The chart we have been working with so far has been fairly straightforward. It simply plots a single line that shows Q1 sales for each of the four categories. But what if we wanted to create a more sophisticated chart? What if we wanted to show the sales for all 4 quarters instead of just the first?

We can do this by right-clicking on the chart and selecting the “modify data range” option

The existing data range contains 2 columns, one for the category titles and another for that holds the Q1 values. If we want to show the values for the other 3 quarters we need to change the selection to include the data columns for all 4 quarters.

You can do this by typing a new value in the range box or by clicking on one corner of the selection area, then clicking on the opposite corner of the desired selection while holding the shift key.

Click the create button and the new chart will show a line for each quarter.

Now that we have changed the data displayed in the chart lets change the format one more time.

Right click on the chart, and select chart type form the menu. Click the icon to change the chart type from lines to columns.

Notice the “variants” window near the bottom on the screen. This lets you select different ways of arranging your data series on the chart.

The normal variant displays data in a series stacked next to each other. The Stacked variant stacks all the variants on top of each other in a single column. The percent variant stacks values on top of each other, but they are sized proportionally to show each series as a percentage.

The final variant - a combination chart – lets you overlay a line chart over a column chart. For this example, choose the stacked variant and click the OK button.

Now our chart shows data for all 4 quarters broken down by product category - just like we wanted.