Datasheet

Parts of a Chart
A chart is made up of many different elements, and all of these elements are optional. Yes,
you can create a chart that contains no chart elements — an empty chart. It’s not very use-
ful, but Excel allows it.
Refer to the chart in Figure 1-5 as you read the following description of the chart’s elements.
Figure 1-5: Parts of a chart
This particular chart is a “combination” chart that displays two data series: Income and
Profit Margin. Income is plotted as vertical columns, and the Profit Margin is plotted as a
line with square markers. Each bar (or marker on the line) represents a single data point
(the value in a cell).
The chart has a horizontal axis, known as the category axis. This axis represents the cate-
gory for each data point (January, February, and so on). This axis doesn’t have a label
because the category units are obvious.
Notice that this chart has two vertical axes. These are known as value axes, and each one
has a different scale. The axis on the left is for the column series (Income), and the axis on
the right is for the line series (Profit Margin).
The value axes also display scale values. The axis on the left displays scale values from 0
to 250,000, in major unit increments of 50,000. The value axis on the right uses a different
scale: 0 percent to 14 percent, in increments of 2 percent. For a value axis, you can control
the minimum and maximum values, as well as the increment value.
A chart with two value axes is appropriate because the two data series vary dramatically in
scale. If the Profit Margin data was plotted using the left axis, the line would not even be
visible.
Part I: Chart Basics
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