I85PREP
⌘ K
MO-200 study materials
MO-200 study resources

MO-200: Manage charts

MO-200 · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

All guide sections

Manage charts

The Manage charts domain covers creating charts from ranges, tables, named ranges, and PivotTables; choosing chart types; editing source data; adding chart elements; and formatting series and axes. Questions often test the connection between chart and source data.

Chart creation and structure

  • Select data including headers, then insert a chart. Chart Tools provides Design and Format tabs.
  • A chart source can be a range, table, named range, or PivotTable. Switch Row/Column changes series and category orientation.
  • Charts can be embedded objects or chart sheets; Move Chart changes location.
  • Chart elements include chart title, axis titles, legend, data labels, gridlines, trendline, secondary axis, and error bars.
  • Sparklines are cell-sized Line, Column, or Winloss charts, not chart objects.

Formatting and accuracy

  • Change Chart Type switches the chart family. Select Data adds or removes series and edits category labels.
  • A secondary axis is used when series use different scales or units.
  • The Format pane controls fill and line, series overlap and gap width, axis bounds and units, and number formats.
  • Trendline options include linear, exponential, and moving average; data labels can show values, series names, or category names.

Worked example

You chart monthly sales and profit margin. Select Month, Sales, and Margin including headers, then insert a clustered column chart. Because margin is a percentage and sales are dollars, right-click the margin series, choose Format Data Series > Secondary Axis, then add an axis title and set the number format to 0.0%. Add a trendline to sales only by selecting that series first. The reasoning: different units would make one series look flat on a shared axis; a secondary axis gives each measure its own scale.

Traps

Charts update when source data changes. Copying a chart to another workbook can retain links to the original file. Including totals in a chart creates a misleading spike. Blank cells may appear as gaps or zeros depending on settings. Changing chart type can lose custom formatting. A secondary axis applies to a series, not the whole chart.