IT Business Applications

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IT Business Applications

• Week 2
• Introduction to Graphs and Charts

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Objectives for Week 2

• After studying this weeks work, you should be
  able to
• present data in the form of graphs and charts
  using a variety of methods
• Modify charts to obtain the best and most
  appropriate presentations
• Use available tools in Excel to add trend lines

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Using these Presentations

• The presentations are only meant as an
  introduction to the topics each week.
• In a lecture-session, you should take notes, but
  you should also follow this up by working through
  the presentations by yourself or in groups, in
  order that you make full use of the material.

4
Charts

• A chart is any form of graphical representation
  of data
• In this case we are comparing the profits in
  millions of two companies

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Cornershop Data
As an example, of how we create charts we will
look at the data we used in week 1
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Action Point!

• Open up the spreadsheet created for Formative
  Activity 1 last week.
• Bring the first page to the screen.
• Follow the actions as we go through the slides.

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Differences in Excel Versions

• You may find that in some of the activities that
  follow, the dialogue boxes and the procedures may
  be slightly different on different versions of
  Excel.
• Use the keywords and Help Files if what is in the
  slide does not seem to match what is on your
  screen.

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Cornershop Data
To begin with, we will graph the sales of
Newspapers for Aughton
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On the spreadsheet, select the area you wish to
graph
Then select the Chart Wizard icon
The Chart Wizard dialogue box appears
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check the data range
select the chart type
put it on the same sheet or create an new sheet
add title and axis labels
Finished!
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The First Chart
After creating your chart, you may not be totally
happy with the way that it looks.
You can change the chart in lots of different
ways
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Editing the Chart 1
Click on the outside of the chart, then on View,
and select Toolbars, and select Chart
The Chart toolbar appears. This will allow you to
change some features of the chart
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Challenges 1

• Remove the Legend
• Add the data to the chart
• Change the chart into
• A jagged line graph
• A pie chart
• A scatter graph of points
• 3-dimensional graph
• Change the title and the data labels.

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Editing the Chart 2
Click on the edge of the chart, then on Chart ,
then Chart Options, and this box appears.
This option box will allow you to change more
features than on the toolbar.
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Editing the Chart 3
Click on the edge of the chart, then on Chart ,
then Chart Type, and this box appears.
When you get bored with the ordinary types you
can try some custom types
This box supplies you with more chart types than
you could possibly want.
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Challenges 2

• Use the edit boxes from the previous two slides
  to change the chart.
• Firstly, explore the wide range of different
  charts that you can create.
• Secondly, experiment with different types of
  formatting this should include
• different viewpoints for for 3-D charts
• different sized text
• different orientations of text
• different fonts and colours.

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A More Complex Chart
We will now plot the whole of the original
Aughton data (not totals)
Highlight the whole block of data shown, and
click Chart Wizard
Select Line graph as chart type, and add in title
and axis labels
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Comparing Data
This is the chart that is produced. It is
possible to create other charts for the same data
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Alternative Presentation
Although this is the same data the chart looks
different, and is much harder to interpret
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Changing Perspectives
If you click on the chart itself, then on Chart,
then 3D view, This dialogue box appears. You can
change the orientation of the chart, and obtain a
better view of it.
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Graphing separate blocks
If you wish to graph different blocks of data on
the same chart, highlight the first block of
data, then hold down the Ctrl key. Then highlight
the next block, and so on. When all the blocks
have been highlighted, use the Chart Wizard.
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Editing Individual Elements
If you move your cursor over different parts of
the chart, you will find that a small information
box comes up telling you about that element. If
you right-click with the cursor, you can obtain
the edit panel for that element directly
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Different views
Moving your cursor over a corner of the chart ,
it changes to a cross. When this happens, you can
left-click and drag the corner around to a
different orientation.
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Challenge 3

• Use the tools in the previous slides to
• Create a chart to compare newspapers with
  confectionery
• Change the viewpoint, font size and orientation
  to obtain views like

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Interpreting the Chart

• Producing a chart is by no means the end of the
  story, in fact its just the beginning.
• Part of the art here is to produce charts which
  tell a story
• This means finding relationships in the data and
  selecting charts which express these most clearly.

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Challenge 3

• Note down three different features of this data
  that you can see immediately from the chart.
• Compare these with the person next to you.
• Do you think that what you have noticed would be
  of interest to the Area Sales Manager of
  Cornershop Ltd.? that is, to what extent do you
  think that these features might have explanations
  in real world events, rather than just random
  fluctuations?

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Possible Interpretations

• For most of the week, the sales figures (least to
  greatest) are Stationery, Confectionery,
  Newspapers and Grocery
• There does not seem to be much call for
  Stationery.
• On Sunday Newspapers outperform Groceries.
• There appears to be a bit of a dip in mid-week
  sales. This most affects grocery and
  confectionery

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Adding Trend Lines
Create a scatter graph of points for News, and
move your cursor over one of the points. When the
description of the point appears, right-click and
select Add TrendLines from the menu
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Adding Trend Lines

• The safest option is to add a straight line, but
  you could experiment with
• polynomial (curved lines the order controls the
  number of hills valleys)
• Moving average (the period number of days used
  to create the average)

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Interpreting the Trend Line
The Trend Line looks for the overall pattern in
the data. In this case, when the random
fluctuations for each day have been ironed out,
there is a gradual rise in sales over the week.
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Summary of Week 2
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Week 2 Materials

• Bulletin 2, an html document explaining what to
  do in this week.
• PowerPoint Presentation 3 (this one!), which is
  the main lecture for the week
• Cornershop Data, a spreadsheet file.
• Formative Activity 2, a Word Document, which
  challenges you to create a series of graphs and
  charts for the for Cornershop sales.
• Sources of Data Information, an html document
  outlining the different places that business
  information may be found, and some of the
  purposes to which it is put.
• On-Line Spreadsheet Tutorials, an html document
  containing instructions and advice about Excel
  tutorials, giving hyperlinks to Web-based
  resources