Add Data Charts to Your Blog Posts with Word 2007 and Excel 2007

A couple of days ago, I explained how to add diagrams to your blog posts in Microsoft Word 2007. Today, I will explain how to use Word 2007 and Excel 2007 to add charts to your blog posts.

In Word 2007, the process for creating numerical data charts is very simple:

1. Open up a new blog post.
   1. Note: If you don’t know how to open a new blog post, see Wednesday’s post.
   2. Note: These instructions will only work in Microsoft Word 2007; they will not work in earlier versions of Word.
2. Click the “Insert” tab on the ribbon.
3. In the “Illustrations” section of the ribbon, click “Chart” and then select the type of chart that you would like to create. A chart will appear into your blog post and Excel will open up in a window next to your Word blog post.
4. Enter the data that you want to appear in your chart into the Excel window. Changes made to the Excel table will automatically appear in the chart in your Word blog post.

Now that there is a basic chart set up, you can add effects to it. When the chart was created, three tabs under the heading, “Chart Tools,” should have appeared. The tools in the “Design” tab allow you to change the overall layout and styling of the chart. The tools in the “Layout” tab allow you to fine-tune the layout of the chart. The tools in the “Format” tab allow you to fine-tune the styling of individual components in the chart. Here is a sample chart:

In the above sample, I took a basic “Columns” chart, added a title section, changed the color scheme, enabled major and minor gridlines, and made the chart smaller.

I hope that this tutorial is helpful for those who want to make their blog posts more interesting. Stay tuned for more information about using Office 2007 to make your blog better. Have fun posting to your blog!