Excel Charts: How to Create and Customise Charts
Last updated: November 2026 · Works in Excel for Microsoft 365, Excel 2021 and Excel 2019
A good chart shows in two seconds what a table of numbers takes two minutes to explain. Excel can turn a range into a chart with a single shortcut, but choosing the right chart type and cleaning up the design is what makes it clear. This guide covers creating charts, picking the right type, editing every element, combo charts and dynamic charts that grow with your data.
Create a chart in seconds
Set up your data with labels in the first column and a header above each series:
| Month | Sales | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Jan | 42,000 | 40,000 |
| Feb | 38,500 | 40,000 |
| Mar | 47,200 | 45,000 |
| Apr | 51,000 | 45,000 |
- Click any cell in the data.
- Press Alt + F1 to insert a default column chart on the same sheet, or F11 to put it on its own chart sheet.
- For more choice, go to Insert > Recommended Charts, which previews chart types that suit your data.
Choose the right chart type
| Chart | Best for | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Column | Comparing values across categories or months | Sales by month |
| Bar | Comparing categories with long names | Sales by product |
| Line | Trends over time with many points | Daily website visits |
| Pie / Doughnut | Parts of one whole, ideally five or fewer slices | Market share |
| Scatter | Relationship between two numeric measures | Advertising spend vs sales |
| Waterfall | How a starting value rises and falls to an end value | Opening to closing cash |
| Combo | Two measures with different scales | Revenue and profit margin % |
To switch type later, select the chart and choose Chart Design > Change Chart Type.
Edit titles, labels and other elements
Click the chart to see three buttons on its right edge:
- Chart Elements (+): switch on or off the title, axis titles, data labels, gridlines, legend and trendline.
- Chart Styles (brush): apply a colour scheme and style.
- Chart Filters (funnel): temporarily hide series or categories.
Double-click any part of a chart to open its Format pane, where you can change colours, the gap width between columns, axis minimum and maximum, and number formats. A useful trick: make the chart title dynamic by selecting it, typing = in the formula bar and clicking a cell, such as one containing ="Sales by Month – "&TEXT(TODAY(),"mmm yyyy").
Change or add data
Choose Chart Design > Select Data to add a series, remove one or change the range. Switch Row/Column swaps what appears on the horizontal axis and what appears in the legend, which is often the fix when a chart looks "the wrong way round".
Combo charts with a secondary axis
When one series is in dirhams and another is a percentage, the percentage is invisible on the same scale. Fix it with a combo chart:
- Select the chart and choose Change Chart Type > Combo.
- Set the main measure to Clustered Column.
- Set the percentage series to Line and tick Secondary Axis.
Add axis titles so readers know which scale belongs to which series.
Charts that update automatically
If you build a chart from an Excel Table (Ctrl + T), new rows added to the table appear in the chart automatically, with no need to edit the range. Combine this with slicers or a filtered table to create a simple interactive chart. Once you have styled a chart you like, right-click it and choose Save as Template to reuse the same look on future charts.
Six rules for clearer charts
- Write a title that states the message, such as "April sales beat target by 13%", not just "Sales".
- Start column and bar axes at zero so differences are not exaggerated.
- Remove clutter: heavy gridlines, 3D effects and unnecessary legends.
- Sort bar charts from largest to smallest unless the order has meaning, such as months.
- Use one highlight colour for the point that matters and grey for the rest.
- Label data directly when there are only a few points, instead of making readers check the axis.
Next: add tiny in-cell charts with Sparklines.