Looking for some help with Excel

DezUk · 11 Mar 2011 at 13:06

I want to try and present the data I have in an excel spreadsheet in more visual graphical form. Basically I am reporting of bug tickets for the past three months and want to show a graph with newly opened tickets, against closed tickets and also show ongoing tickets. They all have a priority level of High or Very High.

I am useless with Excel but I know this can probably be converted into a graph of some sort, can anyone help?

This is the spreadsheet in question.

ntg · 11 Mar 2011 at 13:25

you know you have username/password in that spreadsheet right? don't know if it matters but just thought I'd mention it.

Also it should be easy to create some sort of bar chart in excel, just google it.

Vonhelmet · 11 Mar 2011 at 13:27

DezUk · 11 Mar 2011 at 13:29

Should be back now, removed any content that might allow access to areas, thanks to kgi

iraiguana · 11 Mar 2011 at 14:35

You have:
Priorities of: Low, medium, high, v. High.
Age: X days
Open: Yes/No.

What information are you trying to show out of this exactly and then split it out as required in a new tab and organise it to display in a stack bar or similar depending on the number of variables you wish to describe in a singular graph.

Too much info will make a complicated visual people spend more time trying to decipher as so is pointless.

fullmetaltony · 11 Mar 2011 at 14:45

My advice,

For starters, put all the information in one table, if need be add a column for a closed/unclosed. With excel there's no need to seperate onto seperate tabs and it makes graphically reporting the data difficult.
Then choose data>Pivottable and Pivotchart report (Where you going? No, come back, it's not that bad, honest)
it should select all your data by default if you currently had a cell in the table selected. Choose pivotchart (with pivot table) report.
select finish and you'll get a new sheet with a blank graph, you can drag and play to your hearts content. if you want to show stuff by month, drag the date to the X-axis and then right click on that axis, choose group and show detail and then group. You can then choose to represent the data by months/days/quarters etc. instead of daily.

You'll soon get the hang of it.

Paul. W · 11 Mar 2011 at 15:30

I agree with someone above, Your trying to show too much in one single graph really. best off doing a bit more of a breakdown.

Here's a quick knockup ive just done, screeny below. Pivottables are your answer here though

DezUk · 11 Mar 2011 at 16:27

Thankd for the feedback guys I will have a look into this and give the old pivot tables a try