The trick in Excel Video 468 is to use Tables as a chart data source. If you haven’t seen Tables in Excel, there’s a section with several playlists about Tables on my website that’s absolutely worth watching. Tables are a great way to organize detailed data. Watch how easy Tables make charting. Notice how Excel sees data in a Table as a complete, discrete unit, so I only have to click inside the Table for Excel to add all of the Table data to my chart. Also notice how easy it is to add rows and columns to the Table and how that data gets automatically added to a chart. There are lots of advantages to using Tables, and the ability to use Tables as a chart data source is a great feature.
Stay tuned. In the next Excel Video I’m planning to show you a trick to avoid a potential issue where Excel treats years as chart data instead of the chart legend. Tables can help with this issue, too. I look forward to seeing you then.