How to Make a Pie Chart in Excel [Video Tutorial]

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Then you want to make a Pie Chart in Excel. But do you know: Pie Chart is the worst chart in the world! These are not my words. Read this article by Walter Hickey, the reporter for Business Insider covering politics and finance. He said that. Do you still learn how to create a Pie Chart in Excel? Then this article is for you.

This article will cover the following topics of Excel Pie Chart:

  • You will learn how to create and customize a Pie Chart in detail.
  • You will learn how to create “Bar of Pie” chart and “Pie of Pie” chart.
  • And you will be introduced to the “Format Data Labels” task pane.

Make a Pie Chart in Excel 2013 – Video Tutorial

Video Transcript

A pie chart is useful when you have only a series of data and you want to show the data in relative proportions of a value. Pie charts are most effective with a small number of data points. Generally, a pie chart should not use more than 5 to 6 data points. A pie chart with so many data points can be very difficult to interpret. In this worksheet, you see a range of data here.

The data is about Apple, Orange, and Mango sales month-wise. So, this range has 3 data series. Apple Sales data series, Orange Sales data series, and Mango Sales data series. So, this is not possible to create a pie chart using this whole data range. But you can create a pie chart using only Apple Sales Series or Orange Sales series or Mango Sales Series. I select this range. Then click on the Insert tab, click on the Pie Chart drop-down, the drop-down list shows 3 sections. 2-D pie, 3-D pie, and Doughnut.

2-D pie has three categories: the first one is Regular Pie Chart, then Pie of Pie, and then Bar of Pie chart, 3-D pie, and Doughnut chart doesn’t have any category. I click on the 3-D pie chart. A pie chart of the “Apple Sales” series is inserted into the worksheet. You can choose any other style for your chart. But I take this default one. I click on the PIE chart. All the slices of the PIE chart are selected. To select only a single slice, click again on the slice that you want to select. I select this slice. You can format the slice in your own way. I open the Format contextual tab. I select the Dark Blue Text 2 color for this slice.

I select the next slice. And I select Red Accent 2 color for this slice. I select Next slice, choose Olive green color, I select next slice, and select Purple color. For the next slice I select color aqua, for the next slice I select color Orange. You can explode a slice from the whole pie, just select a slice, and then drag the slice a little bit away from the main pie. Click on the Chart Elements icon, the list appears with three elements: I select “Data Labels”, data labels are added with the pie chart. Data labels are the values of the Apples Sales series for this case. You can show the data labels in percentage. Click on the little right arrow that appears when you hover your mouse pointer over the Data Labels element.

A list appears. Click on More Options. Format Data Labels task pane appears. Click on percentage, you see in the PIE Chart, both percentage and values are showing, I deselect values, now you see only percentages are showing. I close the task pane. I copy this pie chart and paste in two new locations in the Worksheet. All are the same charts. They are showing pie chart of Apple series. I make them little bit smaller to adjust them in the worksheet. Now I click on the second Apple Chart, I want to show the Orange series in this chart.

Right click on the chart, choose Select Data option, click on the Edit button, as Series name I select Orange Sales, and as series values I select the Orange Sales values. You see before I click on the OK button, the chart is already changed with new data. I click OK and then OK. I select now the last chart, the chart is selecting this data range. I want to move the selection from Apple Sales to Mango Sales. I move the mouse pointer over the border of the selection, and drag the selection to Mango Sales. WOW, you see the pie chart is now set for Mango Sales series. Really nice. If you have more points in your data series you can use “Bar of Pie” chart or you can use “Pie of Pie” chart. Open the second worksheet.

You see here, Apple, Orange and Mango Sales series have eight data points. I select Apple Sales series, click on the Insert Tab, I choose “Bar of Pie” chart. A “bar of pie” chart is inserted into the worksheet. I add data labels. Let’s insert the category names into the chart, Category names means Month names. Click on the Little drop down right after the Data Labels. A list appears with some options. I click on More Options. Format Data Labels task pane appears. I select Category name, deselect Value and add percentage. Close the task pane. I select style 7 for the chart to make the chart more readable.

I increase the chart size a little bit. You see a new slice has been added; name of the slice is other. This “other” slice is combination of these three bar charts, Winter, Spring, and Autumn. 15 plus 11 plus 8 is 34. But it would be nice, if Summer was also added in this bar chart. Let’s shift the Summer to the Bar chart. Right click anywhere on the PIE chart; choose Format Data Series, Format Data Series task pane appears. In the Format Data Series task pane, I change the Values in Second Plot to 4 from 3.

You see Summer is already added to the bar chart. Close the task pane. I select the “Other” slice, and explode it a little bit. Nice. Copy the chart, and create two new pie charts. And change the data series for the Charts one by one. WOW. Three pie charts have been created within very short time. Pie chart is very important. So learn it very well. This is all about PIE chart.

Read More: How to Make Two Pie Charts with One Legend in Excel

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Wrapping Up

So, you see making a Pie Chart in Excel 2013 is not a tough job. Just you have to practice and understand the concept of creating a chart. The rest is easy.

Any Question on how to make a Pie Chart in Excel 2013? Feel free to ask in the comment section. I will be very happy to hear and learn more from you. Do you have any critical problems with Excel Pie Chart? Share the problem in the comment section, I will try to solve it.


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Kawser Ahmed
Kawser Ahmed

Kawser Ahmed is a Microsoft Excel Expert, Udemy Course Instructor, Data Analyst, Finance professional, and Chief Editor of ExcelDemy. He is the founder and CEO of SOFTEKO (a software and content marketing company). He has a B.Sc in Electrical and Electronics Engineering. As a Udemy instructor, he offers 8 acclaimed Excel courses, one selected for Udemy Business. A devoted MS Excel enthusiast, Kawser has contributed over 200 articles and reviewed thousands more. His expertise extends to Data Analysis,... Read Full Bio

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