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Advanced Functions and

Charts

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Icons key: For more detailed instructions, see the Getting Started presentation

Functional Skills check

Student task accompanies this slide Printable activity

This lesson will cover:

Using spreadsheet charts to display data.

Some more advanced features of spreadsheets.

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Advantages of charts

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Graphs

Make sure you choose the most appropriate graph type for your data. Using the wrong graph type can cause confusion.

To create a chart or graph:

Organize and highlight the data you wish to use.Select Chart from the Insert Menu.Follow the instructions of the Chart Wizard.

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Graph types

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Once you have created your chart you can add titles and data labels. A chart has different menu options depending on where you click your mouse.

Labelling charts

Right-clicking on a blank space within the chart area will allowyou to select chart options. From here you can add a titleand axis labels.

Title

X axis label

Y axis label

Double-clicking on areas of the graph itself will allow you to change its colours and the thickness of its lines.

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Legends

A chart is of no value if you do not know what the colours of each section, line or bar represent. Therefore, it is important to create a key or legend which tells the userthe information they need in order to interpret the graph properly.

This does not tell the user what the datameans.

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Advanced functions and charts

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Adding trend lines

Once a chart has been created in a spreadsheet, you can add a trend line which can be used in forecasting future trends.

To do this you simply select the chart and then click Add

Trendline in the Chart menu.

What are the potential inaccuracies of trend lines?

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Advanced features

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Forms

Spreadsheets can also be designed to be used in a similar way to database forms.

You can access a FormsMenu by right-clicking on the menu bar.

You could set up a spreadsheet with radio buttons or drop-down lists and use a macro as a submit button which would then store the results in another worksheet.

This could be one way of creating an online survey which would automatically collect responses.

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Remember the terms

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True or false?