Overview

In addition to being able to enter data and use various functions to perform
calculations in Excel, there are other powerful features that can be
leveraged. In some of the prior work, you had a chance to see some of the
charting tools available in the Excel program, and had some example
scenarios on when can these be used to great effect!

Pie Charts
While looking at the different chart types, this week you will also get a
chance to create and modify pie charts. According to the textbook, a pie
chart show the relationship of each part to a whole. These are quite a bit
different in terms of how and what they display as it relates to data
compared with a line chart or bar chart. There are lots of opportunities
within the chapter to see how you can change the formatting of a created
pie chart, anything from the title to the way the individual slices of the pie
chart are displayed.

Goal Seek
In addition to using pie charts this week, you will also get exposure to a
feature called Goal Seek. This is defined in the textbook as a feature
that finds the input needed in one cell to arrive at the desired result in
another cell. Another way to look at this feature is that it saves the user
from having to try and back their way into values for certain parameters in
order to receive a result in another area. This feature allows you to set the
goal of what you are trying to achieve while indicating what cells in the
spreadsheet need to be modified in order to reach that goal.
Work on this feature will begin in Objective 4 of this weeks reading, and
will continue with more discussion on What-If Analysis in some of the
objectives that follow it.