- 1). Open Microsoft Excel. Click the "File" tab. Click "Open." Browse to the Excel spreadsheet with the data to turn into a bar chart and double-click the filename.
- 2). Highlight the cells -- including any column or row headers -- to use for the bar chart.
- 3). Click the "Insert" tab at the top of the work area. Click the "Bar" button in the Charts part of the tab.
- 4). Select a bar type, such as 3-D. Excel instantly portrays the cell data in a bar chart on the spreadsheet.
- 5). Change colors of the bars by scrolling through the Chart Styles section of the Ribbon at the top of the page. Change individual bar colors by double-clicking that color line on the graph. When the Format Data Point" window comes up, click the "Solid Fill" radio button. Click the "Color" button under the Fill Color section and choose a new line color. Repeat for other lines as desired.
- 6). Format the text in the chart, such as the X-axis headers, by clicking on them. Click the "Home" tab at the top of the workspace. Click one of the options in the Font section of the Ribbon, such as the bold "B" button.
- 7). Resize the chart by clicking any of its corners and dragging out to enlarge or in to shrink. Excel adjusts the bars to the new size of the chart.
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