Click each tab, select the formatting that you want, and then click OK. In the Style name box, type a name for the new style. On the Home tab, click Cell Styles, and then click New Cell Style.The shortcut to toggle absolute and relative references is F4 in Windows, while on a Mac, its Command T. For example, the shortcut for Edit Cell in Windows is F2, and on a Mac, it's Control + U. For public companies, these amendments became effective for fiscal years beginning after.Finally, some Excel shortcuts are just plain different on a Mac. 33-9273, since it is no longer applicable.And yet, until I viewed this presentation by Ian Lurie, I was blissfully oblivious to gridlines in charts.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. Remove Noise From Your Chart’s BackgroundWhen you’re presenting data, it’s very important to reduce the noise and hone in on actionable signals. If you want a primer, you can find this resource from Microsoft for the PC and this one for the Mac. At this course, Kirt Kershaw will include three levels from Beginner to Advanced, making you a.I’m not going to cover the basics of creating charts in this post.
On the Mac, you’ll choose Charts > Chart Layout > Labels > Chart Title. But for others who have to try to figure out what you’re trying to communicate, it’s not always so apparent.So, in the case of the chart below, it would be insufficient to just use “Impressions” as the chart title:To add a chart title, with your chart selected, choose Chart Tools > Layout > Labels > Chart Title. When you’re the one pulling together the data, everything you’re trying to communicate is perfectly clear. Finally, select Line Color > No line (Mac: Line > Solid > Color: No Line).A common mistake I see with marketers’ charts is they’re oftentimes missing a title. 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.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. And that’s the problem with noise: it distracts you from the essential stuff.Gridlines are super easy to get rid of. ![]() Excel always adds two decimal places, which you have to get rid of by clicking the Decrease Decimal icon, which is two spots to the right of the thousands separator.Alternatively, you could get into the formatting dialog and modify the number formatting there.The vertical axis in the chart above is also cluttered and overkill. Otherwise, you need to unlink it from the source in the Format Axis dialog.To add thousands separators, select the entire column and click the button with what looks like a comma in the Home tab in the Number category. If you do that, the chart will update automatically. The best way to do this is to format the data in the table. I’ll focus on five common problematic formatting issues I see in chart axes.If you have data points that are greater than 999, you should include thousands separators. I see this most commonly done with currency, where you’ll see labels like $10,000.oo, $20,000.00, $30,000.00, etc. In the screenshot below, I changed the major unit from 20000 to 40000.By all means, if you need more granular detail, adjust your settings appropriately.Never include decimals in an axis, unless your maximum value is 1 (in other words, you’re only dealing with fractions). Under Axis Options (Mac: Scale) you can change the Major Unit setting. Just use 10%, 20%, etc.One final nuisance is the presentation of the 0 at the bottom of the vertical axis as a hyphen. In other words, don’t have labels like 10.00%, 20.00%, etc. But, again, even with percentages, drop the decimals. The less time people have to spend interpreting your data, the more compelling it will be. Create Branded ChartsYou’re not limited to the 2,500+ themes Excel provides. To do this, select the column in the table where the data comes from, open the formatting dialog as usual, and select Number > Category: Custom, find the hyphen, and replace it with a 0.But you should explore the different themes and try branching out. You might find some very surprising options, like the ability to add text to the formatting while still keeping the value of a number.In this case, we just need to change the way 0 is formatted. This will save your chart as a. And do that for each piece of the pie.To save it as a template on a PC, select the chart and navigate to Chart Tools > Design > Type > Save as Template.To create a new pie chart based on this template on a PC, simply click inside the data you want to chart (or select the data if it’s a partial data set), then choose Insert > Charts > Other Charts > All Chart Types > Templates (Mac: Charts > Insert Chart > Other > Templates) and select the template you want to use.On a Mac, right-click anywhere on the chart and choose Save as Template. Then reformat it by using the paint bucket under Home > Font — or pull up the formatting dialog.Assuming you have RGB values, click the drop-down menu on the paint bucket, choose More Colors > Custom > Color Model: RGB (Mac: More Colors > Color Sliders > RGB Sliders). Excel 2010 (PC) will allow you to use RGB or HSL values, whereas Excel 2011 (Mac) will let you use RGB, CMYK, or HSB values.(Since I wasn’t privy to those values, I used the Color Picker tool in the Web Developer Toolbar to identify the colors from the Toys R Us logo and then used a hex-to-RGB conversion tool to get the RGB values.)Once you have the values you need, create a chart with whatever data you want to visualize.Next, select a piece of the pie chart by clicking on the pie chart once and then on the individual piece. The reason you want to format as a table is if you build a chart from a table, your chart will update automatically as you add new rows to the table.The table also automatically expands to absorb any new data you add to the table when you just enter something in a cell immediately below or to the right of a formatted table.In a cell just south of row 31 (to accommodate a full month) enter a SUM formula that captures all 31 rows — even though some will be blank if you’re only partway through the month.Add a title to your chart that indicates you have a running total. Here are the steps you’ll need to take:Make sure your data uses proper number formatting and that it’s formatted as a table, which is Excel’s version of a simple database. The title will show the running total for the month up to that day. Make Your Chart Title DynamicDid you know you can make your chart title update by linking it to a cell in your workbook? It’s a bit of a hack, but it’s a cool option that will make you look like a genius to your boss/client/mom.Dynamic titles are best suited for data that update on a regular basis, like daily numbers entered manually or pulled into Excel from a database.What I’m going to demonstrate is a PPC revenue report that updates daily. ![]()
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