Excel Video 466 shows two ways to add noncontiguous chart data to an Excel chart. Noncontiguous chart data is simply data that’s not next to the rest of the data you’re using as source data for a chart. Usually when I chart data I put all of the data to be charted in one area of a worksheet tab to make everything easy, but if you need to pull data from multiple places into one chart, here’s how to do it.
I’ll start with the harder way first. It’s not necessarily harder to use the Select Data window, it just takes a few more clicks. I want to introduce the Select Data window now because it does several things that can help you customize your chart. If all you need to do is add noncontiguous chart data, the second copy/paste shortcut is about as fast and easy as it gets.
Finally, even though I’m demonstrating using Excel 2013, these noncontiguous chart data tricks are also available in earlier versions of Excel.
Stay tuned. We’ll talk about more ways the Select Data window can you help you in the next Excel Videos. Thanks for watching.