Your first chart · Code with Martin

Numbers can talk as a picture too

A column of grades you understand. A column chart even someone who came to you for two seconds understands. That is why a chart is made from a table with headings, not from random cells in the middle of a sheet.

A chart is not decoration. It is a second look at the same numbers. When a number in the table changes, the column in the chart must move. If it does not, the chart looks elsewhere.

Before you click Insert, the table must look like this. Open sheet Grades:

	A	B
1	Subject	Grade
2	Maths	2
3	Czech	1
4	English	3
5	Science	2
6	History	1

Row 1 is headings. Rows 2–6 are data. The average, if you have it in B8, does not belong in the chart. The chart would paint a column 1.8 for the subject “Average” and the class would think a subject Average exists.

From a table to columns

Click A1. Drag the mouse to select A1:B6. You must see a green frame around the headings and five grades. If you select only B2:B6, the chart will not know what the columns are called.
At the top Insert → Chart. In Google Sheets a column chart often pops up at once. If a line or a pie pops up, in the editor on the right pick Column chart.
The chart sits on the sheet. You should see five columns. The highest is English (3). The lowest are Czech and History (1). Axis Y starts from zero. If you do not see five columns, the data range is wrong — read on.
Click once on the chart title. Do not type Chart 1. Do not type Chart. Type a sentence that makes clear what it is: Grades — March. Or the month you really fill.
Click next to the chart, so the editor disappears. Leave the chart on the same sheet as the table. When you want it on the Dashboard, you will copy it. Now let it live with the data.

💡

A chart lives from data. Change B2 from 2 to 5. The Maths column must rise. If it does not move, the chart looks at another range. Three dots on the chart → Edit chart → Data range. There Grades!A1:B6 must light up, not A1:B8.

A chart title is a sentence

Chart 1 says nothing. A teacher, mum and you in a month will see five columns and will not know if it is March or June.

A good title:

Grades — March
How many voted for a snack
Spend for the week

A bad title: Chart, My chart, Sheet1.

In Sheets you click the title text and type straight away. In Excel it is the same — one click on the chart, a second on the title.

Which chart type

Three types are enough. You do not need more yet.

Column — a comparison next to each other. Subjects, flavours, points. This is the default. Leave it on grades.
Line — something in time. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Pocket money by days. A line says “how it went”, not “who won”.
Pie — only when parts add up to 100 % and there are few of them (three to five). Leave it off grades. Grade 1 and grade 5 are not slices of one pie.

⚠️

If you accidentally take the Average or Total row into the chart too, a column appears that does not belong. Select again only A1:B6. Leave the average under the table. Do not make a chart from it.

What often goes wrong

The wrong range. You select A2:B6 without headings. The chart invents Series 1 and Category 1. It looks like a foreign table. Go back and select row 1 too.

Two columns of text. If in column B the word two sits instead of number 2, the column in the chart is zero or missing. The cell must hold a number. You already know that from Cell kid.

A chart on an empty place. When you select C10:D14, where there is nothing, you get an empty frame. Always click the table with headings first.

A pie from five grades. It looks cheerful and it lies. A pie says “this is a share of a whole”. Grades are not a whole.

Download the chart as a picture

Into a report or a chat with a teacher do not send the whole workbook. A picture is enough.

Click the chart, so it has a frame around it.
In Sheets: three dots top right on the chart → Download → PNG. In Excel: right-click the chart → Save as picture, if the version can. If not, copy the chart (Ctrl+C) and paste it into a presentation.
The file is called something like chart.png. Rename it at once: grades-march.png. When you have five, you will know them.

Open the downloaded PNG. You must see the title Grades — March and five columns. If the title is still Chart 1, go back and fix it before the next download. The picture does not rewrite itself.

A PDF of the whole sheet is in the next chapter. Now it is enough to name a chart and save it as a picture.

📊 Class survey — a chart

On the survey sheet make a small table: column Answer, column Count. For example apple 8, roll 5, bar 4, nothing 5. Select both including the heading. Insert a column chart. Type the title as a question: What do you have at break? Not “Chart 2”. Then download a PNG. Into a report belongs a picture and under it one sentence from the table, not by eye from the height of a column.

Now you 💪

You have two jobs, not one.

First: a chart from Grades. Range A1:B6. A human title. Change one grade and check that the column moved.

Second: on Notes or on the survey sheet make four rows with counts (for example votes for a flavour). A second column chart. A different title. Download it as a PNG.

When you put it into a report, in the next chapter you will download a PDF of the whole sheet too. Now you should be able to name a chart and save it as a picture.

✅

Check: The chart has a name that makes clear what it is about. You see five columns from grades, not the average. A PNG is in Downloads and is not called chart.png. Data and the chart are on the same sheet, so they do not get lost.

What to take from this lesson

Select headings and numbers, then Insert → Chart. Do not take the average into the chart.
A chart title is a sentence, not “Chart 1”.
Column is the default. Line for time. Pie only for shares.
You download a chart as a PNG from the three dots. Name the file at once.