Creating a Pie Chart - Excel 2007 - JAWS V15 - Percentage Formatting

Creating a Simple Pie Chart in Excel Using JAWS

What better way to start 2015 than with a short piece on how to quickly create a simple pie chart in Excel 2007 using JAWS. (Well, okay, I can think of more exciting ways but let's run with it anyway.)

Creating Some Example Data in Excel

First, we need some data to work with in Excel that is suitable to use for a pie chart. Maybe you already have something in mind but if you haven't let's quickly get some figures in a spreadsheet. I am going to create a pie chart based on data that is in non-contiguous columns, by doing this it means we have to work in a slightly funky way to select the right data. I could have gone for an easier columns side by side example but if there is one thing that real world spreadsheet experience teaches us it is that data is not always perfectly formatted and structured for whatever you need to do. So I'm going to show you a nifty way of dealing with this type of situation quickly.

The table of data I am going to create is as follows and the first heading "Items" is in cell A1. I'm going to leave the cells under the Percentage heading blank for now also as I'll be working them out shortly:

Items	Sales	Percentage
Books	155
DVDs	125
Magazines	90
Totals

With the basic figures in place I want to work out the sales total figure and the percentage values in column C - time for a little bit of arithmetic! First, the sales total, this needs to go in cell B5 and, with focus on that cell, I use ALT EQUALS to create an Autosum. JAWS indicates the range details (in this case, B2 to B4) and, as this is correct, I press the ENTER key to confirm it.

With a total figure in cell B5, I can work out the individual percentage column values now with reference to this cell. I move the cursor to C2, type in the following formula and press ENTER:

=B2/$B$5
(equals B 2 forward slash dollar sign B dollar sign 5)

The cell is now showing a decimal value - 0.418918919 - not a percentage, though we'll sort this out soon. The next thing to do though is to apply this formula to cells C3 and C4. So, I press CONTROL C to copy the content in cell C2 and paste it in to cells C3 and C4. Column C now contains the following example data:

Percentage
0.418918919
0.337837838
0.243243243

Now I need to format the cells and transform the three decimal figures into percentages. First, I use the SHIFT ARROW key technique to highlight the three cells (C2 to C4) containing the values to be transformed.

With the correct range of cells highlighted I use the ALT key to go to the upper ribbon, then navigate to the Home tab and DOWN ARROW to the lower ribbon. Now I TAB through the commands until I get to the Number Format edit combo in the Number Group Box. Initially, this combo box displays the value of "General" so I use ALT DOWN ARROW to expand the drop down list and DOWN ARROW to move to the "Percentage" option. I press the ENTER key to confirm what I have done - the selected cells are now automatically formatted as percentage values.

Having done all this I save my workbook. I am now ready to start creating a pie chart using some of this data.

Creating a Simple Pie Chart

Pie charts are extremely effective with the right type of data. If you have gone through the previous steps for example, you will have a bunch of items in a spreadsheet with some corresponding sales figures expressed as percentage values - this is the kind of data that is ideal for a pie chart. So, let's walk through the steps of creating and reading a pie chart that shows the percentage information:

1. The first step is to ensure you have your relevant data selected. In my example, I need to select the appropriate blocks of cells in columns A and C. As the cells are non-contiguous a quick way of doing this is actually via the Go to a Cell dialog box. Make a mental note of the ranges required, in my case here I need to remember the ranges A2 to A4 and C2 to C4 and then press CONTROL G. In the Go to a Cell dialog box, I type in the ranges as follows:

A2:A4, C2:C4
(A 2 colon comma C 2 colon C 4)

2. Press the ENTER key to confirm the ranges and close the Go To... dialog box. JAWS will echo that two distinct ranges are highlighted and you can always recheck this if you feel it is necessary by using the JAWS keystroke of INSERT SHIFT DOWN ARROW.
3. Press the ALT key to move to the upper ribbon and move to the Insert tab using the LEFT and RIGHT ARROW keys as necessary. Press the DOWN ARROW to focus in the lower ribbon and move along the commands until you locate the Pie button in the Charts Group Box.
4. With focus on the Pie button, press the SPACEBAR to open the associated drop down list and use the DOWN ARROW to focus on the first 2D option. Press the ENTER key to confirm your choice. (By the way, if you are feeling a bit more adventurous, then by all means navigate to one of the 3D formats and choose that!)
5. A pie chart will now be introduced to your worksheet and you should initially have focus on this, allowing you to read the main data. At this point, the safest option is to press the ESCAPE key to move focus away from the chart and back into the main worksheet area. (Remember that the chart object itself cannot be manually navigated to, in other words you can't simply arrow to the object to put focus on it.
6. Having moved away from the chart, you can automatically focus back on it using the JAWS keystroke of CONTROL SHIFT O to list the objects in the current worksheet. From the list, choose the relevant object by pressing the ENTER key. Focus will now move directly to the chosen object, allowing you to read it with the formal JAWS chart reading keystroke of INSERT CONTROL C. (Remember to drop focus back to your worksheet after reading the chart by using the ESCAPE key.)

7. Something I tend to do is have my chart sitting in a separate worksheet. This is pretty easy to achieve, just select your chart via the CONTROL SHIFT O list, cut it to the clipboard with CONTROL X, move to another worksheet using CONTROL PAGE UP or DOWN, locate the destination cell you want, then paste the chart in to the new location with CONTROL V.
8. Final thing - remember to save your work!

Practice, practice, practice and eventually you will really be comfortable with creating and reading charts in Excel. You might even want to go back through some of your older workbooks and see if there is any data in those that you can play around with and create some additional charts.

And that's it! Have fun with JAWS and charts in Excel and, yes, I promise, next time we'll do something a bit more exciting... LOL)