Pie Chart

[Guest]

I am trying to learn how to do a pie chart. I used the Chart Wizard, but not
getting the data I want. I have a statistical page that gathers data from
another worksheet regarding paychecks. Below is a general layout:

Payck1 Payck2 Payck3
Reg Pay
OT Pay
Vacation
TOTAL GROSS
Fed Tax
State Tax
TOTAL TAX

With this layout, I can total each section for each paycheck AND total each
row, ie TOTAL FEDERAL TAXES. I want to chart the percentage of each row, IE
% Fed Tax, % State Tax, etc in a pie chart. NOTE that on the row that there
is "TOTAL", there is also a TOTAL percentage of that section, ie % of TOTAL
TAXES.

The problem is chart wizard will indicate an entire column as the data,
which will include the totals. I don't want the totals included in the pie
chart, just the individual row (item). How do I tell chart wizard to
overlook the row that has the totals?

Thanks,
Les

 

[Jon Peltier]

A pie chart is used to show parts of a whole (not effectively, but that's a
rant for another time). You have one whole, split two ways into parts. one
way is Reg Pay + OT Pay + Vacation = Total Gross. The other way is Fed Tax +
State Tax + Total Net = Total Gross. You can't put pay and tax onto a single
pie chart because {Reg Pay + OT Pay + Vacation} is where it comes from, and
{Fed Tax + State Tax + Total Net} is where it goes.

To compare three pay periods, use a stacked column chart, one column per pay
period, one series per type of pay. In step 2 of the chart wizard, you
should set series by rows. Multiple pie charts are really bad at this.

To draw a chart only using part of the data in a range, select just that
part of the range, then start the chart wizard.

- Jon