click Pie, and then click Pie of Pie or Bar of Pie.
To change what displays in the secondary pie, click the piece of pie youre expanding, and then in the Split Series By box of the Format Data Series paneclick the type of data to display in the secondary chart.
To change how many data points appear in the secondary chart, you have two options:
If youre splitting the series by position: in the Values in second plot box, enter the number of positions you want .
If youre splitting the series by value or percent value: in the Values less than box, type a different number. In the example abovewith 3%, 3%, and 4%you might enter 5%.
Notes:
The left chart is always the main chart, and the secondary chart is always to its right. You cant rearrange them.
Don’t Miss: How To Use A Pie Iron
Why Pie Charts Dont Actually Suck
I really like this quote by data journalist and artist Mona Chalabi,
On a computer, data looks slick. I draw over it to show that data isnt always precise. The lines arent completely straight to show that there is a margin of error in all data sets.
Hang out with enough data visualization people and youll hear a lot of pie chart hate. That hate inspired the following cartoon a few years back, and its still a regular holiday favorite among my cartoon fans.
But I think the hate is a bit overdone.
I mean check out this pie chart I pulled from Wikipedias entry on US Government Spending.
Were not looking at this chart to compare the differences in the amount of discretionary funding between Law Enforcement and Foreign Affairs. The basic gist of the chart is this, the US budgets over half of its discretionary funds to defense, more than all those other categories combined.
One of the dangers of charts is that you can make a dataset look far more precise than it ever should look. And in those cases maybe stepping back your level of visual precision isnt such a bad thing.
Clean Up Your Pie Chart
Before calling it a day, lets remove the field buttons related to our pivot table to make the graph look like a regular pie chart.
Rewrite the default chart title, and youre good to go!
Read Also: Campbell’s Pot Pie Recipe
Have A List Of Data In Excel
This data can be numbers or percentages. The pie chart will be a representation of the percentages of the data total.
Example 1:
Here is a list of different fruits and the number of each. Notice that they add up to a total of 50.
Example 2:
Here is a list of the favorite color percentages of some population of people. Notice that the total percentage adds up to 100%.
How To Create A Male/female Pie Chart In Excel
- Daniel Smith
Did you know that in France a pie chart is called a camembert? Yes, just like famous soft cheese! In fact, it doesnt matter what you call it what matters is that it can help you visualize your data in a catchy and simple way.
In this step-by-step guide, you will learn how to create and customize a male/female pie chart in Excel 2019.
This Article Contains:
Read Also: Key Lime Pie On A Stick Dipped In Chocolate
Enter And Select The Tutorial Data
A pie chart is a visual representation of data and is used to display the amounts of several categories relative to the total value of all categories. Pie charts are used, for example, to show the production of one factory in relation to the output of the company or to show the revenue generated by one product relative to the sales of the entire product line.
Before you create a pie chart, enter the chart data. Then, highlight the data you want to use in the pie chart.
To follow along with this tutorial, enter the data shown in the image above into a blank worksheet.
How To Make A Pie Chart In Excel In Just 2 Minutes
Written by co-founder Kasper Langmann, Microsoft Office Specialist.
The pie chart is one of the most commonly used charts in Excel. Why?
Because its so useful
Pie charts can show a lot of information in a small amount of space. They primarily show how different values add up to a whole.
That might not sound like much, but well look at how pie charts can be great visual aids.
Kasper Langmann
Lets take a look at why pie charts are so useful, then dive into making them!
*This tutorial is for Excel 2019/Microsoft 365 . Got a different version? No problem, you can still follow the exact same steps.
You May Like: Key West Key Lime Pie Company Recipe
Create Outstanding Pie Charts In Excel
By Tepring CrockerCategories: Charts, Excel®Tags: excel pie chart tutorial
Once you have gone to the effort of collecting, organizing and processing your data, you probably want to show it off! Tables do a nice job of presenting raw information, but a chart can bring your data to life. Charts create visual impact that conveys not only the data itself, but its relationships and meaning.
The Pie Chart is an industry standard for conveying the relationship of parts to the whole. You will use pie charts when you want to show how specific aspects or slices of your data contribute to the big picture. Pie charts are not good for showing changes over time. You also wont use a pie chart when you need to compare data that is not, in the end, summarized into a grand total.
The following steps illustrate how to add a pie chart to your Excel spreadsheet. These steps apply to Excel 2007-2013. Images were taken using Excel 2013 on the Windows 7 OS so the specific steps may vary based on your version.
To follow using our example, download Excel Pie Chart Tutorial.xlsx: Insert the chart
Insert the Chart
In our example, we want to show the relationship between the different levels of donors that give to our charity as compared to total giving. A pie chart is perfect for this illustration. We will start with a summary of the giving totals by level.
Edit Your Pie Chart
On the Design Tab
On the Format Tab
More Information On How To Make Pie Chart In Excel 2013
If you click the paint brush tool to the right of the chart you will see a couple of other options for how you can display your data. For example, in the image below I chose to display the data with a percentage of the total overlaid on each pie slice.
Excel offers a handful of various 2D pie chart options, as well as a 3D pie chart option and a doughnut chart option. These different chart options are visible when you click the pie button in the Charts group on the ribbon. If you need to use a pie chart other than the ones that are shown on the pie chart drop down menu then you can click the More Pie Charts button at the bottom of that menu.
Some of the other pie charts available after clicking the More Pie Charts menu include Pie of Pie and Bar of Pie. The layout of these charts will split some of the smaller pie slices from the main pie chart and show that as their own pie chart next to it.
Your chart is going to have some circles on its border that you can drag if you want to make the chart taller or wider. If you choose one of the corner circles then it will expand the chart while keeping everything at scale.
If you click the chart you will see a Design tab and a Layout tab at the top of the window. Choosing the Layout tab provides you with ways to add some needed chart options to the chart, such as labels for your x axis and y axis, you can format data labels, and you can even edit the chart title.
You May Like: Chicken Pot Pie Campbell’s Soup Recipe
How Do I Add Labels To A Pie Chart
Easy. Either click Add Chart Element from the Chart Layouts command group to the far left of the Design tab or click the green Chart Elements icon next to the chart when its image is selected.
To customize data labels, right-click the pie itself and click Format Data Labels from the menu. A panel will appear on the right, presenting you with advanced checkbox options for your series labels.
When To Use A Pie Chart
Pie charts are used to break down things.
Take for instance, a budget. Lets say you want to have a visual showing the break down of the budget into 4 different spending categories. You can certainly use a pie chart for that, as long as you dont need your audience to precisely compare the sections.
In other words, you just kind want to show the gist of how a budget is broken down without getting into the comparison weeds.
Pie charts are probably better than any other visual for expressing a part-to-whole relationship. When you hear percent of or part of thats one indication a pie chart could meet your needs.
So when shouldnt you use a pie chart?
A lot of the time. If you wanted to have a default chart that you used over and over again, you would be better off with a bar chart. A bar chart is going to make comparing categories easier. Its just way more precise.
But not every design choice is about visual precision.
Pies and doughnuts fail because:
Quantity is represented by slices humans arent particularly good at estimating quantity from angles, which is the skill needed.
Matching the labels and the slices can be hard work.
Small percentages are tricky to show.
The University of Melbourne Statistical Consulting Centre Why you shouldnt use pie charts
Read Also: Churchs Chicken Apple Pie