#NiftyKeyboardShortcuts: Insert Default Chart (Alt + F1)

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a chart may be worth a thousand stats. They tell the same story but in visualising data literally adds more colour to the narrative you are trying to convey or the patterns you’re trying to uncover.

A handy way to do this in Excel is the shortcut Alt + F1. With a cell in your dataset activated, this key combination immediately inserts a chart to graphically display that region’s data.

Excel is pretty good at anticipating what to chart. However, as with everything data-related, the output is only as good as the input, and if you’ve set your data up with a shoddy structure or a mixture of data types, it’s likely that you’ll have to do considerably more tidying-up than if you have neatly arranged columns and rows.

If you have specified series and categories in your region, then they will be picked up by the shortcut (see the additional red and purple handles):

If you only want to chart a portion of the dataset (one series or category, for example), then you need to select that specific data, and Excel will have a go at guessing the title, as well.

Remember that you select data using the keyboard: combining Shift + arrow keys extends selections by one cell, with Ctrl + Shift + arrow keys extending your selection to the end of the region.

You can always switch chart rows and columns using Alt + JC + W or follow the other accelerator key sequences to format elements such as titles or data labels, and even change the chart type – although do check that it’s an appropriate chart type.

Following this particular rabbit hole, I found that selecting the check boxes in chart formatting options is done via Shift + the underlined letter rather than the traditional Alt key, such as to vary column colour by point. Who knew?!

One last handy fact to remember is that you don’t even need to have existing data to create a chart with Alt + F1. Using the shortcut without a dataset selected inserts a blank (clustered column) chart, and you can amend the data source later. This means that you can set up your charts in position if you’re still waiting for your data to arrive.

#charts #region