How To Create A Graph In Google Sheets

Sometimes, formatting the texts and data in your spreadsheet isn’t enough to prove a point. Given that most people are more visual learners, incorporating tables and graphs would be more appropriate for them to understand the output better. 

Creating a graph in Google Sheets can be done using either your personal computer or mobile device. However, this will entirely focus on how you’ll be able to insert graphs using your personal computers only such as desktops and laptops. To find out more about this, follow the steps laid out below.

1. Go to Google Sheets using your web browser.

Open your most commonly used web browser and navigate your way to the Google Sheets website. Make sure to check if your account is signed in; if not, log into your account to access your previously created spreadsheets.

2. Select the spreadsheet that you wish to insert a graph with.

Upon logging into your account, browse all the spreadsheets that you’ve created and select the one that you would like to create a graph in. Click on the spreadsheet that you’ve chosen to open.

3. Highlight the cells that you want to include in your graph.

Browse through your spreadsheet and highlight the cells that contain the data that you wish to include in your graph. Make sure to include the column names and as well as titles, if there are any. If none, consider making them because this will be the basis for the titles and labels in your graph.

Note that your indication that you’ve successfully done this step is when the cells you selected are highlighted in blue.

4. Click the “Insert” menu.

From the menu bar on the top portion of your screen, locate the “Insert” menu and click on it. You’ll notice that doing this will make a drop-down list appear.

5. Select “Chart” from the list.

The drop-down list will contain several options such as Cells, Rows, Columns, Sheets, charts, and others. From that list, find “Chart” and click on it.  A pop-up window labeled as “Chart editor” will appear on the right side of your screen.

A chart will instantly appear in your spreadsheet, but don’t worry because you’ll still be able to edit it in the Chart Editor window.

6. Choose what type of chart you want to use.

In the Chart Editor window, find the drop-down menu labeled as “Chart type” and select the kind of chart that you want to use for your data. You may either select a Column chart, a Line chart, a Bar chart, an Area chart, a Pie chart, a Scatter chart, a Map chart, or any other types of charts from the options. For this example, we will use the Column chart.

7. Designate headers and labels for your graph.

From the Chart editor window, you will see at the bottom of it three checkboxes. Put a tick on “Use row __ as headers” and “Use column __ as labels” to include headers and labels in your selected chart. 

8. Customise your graph based on your preference.

This step is optional because it will entirely rely on how you want your graph to look, but in this tutorial, we will set the background color in “Light grey 2” by clicking on the “Customise” tab and choosing from the colors under the “Background color” menu. Keep in mind that you may customize your graph on your own.

9. Close the pop-up window and move your graph to where you want to place it. 

Notice that as you customize your graph, it automatically gets saved even without clicking on buttons such as  “Save” or “Apply.” This is the reason why after customizing your graph, all that’s left for you to do is to close the pop-up window by clicking on the “x” mark on the upper-right corner of it. After this, your graph might overlap with your data, so drag it and place it on the space you want it to be in.

Key Takeaways

It’s important to be aware of how to insert graphs in Google Sheets because it is one of the most essential elements that you could make use of whenever you create a spreadsheet. Just remember the steps presented above, and you’ll soon get a hold of them.