In Microsoft Excel 2010, a chart sits over the worksheet and provides a visual expression of the underlying data. You can use a chart in conjunction with elements on the worksheet to get a better ...

By default, however, those charts aren’t too visually exciting. Fortunately, Excel’s Drawing toolbar makes it easy to customize the backgrounds and colors in your charts to make them stand out.

When the relationship between the charted entities is less important than the individual entities, try using these two chart techniques to highlight important details in Microsoft Excel.

Click the first option in the "2D pie" section. Excel creates a pie chart representing the categories as percentages of a 24-hour period.