Designing Good-Looking Bar Charts
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| In EXCEL
the default settings general result in poorly-designed charts. By focusing on data patterns rather
than supportive references, you can make attractive charts. Follow these
principles: no frame, no vertical axis, no ticks, and grey grid.
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1) In this
default bar graph, I added text ("Grades after"), moved the
legend to the top of the graph, and changed the color of similar
items to closely-related colors.
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2) A much better looking
graph has no border and rounded percentages. 
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| 3) Now, remove the
ticks and turn the black lines into grey ones on both the
vertical axis and horizontal axis. |
4) Finally, remove
the vertical axis itself and the frames around each of the bars. You could also cover the "30" with an
all-white square from the Draw menu. That is a
fine looking graph! |
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| Source: Ideas from Edward Tufte, The Visual
Display of Quantitative Information. |