totn Excel 2016 Charts

MS Excel 2016: How to Create a Pie Chart

This Excel tutorial explains how to create a basic pie chart in Excel 2016 (with screenshots and step-by-step instructions).

What is a Pie Chart?

A pie chart is a circle that is divided into slices and each slice represents a proportion of the whole.

It is a graphical object used to represent the data in your Excel spreadsheet that uses 1 series of data to create the graph.

You can use a pie chart when:

  • You want to show numbers as a proportion of the whole (ie: the numbers equal 100%).
  • There are a limited number of pie slices. If there are too many pie slices, then a pie chart is not a recommended graph to use.

Microsoft Excel


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If you want to follow along with this tutorial, download the example spreadsheet.

Download Example

Steps to Create a Pie Chart

To create a pie chart in Excel 2016, you will need to do the following steps:

  1. Highlight the data that you would like to use for the pie chart. In this example, we have selected the range A1:B5.

    Microsoft Excel

  2. Select the Insert tab in the toolbar at the top of the screen. Click on the Pie Chart button Microsoft Excel in the Charts group and then select a chart from the drop down menu. In this example, we have selected the first pie chart (called Pie) in the 2-D Pie section.

    TIP: As you hover over each choice in the drop down menu, it will show you a preview of your data in the highlighted chart format.

    Microsoft Excel

  3. Now you will see the completed pie chart. In this tutorial, the pie chart has 4 slices (one for each division). Each slice represents the sales as a percentage of the total sales.

    Microsoft Excel

    Congratulations, you have finished creating your first pie chart in Excel 2016!

    Learn other Chart Types