If you look at the gray line for June, you can see that we’ve had a steady decline from one June to the next across all five years, to the point that the values for May have surpassed the values for June in the last two years. However, using the cycle plot, we can also see how the values for individual months have changed across the years by looking at the gray lines. This much we could also see by looking at a line graph of the monthly means.

We can also see that the values steadily trended upwards from January through June before dropping off in July.

For instance, by comparing the blue horizontal lines, we can see that June is the month with the second highest values on average, following December. The strength of the cycle plot is that it allows us to see a cyclical pattern (in this case the pattern formed by the means across the months of a year) and how the individual values from which that pattern was derived have changed during the entire period. The overlapping horizontal blue line represents the mean for the five years of January values. Looking at it we can see that little changed in January between 20, then values dipped in 2011 and then increased again in 20. For instance, the first gray line from the left represents January. You’ll then see many tools in the ribbon for adding chart elements, changing the layout, colors, or style, choosing different data, and switching rows and columns.In this cycle plot, the gray lines each represent the values for a particular month across the five-year period from 2009 through 2013. To display the Chart Design tab, select the chart. You can use the Chart Design tab, the Format Chart sidebar, and on Windows, you can use the handy buttons on the right of the chart. Just like there are various ways to select the type of chart you want to use in Excel, there are different methods for customizing it. RELATED: How to Make a Bar Chart in Microsoft Excel How to Customize a Graph or Chart in Excel Whichever way you go about choosing the chart you want to use, it will pop right onto your sheet after you select it.įrom there, you can customize everything from the colors and style to the elements that appear on the chart. For example, if you choose a column or bar chart, you can select 2-D or 3-D column or 2-D or 3-D bar. There is a drop-down arrow next to each chart type for you to pick the style.

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