If you look at the data in the chart immediately below, I think you’ll agree that your eyes have to dart back and forth to sort the channels by revenue.

In the absence of a dominant sort pattern like that, I’m of the opinion that data should be ordered and presented in descending order to put the most significant data first. If you’re showing something sequential, like visits per day over a period of a month or revenue per month over a period of a year, then ordering your data chronologically makes the most sense. Charts that are spawned from unsorted data are, in my opinion, much more difficult to read and interpret. I always choose Above Chart (Mac: Chart at Top). On the Mac, you’ll choose Charts > Chart Layout > Labels > Chart Title. To add a chart title, with your chart selected, choose Chart Tools > Layout > Labels > Chart Title. So, in the case of the chart below, it would be insufficient to just use “Impressions” as the chart title: But for others who have to try to figure out what you’re trying to communicate, it’s not always so apparent. When you’re the one pulling together the data, everything you’re trying to communicate is perfectly clear. Just make sure you include the metric you’re showing in the chart title.Ī common mistake I see with marketers’ charts is they’re oftentimes missing a title. If you’re only showing one metric on a chart, there’s no reason to keep the legend that Excel throws in there. You don’t have to select the text, just the box. With the legend still selected, I usually bump the font up to 12 as well. To move it, just pull up the formatting option (you should know how by now!) and choose the position from Legend Options category, which is called Placement on a Mac. I tend to put the legend above more than below, but I’ll put it below if there’s too much going on at the top, or sometimes, with a pie chart. I prefer to move the legend to the top or bottom of a chart. I don’t know why Excel positions the legend to the right of a chart by default.

Finally, select Line Color > No line (Mac: Line > Solid > Color: No Line). In this case, you’ll just want to select one of the gridlines in your chart (anyone but the top one, which selects the entire plot area) and then open the formatting options. First, remember the formatting trick I mention in all of my posts: if you want to format anything in Excel (in a chart or table) just select it and press Ctrl-1 (Mac: Command-1) to open the formatting dialog specific to that item. And that’s the problem with noise: it distracts you from the essential stuff. But then, they cause my eye to stumble, too. And yet, until I viewed this presentation by Ian Lurie, I was blissfully oblivious to gridlines in charts. If you have read just about anything I’ve written about Excel, you’ll know I loathe gridlines in tables. When you’re presenting data, it’s very important to reduce the noise and hone in on actionable signals. Remove Noise From Your Chart’s Background We’re now going to jump into the really fun stuff: charting data out in Excel. Learn 10 cool techniques that will make your Excel charts way sexier

Chart tools in excel 2011 for mac