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Go to Insert -> Charts -> Recommended Charts and select the Clustered Column chart.It is a best practice to remove as much excess ink (noise) as you can.Extra chart elements create noise, and get in the way of the story.Every chart should tell a story, quickly and effectively.Doing this will help you convey your message to your readers as quickly as possible. Use to remove distracting elements from your data whenever you are charting. How to create an effective column chart by reducing ink and noise that distract from the story. Here’s the 6 period moving average, compare that with the more jagged 2 period line above.Building column charts in Mac Excel 2016. We’ve changed the daily results line to a faded shade to make the trendline / moving average stand out.įor a smoother trendline, increase the moving average period setting. The default is a 2 period moving average, the same as the column calculation we did earlier. Add Moving Average line in Excel ChartĬhoose ‘Moving Average’ and the trendline changes a lot. There are other trendline options: Exponential, Logarithmic, Polynomial, Power and the one we’re focusing on Moving Average. You can see that Microsoft’s default is a simple linear trendline or ‘straight line’. That adds a default trendline which we’ve colored orange so it stands out.Ĭlick on the Trendline then, from the Format Trendline side pane, choose Trendline Options. Make a ChartĪdd a chart with the date/value pairs in the usual way.Ĭhoose the Chart Elements “ + “ button and select ‘Trendline’.

Excel can add trendlines including Moving Averages into a chart without needing to fill any cells. However you do NOT have to do that calculation for an Excel Chart. Or use the AVERAGE() function.Įxcel will show an error warning ‘Formula Omits Adjacent Cells’ which you can clear via ‘Ignore Error’. Create a SUM() for the number of values you want (two in this case) and divide by the number of values then copy that formula down the column. Excel Moving averagesĬalculating a moving average is quite simple in Excel. The result is a two period moving average.Įxample: a series 1, 2, 3, 4, 1 the moving averages are 3, 5,7 and 5. For each value, take an average of the last, say, 2 values then do that for all the values. In statistics it’s one of the measures of central tendency.Ī moving average is great to see trends over time. Add all the values together and divide by the number of values. Any chart with a series of values over time will benefit from a trendline like a moving average.Īn average / mean is a single value representing a list of numbers. Adding a moving average line to an Excel Chart is very easy, just a few clicks, with many options.