Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool that allows you to take data from your worksheet and position the chart within the worksheet. This type of chart is known as an Embedded Chart.

The first step for creating your chart is to select the data that you want to chart. Ensure that you select the labels for the rows and column. Don’t select any invalid data such as empty cells or cells that you don’t want in your chart.

Once you have selected the data the next step is to choose the type of chart that you require. Microsoft Excel provides a whole range of chart types such as an Area Chart, Bar Chart, Scatter Chart, Column Chart, Pie Chart, Pyramid chart and many more. To choose a different chart type choose the Chart Type button and click on the down arrow to the right of the button to bring out the Chart drop down box.

Excel essentially creates a chart from the data selected and the chart will be placed on top of the data. Once the chart is created, the chart will have eight handles, which is essentially eight small square boxes located at each key point on the chart.

To select a chart, click once on the chart with your left mouse button. To change the chart type at any time, select the chart and choose a different type from the Chart Type button.

some tips on How to creating charts in excel:

1. Amongst other goals, charts should tell stories. Charts should tell visual stories that describe patterns and trends in the data.
2. Good charting should give the viewer the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time with the least ink in the smallest space.
3. The purpose of formatting a chart is to make the chart easier for the viewer to understand. Too little formatting can leave a chart ambiguous.
4. Charting and graphing can take large sets of data and help to uncover patterns, trends, or to reveal relationships between data sets; this in turn can help to make business decisions.
5. Embedded Charts (on top of a sheet) are useful when you have a dynamic data set and want to see the chart change as the data changes and Chart Sheets are useful when you are printing or want to use the chart for a presentation.
6. Bar charts compare values across categories in a horizontal orientation. Values are indicated by the length of the bars. Column charts compare values across categories in a vertical orientation. Values are indicated by the length of the columns. Bar charts tend to emphasize differences better then a Column chart.
7. If you want to emphasize a trend in data points over time it is best to use a Line chart; whereas if you want to emphasize the difference between data points it is better to use a Column or Bar chart.
8. The XY (Scatter) chart plots numeric values on both the X- and Y-axes based on the value of the data (whereas a line chart plots numeric values on one axis and category labels equidistantly on the other axis).
9. A Line chart should be used instead of a XY (Scatter) chart when comparing sets of numerical data on just one axis. An XY (Scatter) should be used instead of a line chart when comparing sets of numerical data on two axes.
10. When making a pie chart, it is mandatory that you NOT include the total as one of the pie slices. The whole pie together is the total.
11. A pie chart with 30 slices can be cluttered and confusing. One solution is to make a Pie of Pie chart.
12. 3-D Pie charts are misleading because they distort the pie proportions.
13. Stacked Area and Line charts can be misleading because they can give the impression that each line represents the actual values in the data series.