A Microsoft Office Excel Tip

Brought to you by:
Academic ITS
Technical Training
Lovejoy 144 (4217)
A Microsoft Office
Excel Tip
Visualizing Number Variations
1. Creating a Bar Chart
2. Creating a Graphical
Representation

Salesman
February Sales in
Thousands
Mary Smith 20
John Doe 34
Lindsey Marsh 16
Judith Lee 28
Phillip Wilshire 43
Nancy Sawyer 52
Susan Walton 38
Bill Dunham 22
Jake Hall 30
Initial Data
• You have monthly sales
figures
• You want to:
– Find out who is selling
the most
– Find out who is selling
the least
– Display a graphical
representation of the
data

• You can:
Two Options (1)
– Create a Bar Chart using the built-in charting features of
Excel
• Formally formatted
• Can be inserted into any Office application
• Moveable object in the spreadsheet
OR
– Create a graphical representation of the data right in the
data itself
• Displayed as a column of data

February Sales in Thousands
0 20 40 60
Two Options (2)
February Sales in
Thousands
Salesman
This
Or
This
February Sales in
Thousands Performance
Mary Smith 20 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
John Doe 34 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Lindsey Marsh 16 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Judith Lee 28 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Phillip Wilshire 43 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Nancy Sawyer 52 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Susan Walton 38 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Bill Dunham 22 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Jake Hall 30 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Salesman
Creating a Bar Chart
February Sales in
Thousands
Mary Smith 20
John Doe 34
Lindsey Marsh 16
Judith Lee 28
Phillip Wilshire 43
Nancy Sawyer 52
Susan Walton 38
Bill Dunham 22
Jake Hall 30
February Sales in Thousands
0 20 40 60
February Sales in
Thousands
1. Select the entire set of rows and
columns that you want in your chart
– including headers
2. Click on the Bar Chart icon under the
“Insert” tab
3. Excel will create a moveable bar chart
that you can position in the
spreadsheet or copy and paste into
any other Office application
4. If you double click on the graph, you
will bring up the bar graph editing
options where you can choose colors
and display options.

The Repeat Function
=REPT(“k”,24)
kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
• =REPT(“text”,number)
• Returns the designated
character (“text”) a specific
number of times
(number)
• =REPT(“k”,24)
returns
24 “k”s in the cell

Salesman
Entering The Function (1)
February Sales in
Thousands Performance
Mary Smith 20
John Doe 34
Lindsey Marsh 16
Judith Lee 28
Phillip Wilshire 43
Nancy Sawyer 52
Susan Walton 38
Bill Dunham 22
Jake Hall 30
=REPT(“I”,B3)
1. Add a column to the right of
the sales column
2. Title it “Performance”
3. Click in the cell next to Mary
Smith’s sales number
4. Enter the formula:
=REPT(“I”, B3) in this cell
You can click in the sales
cell to automatically enter
its location into the formula
5. Click “Enter”

Salesman Salesman
Entering The Function (2)
February February Sales Sales in in
Thousands Performance Performance
Mary Mary Smith Smith 20 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
20 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
John John Doe Doe 34 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
34
Lindsey Lindsey Marsh Marsh 16 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 16
Judith Judith Lee Lee 28 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
28
Phillip Phillip Wilshire Wilshire 43 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
43
Nancy Nancy Sawyer Sawyer 52 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
52
Susan Susan Walton Walton 38 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
38
Bill Dunham Bill Dunham 22 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
22
Jake Jake Hall Hall 30 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
30
6. You will now see 20 “I”s
in the cell
7. Copy the cell you just
created
8. Paste it into each of the
remaining cells
9. You will have created a
graphical representation
of the data right in the
spreadsheet

Need More Help?
Contact:
Mel Regnell
mregnell@colby.edu
207-859-4217
Brought to you by:
Academic ITS
Technical Training
Lovejoy 144 (4217)
A Microsoft Office
Excel Tip
Visualizing Number Variations
1. Creating a Bar Chart
2. Creating a Graphical
Representation