Excel will tell you which one is which. Line charts are used to display trends over time. Both work equally well. To add a trendline, execute the following steps. *This tutorial is for Excel 2019/Microsoft 365 (for Windows). BONUS: Download the Line Graph Exercise File to go along with this post. You can also add individual elements in the Add Chart Element menu: In the image above, we’ve selected standard error bars. No problem, you can still follow the exact same steps. In the Charts group, click the Insert Line or Area Chart Button: If you forget which button to click, just hover over the options. After creating the chart, you can enter the text Year into cell A1 if you like. On a line graph, people will see this very quickly. How to add a line to an existing Excel graph. Here are our top 3 picks: 1: The last guide to VLOOKUP you’ll ever need, 3: INDEX+MATCH with multiple criteria in 5 easy steps. Excel is Awesome, we'll show you: Introduction • Basics • Functions • Data Analysis • VBA, 3/18 Completed! Clustered and stacked charts let you show a lot of data in a small space, but they can be difficult to read. Let’s take a look at why you should use a line chart, how to prepare your data for it, and how to make it in Excel! They can be represented on other types of charts, but it’s easy for them to become obscured. Type 2 in the Forward box. That’s a lot of steps, but once you do it a couple times, it becomes easy. Use the same data we’re using here to practice your skills! Click the paint bucket icon and change the line color. However, there are a few cases in which you might not want to use a line graph. Formatting your data for use in a line graph is very simple. Don’t forget that. From the resulting menu, click the 2D line button: When you click that, your line graph will appear! Almost everyone is very familiar with these graphs, and that’s a big advantage over more complicated options. It is commonly used to visually represent quantitative data over a certain time period. How to Make a Line Graph in Excel: Explained Step-by-Step, The last guide to VLOOKUP you’ll ever need, INDEX+MATCH with multiple criteria in 5 easy steps, free Excel training that adapts to your skill level. The resulting window will let you type or click-and-drag to select the data that should be included in your graph. For example, we’ve added projected sales along with actual sales here: You can include as many different lines in a line chart as you want, but we recommend keeping it to a handful at most. Line charts are used to display trends over time. By creating a Line chart in Excel, we can represent the most typical data. Now that you know why line charts are so useful, let’s take a look at creating them in Excel! Uncheck Dolphins and Whales and click OK. To change the color of the line and the markers, execute the following steps. For example, they’re not very good at showing proportions. Once your data is properly formatted, you can create your chart. You will then see the Line Chart on the sheet. But there’s a button right in the Ribbon that does that for you, too: You can also use the Move Chart button to move your chart to an existing sheet or create a new one for it: This is especially useful, because most of the time you won’t want your graph right on top of your data. That’s it. We’ve published +100 Excel-tutorials on our blog. Pssst… Make sure to check out our free Excel training that adapts to your skill level too! What is Line Graphs / Chart in Excel? On the Insert tab, in the Charts group, click the Line symbol. Excel line chart (graph) A line graph (aka line chart ) is a visual that displays a series of data points connected by a straight line. That’s all there is to it! There are other good uses for line charts, but showing a value over time is one of the best. 7. And while they’re good at showing change over time, a timeline might be better represented by a Gantt chart. Click Linear. Few charts are are simple as the line chart, but it can show a lot of data in a small space. – Power BI Essentials [NEW]: Learn Power BI online! Written by co-founder Kasper Langmann, Microsoft Office Specialist. Line Chart in Excel is created to display trend graphs from time to time. 2. Use a scatter plot (XY chart) to show scientific XY data. Line charts solve that problem by leaving a lot of white space for you to work with. We won’t go over them here, because they’re self-explanatory. You can also use multiple data points for each category. The easiest way to do this is with chart styles. In simple words, a Line graph is used to show changes over time to time. The simplicity of the line graph is its greatest strength. In Excel, to represent data in pictorial format charts and graphs are used. Go to the Insert Tab and Click on the Line Chart drop down button in the Charts group and select the first option from the drop down menu. Excel’s default colors and design for line charts are nice, but there’s a lot of customization you can do to make it look better. There’s just a line. Click the paint can, then click “Marker.”. More than that makes your graph much harder to read. You can also use this window to switch the rows and columns of your graph. Here’s a set of circular markers: To add or edit the markers on your line, right-click the line in your chart and select Format Data Series: A panel will appear on the right side of the screen. They make it easy to see multiple sets of data. But that doesn’t mean it’s not one of the best. If you want to change colors or fonts, head to this tab and look around. Open Microsoft Excel. 3. The Quick Layout menu gives you a fast way to add and remove elements. But that doesn’t mean it’s not one of the best. To change the axis type to Date axis, execute the following steps. 14. Click the + button on the right side of the chart, click the arrow next to Trendline and then click More Options. To change the data range included in the chart, execute the following steps. Specify the number of periods to include in the forecast. But it can be a very powerful tool for presenting data! 11. If you didn’t select all the data you want, or you added data to your set, you can adjust the data included in your graph. Select one of the templates from the menu and you’ll get a specific combination of elements: You can also quickly change the color palette with the Change Colors menu. Go to Next Chapter: Pivot Tables, Line Chart • © 2010-2020 The line graph is one of the simplest graphs you can make in Excel. 12. First, highlight the data you want in the graph: Then, open the Insert tab in the Ribbon. 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