Excel Sort, Subtotal, Filter and Charts
Introduction
Excel offers a variety of tools for the analysis and visualization of data. In this lecture we’ll provide a Guided Tour several
basic tools for Excel data analysis and presentation:
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Charts provide graphical representations of data. Charts allow analysts to more easily and quickly compare data,
identify exceptions and trends than would be possible with tabular data. Excel has a rich variety of charts
including column, bar, pie, scatter and area charts.
Sorting data by category, ascending or descending numerical or alphabetic order is used to reorder data prior to
additional analysis.
Subtotals aggregate data for analysis at differing levels of detail.
Filters provide for analyzing subsets of the total data.
Transposing switches the orientation of the rows and columns prior to analysis. Visualize rotation a table 90
degrees. The change in orientation shift the primary focus and secondary data focus.
This lecture uses U.S. Census Bureau data.
Guided Tour
Column, Pie Census Data
We’re interested in exploring the population changes that have occurred between the first (1910) and last (2010)
decades provided in the data provided by the Census Bureau. Graphical charts data population trends will become more
apparent.
1. Download the workbook census_data.xlsx located on the course page in the Excel_Tour_2 subfolder
(http://www.cs.mtsu.edu/~mjy2f/1150/tours/Excel_Tour_2/)
Remember to choose to SAVE the file, and not just OPEN it asks you.
2. Once it has downloaded, open the workbook and save it with the name “census_data_yourname” to the
Documents folder or your USB drive.
(i.e., Click the “File” tab and choose to “Save As”)
3. Create a copy of the RegionRaw worksheet (right click the tab at the bottom of the sheet and choose “Move or
Copy…” like we did last time)
4. Rename it Analysis_1 by right-clicking on the new tab that was created by the copy.
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Excel Sort, Subtotal, Filter and Charts
Working in the Analysis_1 tab
5. Hide all columns except A, B and L.
a. To do this, select columns C through K by clicking and dragging the mouse
b. Right-click the highlighted area and select Hide
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Excel Sort, Subtotal, Filter and Charts
6. Be sure the full spreadsheet title is visible by selecting range A1-L1 and clicking Merge & Center in the alignment
pane.
7. Select visible range A3-L7
8. Insert a 2D Clustered Column
a. Click on the “Insert” tab
b. Click on the “Column” button
c. Click on the first icon that says “Clustered Column” when you put the mouse on it
9. Select Chart Layout, Layout 1
a. In the “Chart Layouts” section on the top, click this left-most icon that says “Layout 1” when you put the
mouse over it.
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Excel Sort, Subtotal, Filter and Charts
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Click in data cell “A1” and Change the Chart Title to Regional Population Comparison
Click in any white space on the chart and move it up the page, next to the data cells (to create more room)
Select range A3 – B7 (by clicking and dragging the mouse) and
Insert a 2D Pie, Chart Layouts – Layout 1
a. Click the “Insert” tab
b. Click the button for “Pie”
c. Click the first icon
d. In the “Chart Layouts” section choose the first icon for “Layout 1”
14. Click on the chart title once and change the font size to 12 point font
15. Click on the chart title a second time and change the name to 1910 Regional Populations
16. Move this chart to an open space in your spreadsheet, to create room for the next chart
17. Select range L3-L7
18. Insert a 2D Pie, Chart Layouts – Layout 1
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Click on the chart title once and change the font size to 12 point font
Click on the chart title a second time and change the name to 2010 Regional Populations
Go to the “Page Layout” tab and in the “Scale to Fit” area, change the width and height each to “1 page”.
Put your first and last names on the spreadsheet starting in N1 and use Merge & Center to ensure its visible (the
number of columns will depend on your name’s length)
23. Click the Column chart
a. Click the Design tab and click Change Chart Type
b. Change the type to 3D Clustered Column
24. On the Page Layout tab, in the Page Setup pane, ensure the Orientation is Landscape
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Excel Sort, Subtotal, Filter and Charts
Your worksheet should appear something like this:
25. Save the workbook
26. Submit your completed workbook to the D2L folder Excel Tour 2
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