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Excel Chart Type Chooser From a Small Data Sample

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Pick the right chart for the message and avoid misleading ones.

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Help me choose a chart type in Excel. A small sample of my data with headings and values: [DATA_SAMPLE]. What I want the reader to understand or decide: [MESSAGE]. Who will see it and where (report, slide, email): [AUDIENCE_AND_PLACE]. Chart types I was thinking of: [IDEAS].

Classify what I want to show: comparison between categories, change over time, parts of a whole, relationship between two measures, or distribution. Recommend one chart type and a runner-up with the reason, and name types to avoid for this data and why (for example a pie with eight slices, a 3D column, a line chart for unordered categories). State when a table would be clearer than any chart; one message per chart.

Give the Excel steps: arrange the data, select it, insert the chart, set the axis scale and where it starts, sort the categories, add direct labels, choose colours that work in greyscale, and write a title that states the finding [VERIFY menu names]. Calculate the numbers the title uses, for example from 480 to 540 is a rise of 60, or 12.5 percent. Return the recommendation, steps, title and axis label text, a checklist for misleading features, and alt text under 125 characters. Use only my data.

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Invented data: monthly refunds, January to June: 90, 88, 92, 60, 45, 41. Message: refunds fell after the packaging change in March. Type: line chart (change over time); runner-up: column chart; avoid: pie. Steps: axis starts at zero; one dark line; marker at March labelled 'New packaging'; label the last point 41. Title: 'Refunds fell by about half after the packaging change'. Check: average before about 90, June 41; fall of 49 / 90 = 54 percent. Alt text: line chart of monthly refunds falling from 92 in March to 41 in June.

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