Excel tutorial for beginners

A spreadsheet lets you organize data and calculations.

My friend Sarah has been practicing her typing speed, and she’s given me some data on her timed typing tests: how many words she typed, and how many minutes she had to type them in.

In a spreadsheet, you always put each piece of data in its own cell, so I’ll put the labels in different cells in the top row.

In Row 2, I’ll pick one of her typing tests and record the number of words she typed, in cell A2, and how long it took, in cell B2. I’ll put the data from each of her tests in a new row, until they’re all in the spreadsheet.

My goal will be to calculate her typing speed in words per minute for each test.

Before I do the calculations, I’d like to style my data. I’ll add a cell border so it’s easier to see where my data is.

I can style the headers myself by making them bold or changing a font, or I can use a preset setting.

Either way, it’s nice to draw attention to what I measured.

You can see some of my labels are too long for the cell, so I can resize them by hovering between two columns until I get a double-sided arrow, then I can click and drag to change the column’s width.

You can see that words are aligned on the left side of the cell, and numbers are all pushed to the right.

If I want, I can put them all on either side or in the middle.

Now I’m ready to calculate the words per minute for each typing test.

I can start any calculation in a spreadsheet by typing the equals sign, then I just click on the cells I want to use; so the first words per minute calculation will be «= A2/B2».

I can copy this formula and paste it into all the other cells in the table.

Then, if I click one of those cells, I can see which numbers it is using in its calculation.

Some of my results have decimals and some don’t. I think it looks cleaner for all of them to have the same number of decimal places.

I can select the values and specify that they are numbers. Then I can decrease to only show 1 decimal place.

Now that I have the words per minute for each of Sarah’s tests, I’d also like to find her average words per minute.

I could calculate this by adding up each of her words per minute results and dividing by the total number of tests she took.

If I do that, I’ll want to be sure to include parentheses because the order of operations always applies.

To make things simpler, I can use a function, by typing = Average() , and selecting the cells I want to average out.

I can use functions to find Sarah’s minimum and maximum typing rates as well.

So that’s an intro on some of the functionality you can use with spreadsheets. They give you a lot of great options.

Check out our videos for tips and tricks to go a little deeper.

There’s some cool graph options out there. Let’s see which one’s best for you.

First, think about what kind of information you have. What are your inputs and your outputs?

There’s 3 kinds of input. It could be time, like if you measured the temperature of water every 5 minutes.

There’s numerical, like if you measured the height of a catapult projectile at different distances away from the catapult.

And there’s categories, like if you measure the pH of different kinds of liquids.

Once you know which kind of input you have, there’s just one more question to ask yourself.

Is your output—what you actually measured—a number, like the temperature of water or the pH of a liquid?

Or is it more like a tally of responses, like how many people preferred one scenario over another?

Take a minute to think about your data from your experiment, then pick the chart type that matches it.

If your input is time, a line graph is a great choice.

If your input is numerical, check out an XY scatter plot.

If your input is different categories, try using a bar graph, column chart, or pictograph.

And if you have survey results or you want to show the percent of a whole, look at using a Pie chart.

Finally, if you want to show how survey results or the percent of a whole changed over time, check out a time-based area chart.

Once you know which chart type would showcase your results well, check out the video that walks you through how to create that chart yourself.

We start with the title. We want to be as descriptive as possible.

Imagine someone is going to find your chart, without any explanation of what it’s about. Help them figure out what they’re looking at.

Then we’ll organize our data into columns.

The first column holds the Date or Time values, which will be listed across the X axis of your chart.

Then, you’ll put each set of data you recorded in its own column to the right of the X values.

For example, I recorded the daily high and low temperature, and I’d like one line to show the high, and one line to show the low.

It’s very important to label your data with the units you measured in. For mine, are these degrees Fahrenheit or Celsius?

If you measured a distance, was it in inches, centimeters, or thousands of miles?

Just showing numbers by themselves isn’t as easy to understand as if you include their units.

Now that our columns are labeled, we just fill in all the data. The times should match up with the data we recorded at those times.

Once our data is in the spreadsheet, we’re ready to make the line graph!

This is easy. We select our data.

Click Insert > Line Graph > Line with Markers.

Voila! We have a line chart.

It even gave us a legend with our labels.

Now, we add a chart title and axis titles.

We can link the chart title to the one we already wrote.

Select the box the title is in.

In the formula bar type «=A1»

Now we’ll add a label for the X axis, and link it to the label we wrote.

In the formula bar, type «=A2»

For the Y axis, if we have more than one line we need a generic label to show what the numbers on the side mean.

For mine, I can say Temperature (F).

Yours might be Plant Height (cm).

Our last step is to make the chart look nice.

For some charts, you don’t need the Y axis to start at 0.

Like for temperature, we can zoom in on the data I measured, instead of squishing it all to the top.

If that works for your data, we’ll select the axis and change the minimum.

At this point, our chart is looking really good.

We can easily add more lines.

