Selectable Criteria

[GoodTrouble]

I have some cells with sales figures in them. Currently there is a simple bar
graph / chart that displays these figures. What I would like to do is somehow
make it so a user can select certain criteria, say from drop down boxes?

Such as:
B8:M8 are months, Jan-Dec
A9:A15 are categories

I would like to be able to select which data the graph displays by a drop
down, so if the user wanted, they could show only values for New Sales in
Oct. Nov. And Dec. for example, these criteria can change at any time...

Is this possible?

 

[Jon Peltier]

You could apply an autofilter to the source data. By default, data in hidden
rows is not plotted.

- Jon

 

[GoodTrouble]

How would I set up the Auto Filter, I am not familiar enough with filters to
be able to attach such a thing to a drop down menu

 

[Jon Peltier]

The autofilter has its own dropdowns. You simply need a data range with
column headers. Select the range, go to Data > Filter > Autofilter. Then use
the dropdowns to make your selections. A chart based on the entire range
will update based on these selections.

- Jon

 

[GoodTrouble]

Thanks so much! It's working for one criteria, now I just have to get it to
work for the second...I have the 12 months across a row, and then I have 5 or
6 criteria going down column A, but if I select the row, it wants to sort by
the numbres that are in the corresponding cells below the months...is there a
way to filter by the months (column headings)?

 

[Jon Peltier]

The Autofilter only filters out rows. Maybe you need a pivot table & pivot
chart. You would need to change your data layout, though, so that you have a
column for Month.

- Jon

 

[GoodTrouble]

I will work on it, I don't really know what a pivot table is either haha.
Thank you for your help though!

 

[Jon Peltier]

Start here, follow the links to the various tutorials:

http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Pivots/pivotstart.htm

- Jon