For example, Column charts illustrate how data changes over time, but they’re also the best design to show comparisons among items. Bar charts are, essentially, just horizontal Column charts and ...

The most commonly used chart type for discrete data is the column chart. Each vertical column in the chart represents one data value, with the height of the column denoting the frequency of the value.

Charts and sparklines are powerful data visualization tools in Excel. Here’s a guide to the most popular chart types in Excel and how to best use them.

Enter the “ Column Column Chart ” in Microsoft Excel, a clever visualization technique that combines category-level data with overall totals to tell a more complete story.

In the example, you would select cells "A1" through "E4." Click the "Insert" tab, then "Column" from the Charts group and "Cluster Column" from the drop-down menu.

A column chart makes details even clearer as you can simply compare the marks of 2 students by observing the respective heights of the columns. A column graph for the above-mentioned example has ...

This example illustrates methods for controlling the order of rows and columns in a comparative Pareto chart.

In PowerPoint 2003, Chart is in the Insert menu. Select a chart type; the example uses a Clustered Column. Then, click OK. PowerPoint will launch Excel, so you can enter the chart data.