How to Make a Pie Chart in Excel, by Excel Tutorials by EasyClick Academy on YouTube. 3 min 16 s.
- Video length
- 3 min 16 s
- Time to do it
- 5 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 9
What you need
Steps
Open your Excel sheet and check that one column holds the category names and the next column holds the numbers.
Select both columns, including the header row if your table has one, so Excel knows what to plot.
Go to the Insert tab on the ribbon and click the Pie Chart icon in the Charts group.
Choose a simple 2-D pie chart from the menu. Excel places the chart on the sheet.
Drag the chart by its border to move it to a clear spot on the spreadsheet.
Resize the chart by dragging a corner handle until the labels and slices are easy to read.
Click the chart title placeholder and type a clear title, such as Monthly Sales by Product.
Use the Chart Styles or Design tab to pick a different colour set or chart style.
Click outside the chart to deselect it, then save your Excel workbook to keep the changes.
Tips and common mistakes
Keep the pie to about five to seven slices, because too many small slices are hard to read.
Pie charts suit part-to-whole data, so do not use them for trends over time.
If the chart looks wrong, right-click it and choose Select Data to check the range.
Add data labels from Chart Elements if readers need the exact values on each slice.
Questions
Why is my pie chart blank or wrong?
The selected range may include empty cells or text in the value column. Select only the label and number columns, then recreate the chart.
Can I show percentages on the slices?
Yes. Click the chart, open Chart Elements, tick Data Labels, then choose the percentage option in the label settings.
Should I use a pie chart for monthly sales over a year?
Use a pie chart only for one total split into parts. For sales across months, a line or column chart shows trends better.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
