Ravindra BagaleCourses & study guides

16. Practice Exercises with Answer Hints

16.7 Module 8: Charts

  1. Clustered column chart of city sales, sorted largest to smallest. Hint: sort the source first; Insert › Charts › Clustered Column.
  2. Line chart of daily sales for October 2026 with the Diwali peak labelled. Hint: add one data label on the peak point (right-click the point › Add Data Label).
  3. Combo chart: sales (columns) and delivery minutes (line on a secondary axis). Hint: Insert › Combo › Custom Combination › tick Secondary Axis for the line.
  4. When would you use a pie chart, and when not? Hint: part-of-whole with 2–5 categories; not for trends or many categories.
  5. Sparklines of monthly sales for each city. Hint: Insert › Sparklines › Line; data range = month columns.
  6. A chart that changes when a city is chosen from a drop-down. Hint: Data Validation list + helper row with XLOOKUP or INDEX-MATCH; chart on the helper row.

Ravindra Bagale's Tip

Many students select the Grand Total in the chart too – then one huge bar makes all the city bars look tiny. When selecting the range for a chart, leave out the total row/column. And write an insight in the chart title, not just "Chart 1".