In Microsoft Office Excel, it is easy to create professional looking charts. Simply by choosing a chart type, a chart layout, and a chart style-all of which are within easy reach on the new Office Excel Ribbon-you will have instant professional results every time that you create a chart. You can make it even easier by saving your favorite charts as a chart template that you can then quickly apply whenever you create a new chart.

If you have Excel installed, you can also take advantage of the powerful Excel charting functionality in other Microsoft Office system programs, such as Microsoft Office PowerPoint and Microsoft Office Word.In this article

Creating charts in Excel

To create a basic chart in Excel that you can modify and format later, you start by entering the data for the chart on a worksheet. Then you simply select that data and choose the chart type that you want to use on the Ribbon (Insert tab, Charts group). worksheet data and chart

callout 1 Worksheet data

callout 2 Chart created from worksheet data

Excel supports numerous types of charts to help you display data in ways that are meaningful to your audience. When you create a chart or change an existing chart, you can choose from a wide range of chart types (such as a column chart or a pie chart) and their subtypes (such as a stacked column chart or a pie in 3-D chart). You can also create a combination chart by using more than one chart type in your chart.

combination chartExample of a combination chart that uses a column and line chart type.

For more information about how to create a chart in Excel, see Create a chart.

Creating charts in PowerPoint and Word

Charts are fully integrated with other Office release programs, such as Office PowerPoint and Office Word. Both programs provide the same chart tools that are available in Excel. When you have Excel installed, you can create Excel charts in PowerPoint and Word by clicking the Chart button on the Ribbon (Insert tab, Illustrations group), and then by using the chart tools to modify or format the chart. Charts that you create will be embedded in Office PowerPoint and Office Word, and the chart data is stored in an Excel worksheet that is incorporated in the PowerPoint or Word file.

Note If you work in Compatibility Mode in Word, you can insert a chart by using Microsoft Graph instead of Excel. In PowerPoint, you can always use Excel to create a chart.

You can also copy a chart from Excel to PowerPoint and Word. When you copy a chart, it can either be embedded as static data or linked to the workbook. For a chart that is linked to a workbook that you have access to, you can specify that it automatically checks for changes in the linked workbook whenever the chart is opened.

For more information about how to create a chart in PowerPoint or Office Word, see Use charts and graphs in your presentation or .

Modifying charts

After you create a chart, you can modify it. For example, you may want to change the way that axes are displayed, add a chart title, move or hide the legend, or display additional chart elements.

To modify a chart, you can:

Using predefined chart layouts and chart styles for a professional look

Instead of manually adding or changing chart elements or formatting the chart, you can quickly apply a predefined chart layout and chart style to your chart. Excel provides a variety of useful predefined layouts and styles that you can choose from, but you can fine-tune a layout or style further if needed by making manual changes to the layout and format of individual chart elements, such as the chart area, plot area, data series, or legend of the chart.

When you apply a predefined chart layout, a specific set of chart elements (such as titles, a legend, a data table, or data labels ) are displayed in a specific arrangement in your chart. You can choose from a variety of layouts that are provided for each chart type.

When you apply a predefined chart style, the chart is formatted based on the document theme that you have applied, so that your chart matches your organization's or your own theme colors (a set of colors), theme fonts (a set of heading and body text fonts), and theme effects (a set of lines and fill effects).

Note You cannot create your own chart layouts or styles, but you can create chart templates that include the chart layout and formatting that you want. For more information about chart templates, see .

For more information about how to change the look of a chart, see .

Adding eye-catching formatting to charts

In addition to applying a predefined chart style, you can easily apply formatting to individual chart elements such as data markers, the chart area, the plot area, and the numbers and text in titles and labels to give your chart a custom, eye-catching look. You can apply specific shape styles and WordArt styles, but you can also format the shapes and text of chart elements manually.

To add formatting, you can:

For more information about how to format chart elements, see .

Reusing charts by creating chart templates

If you want to reuse a chart that you customized to meet your needs, you can save that chart as a chart template (*.crtx) in the chart templates folder. When you create a chart, you can then apply the chart template just like you would any other built-in chart type. In fact, chart templates are true chart types, and you can also use them to change the chart type of an existing chart.

If you use a chart template frequently, you can save it as the default chart type.

Note Chart templates are not based on document themes . To use theme colors, theme fonts, and theme effects in a chart that you create by using a chart template, you can apply a style to the chart. A chart style resets the theme of a chart to the document theme. For more information, see .

For more information about how to use chart templates, see .