3D Graphics in Excel - Harmony unlimited

Would you like to create Excel charts similar to these presented here? Let me know - I could help...

Creating Shapes, Graphics, Illustrations - Part 1

Although Excel is not designed as a comprehensive graphic design tool, we can create in Excel all kinds of shapes/illustrations, actually without limits. There are many ways to do that, and the main methods are:

• Obviously - charts: while primarily used for data visualization, the charting capabilities of Excel can be utilized to create simple illustrations. By manipulating the data  (applying various conditional formatting rules) and using other formatting options, you can create visually appealing illustrations within the charting framework.
• Inserting predefined shapes: Excel provides a variety of predefined shapes that you can insert from the "Insert" tab on the ribbon. These shapes include rectangles, circles, arrows, lines, and more. They can be customized in terms of size, color, rotation, and other formatting options.
• Using drawing tools (to draw shapes): Excel allows you to draw custom shapes using the "Shapes" tool. You can choose from different shapes, such as polygons, curves, and freeform shapes. By selecting the "Draw" option, you can manually create the desired shape by clicking and dragging on the worksheet.
• Using SmartArt: this feature feature allows you to create diagrams, flowcharts, and other visual representations. SmartArt provides a variety of predefined layouts and styles, making it easy to create professionally-looking illustrations. You can access SmartArt through the "Insert" tab as well.
  
• Combining shapes: Excel also enables you to combine multiple shapes to create new ones. This can be done by selecting the desired shapes, right-clicking, and choosing the "Group" or "Combine Shapes" option.
• Editing shapes: Once a shape is created, you can further customize it by resizing, rotating, or changing its fill color, outline color, and other formatting options. This can be done by selecting the shape and using the available formatting tools.
• In addition, the Lasso Select tool is now available in Excel. This technique allows you to select non-contiguous cells or objects in Excel.

The following examples give some idea of how you can use these methods to design various graphic solutions and what you can create using Excel tools.

 

 

Creating graphs based on data table; the easy way

Whatever your Excel data source (entered or generated using a formula), convert the range of cells, they occupy, into Excel table. Simply select the range and use CTRL+T shortcut to do that. This way - when you later expand your data entries (add new data) or contract the table (remove some data) - your chart will get updated automatically (dynamically).

Here is kind of a template I've used to organize my data for charting:

 

I could fill the table with any function data, like in this example, or with raw data and get a graph based on just one function or two, or even three or four. Sometimes, when I've plotted e.g. two functions that have had different orders of magnitude, I used a secondary axis for one of them to display results in relevant scales.

To create your graph, select X column and appropriate Y column(s), then go to Insert tab and in Charts group select whatever chart type you need. That's it.

Now format your chart as you want to. Excel provides for that the whole plethora of options. Here I'm providing just two formatting examples to show you variety of possible solutions:

 

Enjoy Excel Charting!