A Pie Charts is a good way to represent certain
types of data.
Let’s take this data, which shows some numbers
and the amount spent on the calls in February.
I go to Insert and under Pie you’ll see
there are a whole bunch of Pie Charts.
We’ll get on to a few of them just now but
let’s just do a standard 2D-Pie.
When I click on it, you get the following
chart.
What this chart is showing is which phone
calls are being made or which is the most
expensive phone number – the number we call
most often.
Remember you can customize what it looks like
with the Chart Layout so let’s look in here
and perhaps you can find something that looks
like what you want – so maybe that one – click
into it – perhaps that is not quite right
– maybe that one.
You can see what it has done – in this case
it has put the percentages within the series.
If you need to customize that you can click
and in this case on the data labels – right
click – go to Format Data Labels and decide
what you want to show, so perhaps you want
to show some other items – where you want
to put it.
The majority of these items are fairly standard.
What is different with the Pie Chart.
I am just going to right click on the series
and I say Format Data Series.
You’ll see the Fill, Border Colours, etc
– these are all standard.
But the series options for each chart type
will be slightly different.
So in this case you’ll see they talk about
the angle of the first slice.
The first slice is this item here and you’ll
see it starts at the very top pointing upwards.
I can say let’s rotate it a bit.
So I am going to click on here and you’ll
see as I move it along the rotation changes.
So that first slice now perhaps we want it
to appear over there, at 900.
So you can customize where the slices should
appear.
You can also see we have an option relating
to the pie explosion.
At the moment it is set as “Together”.
When I click on it and maybe move it along,
what it does, is it explodes outwards.
You can go to the absolute extreme and we
can put it all back together so we have got
a single slice.
Because of the nature of Pie Charts – in
this case you don’t have an option to split
the axes.
I am just closing it.
Be aware as well that you can click on a particular
series, so we will click on all the series.
I click again and only that series is highlighted.
You can click and drag that particular one
out – you can explode the chart manually.
So perhaps these two items you want to expand
on.
Let’s undo those two.
Let’s look at some of the other Pie Charts
available.
So I am going to go to Change Chart Type.
And with the Pie you’ll see we have got
a 3D version, and then we have got some interesting
ones.
There is something called a Pie of Pie – There
is Exploded Pie, and there is this other one
called Bar of Pie.
The Bar of Pie and Pie of Pie are very similar,
I am going to choose this one.
Say OK.
What you’ll see now is we have a Pie chart,
but what it has done is taken some of the
items out of the list, put them into a common
area and then expanded them in a Bar Chart.
Now if we right click on the Series – so
I go to Series and I say Format Data Series,
you’ll see I have a number of new options.
The first thing it says – Series Options
– it says Split the Series by Position and
the Second plot contains the last four values.
What you’ll see is because of the way the
data is set up the main Pie will contain these
numbers.
And the last four items have been combined
into this segment and split up over here.
You can change that so let’s say I want
it to contain only the last three, so watch
what is happening there when I change that
to three and you’ll see the chart changes.
I am just going to change it back to four.
You’ll see that you don’t have to use
the Position, if we click here we can tell
it to do it by Value.
Now in this case the values are going to be
the same because the Value is in ascending
order and you’ll see here the option here
is Second plot contains all values less than:-
and you can now decide, so let’s say we
want all values less than 50, for example.
When we do that any number, or any value less
than 50 – in this case coincidentally the
last four will be extracted.
Maybe just do values less than 100.
So you’ll see there is only one value more
than 100, all the rest are now shown in the
bar chart.
Let’s go back to 50.
Let’s see what else we can do.
There is an item here called Percentage Value-
the same basics.
It looks at the percentage and decides what
belongs where and we can say the Second Plot
contains all Values less than 10%, depending
what the percentage is, the numbers will be
pushed backwards and forwards through here.
The last option to Split the Series by, is
something called Custom and it will tell you
to “Select a Data point to move between
plots”.
I am going to say Close.
Let’s say, based on this, we actually want
this item to be back in the main area.
I click once, you’ll see we are now in the
data point and I right click – I say Format
Data Point and you’ll see it now says it
has split series by Custom – where do you
want to set this point to belong – at the
moment it is belonging to the Second Plot
and you can say, no, please move that to the
First Plot, and you’ll see it is pulled
out of the Bar and into the Pie.
Perhaps this bigger one, you actually want
to move out of the Pie and into the Bar – same
logic – click on the Data Point, so it only
activates that data point, right click say
Format Data Point.
In this case the point is going to belong
to- I am going to put it into the Second Plot
and you’ll see the chart adjusts itself.
Just getting back to the overall formatting,
if I click on the Series, right click and
say Format Data Series – there are some
options lower down – so you’ll see we
can, again, control the pie explosion and
as we move the pie explodes or doesn’t.
The new option here is something called Gap
Width, which is the width between the pie
and the bar.
At the moment it is set at 150, if I move
it, you’ll see the gap increases – or
go to the extreme – let’s make it zero-
you’ll see they are basically on top of
each other.
Go back to Format Data Series – Gap width
– let’s just make it a bit more reasonable
again at 150.
You can also decide what the Second Plot Size
must be- at the moment it is set at small.
We are going to click on it and just move
it along and you’ll see we can make it grow.
Perhaps you want to emphasize that particular
plot – you can see you can keep going to
a fairly significant amount.
So you can control these pie charts to the
nth degree.
