Graphics are a Good Thing!

Excel users can be a serious lot.  As I addressed a couple of years ago, there is no disgrace in making your Excel worksheets more visually interesting.  In fact, adding graphical elements to your spreadsheets can make them more eye-catching and readily informative!

The Good News is that Excel is loaded with an array of graphics tools that can make your spreadsheets communicate better and make the users want to spend more time viewing them. Channeling Martha Stewart for a moment, “Graphics are a Good Thing!”

Let’s look at some ways we can all do this:

Adding Pizazz to Your Charts

Using some more Splashy graphics can add real Spark to an otherwise sufficient chart.  You say you are plotting optimal Surfing Days in Southern California?  Use Surfboards in your chart (“Splashy”, get it?...)!

 

SmartArt is Smart

You can find SmartArt in the Illustrations group on the Insert ribbon.  SmartArt quickly enables you to create diagrams of Org Charts, Processes, Cycles, and much more.

WordArt for Words

Enter some eye-catching stylized text with Word Art objects.  Just click on the WordArt dropdown button from the Text group and choose a style that appeals to you.  You can resize and drag this text to any part of your worksheet.

Add Some Shapes

Don’t forget the readymade shapes that add Functionality, as well as engaging panache to your Excel workbooks.  You can add Words and Hyperlinks to these easily-created shapes, enabling the user to navigate to anywhere you wish them to go.

There are many, many creative ways to add graphics to your Excel masterpieces, of course, and they can indeed add engaging elements to your work. Don’t get caught in the mindset that graphics are merely frivolous.  After all, our contemporary world is full of media that depends on this form of communication.  You should, at least occasionally, be using in your Excel workbooks as well…