Graphs.net
Businesses make use of a lot of graphs aside from the usual bar and pie charts that are generated from tables and spreadsheets. More than just fancy visual aids, these graphs and diagrams make ideas easier to digest and understand, compared to reading paragraphs and pages of explanations.
A flowchart, as the name implies, is a diagram that describes a flow or process. While commonly used in programming or computer-related environments, a flowchart can also be used to map out how a product is supposed to be made from start to finish, for example. It might also detail how certain protocols or processes should be followed.
An organizational chart is probably familiar to almost any business. This shows the structure and layout of an organization, detailing the relationship and relative ranks of different positions within the organization. “Org charts” may vary from simple boxes and lines to more complicated systems where different types of relationships are indicated by different kinds of lines.
Gantt charts are used to illustrate the schedule and flow of a project. Most commonly used in project management, these charts point out the start and target finish dates, breakdown of different tasks in the project, as well as dependencies and relationships of those different tasks. Project management charts such as these are employed in order to more effectively achieve the project goals within certain constraints such as time and budget.
There are many tools available to users for creating these diagrams. Probably the most popular ones come from the Microsoft Office’s productivity suite. Microsoft Excel, as well as Word, can be used to generate bar, line, or pie charts. Visio is tailored to the creation of more complex charts and diagrams, and even wireframe or prototypes for demonstrations. And finally, Microsoft Project is a popular choice for project management and producing Gantt charts.
Market share refers to the percentage of the total available market segment that is serviced by a company or group. In other words, market share represents a group’s strength in relation with other groups in the same market segment. This can be expressed in terms of a company’s revenues, sales, or users divided by the total number of revenues, sales, or users in that market segment. Since market share involves a lot of figures and data probably spread over a wide geographical area, some amount of professional market research is usually commissioned in order to produce the needed information.
Market graphs present these figures in a visually appealing and easy to digest manner. A list or table would usually require more scrutiny and analysis of the figures in order to give an overall view of the market segment, while a simple graph can more easily give a bird’s eye-view. For this reason, pie charts are commonly used to express market share, as this type of chart, by nature, shows data in relation to the whole, which is exactly what a market share graph should show.
Creating market graphs is easy using any popular spreadsheet application, like Microsoft Excel, Google Spreadsheet, or OpenOffice.org Calc. Only two columns are necessary, the first column composed of labels indicating the different market segments, while the second column contains the actual figures, either in raw numbers or already in percentage form. Then, with a Chart wizard, a pie chart can be generated from the selected columns, with the columns set as the series of the chart. Make sure to make the percentage legends visible on the pie chart itself. The generated chart can then be used either embedded into the current sheet, together with the figures, or on another blank sheet.
Creating graphs and charts for reports and presentations is a very common activity, not only in the workplace, but also in schools. Fortunately, there are tools that make creating such charts from a given table of data quick and easy.
Probably one of the most popular tools comes from the Microsoft Office productivity suite. Both Word and Excel have tools for creating charts from spreadsheets. Excel is probably one of the most famous spreadsheet programs around and is used for tables of data. To generate a chart from a spreadsheet, simply highlight the range to be used as the data source, including row and column headers, and then choosing the Chart Wizard either from the toolbar or from the Insert Menu. The Wizard will then take the user through a series of options ranging from the type of chart to be used to whether the chart will plot rows or columns. Since Word is a word processing program, creating a chart involves inserting a pre-made chart and then modifying that to fit the needs and the data. Go to the Insert menu, click on the Object entry and then choose Microsoft Graph Chart as the Object Type.
Google, known for its wide variety of online applications, also has a chart-creating through its Google Spreadsheet. The mechanics of creating a chart is the same as above. Select the range of data to be used, and then select Chart from the Insert menu. A wizard appears letting the user customize the appearance and settings of the chart.
One advantage of using Google Spreadsheets over Microsoft Office is that the data and chart is available from anywhere using just a regular web browser, as long as there’s an internet connection available. However, this distinction is blurring with Microsoft Office Live as an online version of the regular Office suite and with Google Gears allowing offline usage of Google applications.