Just insert a new column and add the data.

Excel automatically adds a line with those values to the chart.

Now for my favorite part.

We can style our chart with different colors and designs by selecting the chart > Design, pick settings that we like.

For more specific changes to the lines on your chart, you can go to the paint bucket, officially the «Fill and Line» menu.

Here, you can change the color, size, and other details for each line individually.

Now we have a great-looking line graph.

It shows what we measured, the units we recorded them in, and how the values changed over time.

If you want a head start on creating your own line graph, you can download the Excel file I used for this video.

You’ll label 2 columns: the first is the kind of categories you have, and the second is what you measured for those categories.

It’s very important to label your data with the units you measured in. For mine, the rainfall is measured in inches, but I have to label it or someone could think it was centimeters.

Next, you’ll type your categories in the first column, and put their values in the second column.

Once your data is in the spreadsheet, you are ready to make the column chart!

This is easy. We select our data.

Then all we have to do is go to the Insert tab, find the Column Chart option, and choose Clustered Column.

If you want to do a bar chart instead, you can select that here—the only difference is that your bars go side-to-side instead of up and down.

You will automatically get a title, but you can change it if you’d like.

The only thing you have to add is labels for the axes. You already wrote the label of the X axis, so you can link to it by going to the formula bar and typing equals, then selecting the cell with the name of your categories.

For the Y axis, you can either link to the value you wrote before, or you can type a different description of your measurement.

Either way, be sure to include the units.

You can display more than one value for each category.

If you’ve already created a chart, the easiest way to add data is to type the category title and all of the values in the next column.

Then, you can select the chart; that will highlight the data it’s using.

Find the lower-right corner of the highlighted area, and drag it to include your new data.

Then you’ll want to check that your Chart Title and Axis Title are still correct.

If you have more than one column for each category, you should add a legend to you chart, to make it clear what each column represents.

You can change your chart type at any time, if you decide a bar chart would be better than a column chart for your data.

Select the chart, then go to Design, Change chart Type. Then you’ll find Bar on the side menu.

Now our chart has all the information it needs—everything else I’ll show you is styling.

You can adjust how many decimal places the Y axis shows by selecting the axis and going to Axis Options > Number. Select Number from the dropdown list, and type the number of decimal places you’d like to display.

You can also specify the maximum value of your Y axis—just be sure that it’s high enough to show all your data.

You can style the chart with different colors and designs by selecting the chart, go to Design, and pick from a good selection of pre-set styles.

One especially cool feature of column charts is that you can use a picture instead of a solid color.

Select one of your column series, then go to the bucket fill and line menu. Choose Picture or Texture fill.

Find a picture you’d like to use, and then change it from Stretch to Stack. You can add different pictures for each of the column series.

Technically, this kind of chart is called a pictograph, and you can make it from either a column chart or a bar chart.

So that’s how you make a column chart!

If you want a head start on creating your own column chart, you can download the Excel file I used for this video.

Looking at it, I can see that the trees that are bigger around than other trees are also taller than other trees.

Scatter graphs can compare any 2 numbers—you could look at people’s height vs weight, city size vs population, or the amount of time students studied vs their grade on a test.

Whatever you want to show on the scatter graph, you start with putting your data in Excel.

You’ll label 2 columns: the first will be your X axis, and the second will be your Y axis.

If you had any control over one of the variables, you’ll want to put that one first.

For example, if you gave different amounts of water to each tree, that’s an «independent» variable you controlled, and should go across the bottom of your graph, and in the first column of your data.

If you didn’t have anything to do with either measurement, you can pick either one for this first column.

It’s very important to label your data with the units you measured in.

For mine, the circumference and height were both measured in meters, but I have to label it or someone might assume I measured in feet.

Once your data is in the spreadsheet, you are ready to make the scatter chart!

This is easy. First, you will select your data.

Then go to the Insert tab, find the XY Scatter Chart option, and choose Scatter.

The first thing to do is add a title. You want to describe both of your measurements, usually in the format of «Y Measurement» vs «X Measurement», with units at the end.

Next, you’ll add labels for the axes.

If you want to use the same wording you used when you labeled your data, you can link to that text by going to the formula bar and typing equals, then selecting the cell that has your data label.

If you would like to change the wording, you can select the Axis Title and type a different description of your measurement; be sure to include the units here as well.

At this point, you have a nice looking graph that has the data and the labels. Let’s take a look at how you would display more than one set of data on your chart.

There’s 2 different ways you could add data to your chart, and it depends on whether the new data uses the same X values you already recorded, or if it has different X values.

Let’s first look at adding data with the same X values.

Suppose that for each Circumference of my trees, I knew the average height of Douglas Firs in the area, and wanted to include those values on my chart.

I’d record these values in a new column to the right of my data, so for the 0.30 meter circumference tree, the average height is 8.40 meters, and so on.

Now I can select the graph and find where my data is highlighted.

I’ll find the lower right corner of the highlighting, then drag it to include my new data.

