Tech Tip for Writers #57: How to Create a Chart Really Fast
Tech Tips for Writers is an (almost) weekly post on overcoming Tech Dread. I’ll cover issues that friends, both real-time and virtual, have shared. Feel free to post a comment about a question you have. I’ll cover it in a future Tip.
Q: What’s the easiest way to create Excel charts from data?
A: Writing is your love, but if you earn money doing it, you collect data, and if you have data, you likely need to turn it into easily-read charts every now and then.
Excel makes that easy. Collect all of your data onto an Excel spreadsheet, categories labeled as columns and rows. Highlight the labels and data and push F11.
That’s it–a simple chart.
For more detail, here’s a link to a lesson plan I use with grades 3-5 on creating quick charts from data.
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Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-sixth grade and creator of two technology training books for middle school. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for five blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, IMS tech expert, and a bi-weekly contributor to Write Anything. Currently, she’s editing a thriller for her agent that should be out to publishers this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Filed under: tech tips for writers Tagged: charts, Excel, tech tips, writers tips
