MS Excel Lesson 10

Lesson Plan – Microsoft Excel

Class 10

Objectives:

• Insert and format graphs

1. To start with graphs, open up Exercise 10 from yesterday and ask the class to do the same. We need to use the data to create the first practice graphs. Because it is a rather complicated process, it’s important to demonstrate the creation of a graph before getting students involved in their own.

2. Click on Insert>Graph (Inserir>Gráfico) or just click the small graph button on the standard toolbar. This will open up a 4 step assistant to create the graph.

3. The first step is to choose the type of graph. We will stick to the basic ones in this class. The list on the left is the general type of graph (bar, circular, line etc). Once you click on a type and highlight it, several subtypes will appear on the right. Each one shows a small preview, and if you click on one, a brief description will appear in the area below. For the first graph, stick to the most basic type (grouped columns – the default subtype). Click Next (Seguinte).

4. The second step is also the most complicated. You must choose the data to be included with the graph. For Exercise 10, let’s use the student names and their final average.
   
   1. Click and drag on the spreadsheet to select the cells that contain the students’ names. Include the cell “Nome Alunos” as well, so as to keep the title of the column. Now we have half our data.
   2. To select the other part (their grades), you must press and hold Ctrl, otherwise you will deselect the first data. Also include the “Média Final” cell for the title.
   3. Sometimes you will have to switch back and forth between Series in Rows or Columns. This is difficult to explain, but it is essentially how Excel will divide up the data for the graph. If you select Row, each bar (or line, wedge, etc) on the graph will represent a row from the source table. If you select Column, each bar will be column from the table.
   4. Once the data range is selected, a preview of the graph will show up. Click Next.

5. In the third step, you can choose options. We can ignore most of this, but a couple of the tabs are important.
   
   1. Titles: In the first tab, you can add labels to the graph and to any of the axes.
   2. Legend: You can activate or deactivate the legend of the graph here. If it’s activated, you can also choose where to place it.

6. The fourth step is negligible, but you can choose to place the graph in a separate sheet, or as an object in the current sheet. When you are done, click Finish (Concluir).

7. Now have the class run through creating an identical graph, giving them ample time between each step so that no one falls behind.

 

8. Hand out Exercise 12. Exercises 13, 14 and 15 are extra regular exercises for more practice.