You can see it gets added as a new dataset with its own color.

I would want to add a legend to my chart to make it clear which dataset was which, and I might need to update my Title and Axis labels.

Now, let’s look at how we would add data if the X values are not the same.

Suppose I went to a different forest and measured the circumference and height of trees there.

I’d record the data in a different area of my sheet, including both the X and the Y values.

I need to be sure that the headers of my first dataset apply to my new dataset—so for mine, I’d record circumference in the first column and height in the second column, and since the units for my first dataset were measured in meters. I’d need to record the new data in meters as well.

Once you have your second dataset in the workbook, you select the chart, and on the Design tab go to «select data.»

You will add a series and name it—whatever you want to appear in the legend.

Then you’ll select the X values and the Y values of your dataset.

When you’re done, you may also want to update the name of your original series.

Again, you’d want to add a legend to your chart. You may need to update your Title and Axis labels.

You can show a trendline of each dataset.

If you select a series, right click, and choose Add Trendline, it will add a straight line that shows the general trend of your data.

If your data looks more like a curve than a straight line, some of the other options might be a better match.

When you’ve found the trendline type you want to use, you can check the box to display the trendline’s equation on your chart—this may be especially helpful for future analysis of your data.

You can style the chart with different colors and designs by selecting the chart, go to Design, and pick from a selection of pre-set styles.

If you want a head start on creating your own scatter graph, you are welcome to download the Excel file I used for this video, and then add your own data to it.

Out of the students in this survey, you can see that more than half prefer horses, and about a third prefer dolphins.

The remaining students had a lot of different favorite animals.

Pie charts are best when you’d like to emphasize one especially big value or one especially small value.

This chart would be great for showing that a lot of students like horses, or for calling out that my hypothesis was wrong, if I thought that most students would prefer dogs.

It’s important to know that pie charts are not always the right answer for making comparisons.

If your numbers are closer together, like 25%, 30%, and 40%, it’s hard to tell from a pie chart which values are bigger.

A column chart is usually a better option, since it’s easier to compare similar values, and it’s easier to read when you have lots of categories.

If you do want to make a pie chart, you’ll label 2 columns: the first is the kind of categories you have, and the second is what you measured in those categories.

Next, you’ll fill in the categories in the first column, and their values in the second column.

Once your data is in the spreadsheet, you are ready to make the pie chart!

This is easy. You select your data. Then all you have to do is go to the Insert tab, find the pie chart option, and choose pie.

Now you’re going to update your title.

You want it to be descriptive enough that if someone found your chart without any explanation, they’d know what they were looking at.

If you’ve already created a chart and you want to add another slice to your pie, the easiest way to do that is to type the missing category and number at the bottom of your dataset.

Remember that if you’re using percentages, they need to add up to 100%, so be sure your data is still accurate after you add a new value.

Then, you can select the chart; that will highlight the data it’s using.

Find the lower-right corner of the highlighted area, and drag it to include your new data.

You can change your chart type at any time, if you decide a column chart would be better than a pie chart for your data, especially as you start adding more categories.

Select the chart, then go to Design, Change Chart Type. Then you’ll find Column on the side menu.

You can preview other chart options to experiment with as well.

Now your chart has all the information it needs—everything else I’ll show you is styling.

You can style the chart with different colors and designs by selecting the chart, go to Design, and pick from a good selection of pre-set styles.

Now you can do more customization on top of the styling.

You can add labels by right-clicking the chart and choosing add data callouts.

On the label options section, you can change the separator to a space so it doesn’t take up as much vertical room.

You may want to emphasize one slice of the pie chart more than the others.

If so, you can select the slice, and the side bar will say «Format Data Point».

Then under series options, you can increase the point explosion to pull it out from the rest of the pie.

On the fill and line bucket menu, you can change the colors of the whole pie, and you can change one slice at a time.

So that’s how to create a pie chart!

If you want a head start on creating your own chart, you can look in the description for a link to download this file.

There’s the basic print, which will print everything exactly as you see it in Excel—except of course without the gridlines that separate each cell.

This is the default if you have a cell selected when you print.

If you select a chart before you print, Excel will only print the chart—and it will automatically fit the chart onto one page.

If you want to print a specific part of your worksheet, then you can select the cells you want to print.

And then make sure that under the print settings you are printing the selection.

If you want Excel to remember where your print selection was so you can re-print the same selection later, you can save it as a print area.

You will go to Page Layout > Print Area > set print area.

If you are printing for a poster, you may want everything to print larger than it shows on your screen.

In that case, you can use custom scaling to increase the size of everything you print.

One note is you can’t do that if you select a chart first, so you’ll have to either print a selection or a range in order to change the custom scaling.

If you’re not going to print straight from Excel, and instead you’re going to copy your chart into a Word report or a Power Point presentation, I would recommend pasting it as a picture.

This will keep all the formatting and numbers the same, even if you update your Excel file later on.

So that’s how to print a chart!