Excel Tips: How to Make Charts Auto Update

Lesson 12: How to Make Charts Auto Update

/en/excel-tips/using-the-quick-analysis-tool/content/

How to make charts auto update

When you create a chart in Excel, it's important to make sure it stays up to date, even if you add more data later on.

Although you can manually adjust the chart's data range to include the new data, this can be tedious if you frequently update your spreadsheet.

Luckily, there is an easier way. Simply format your source data as a table, then create a chart based on that table.

Watch how this formatting trick can help keep everything consistent in the video below.

Steps

Delete the old chart. Now let’s format the source data as a table.
Select a cell in the data range and go to the Home tab.
Click Format as Table and choose whichever format you prefer.
In the dialog box, make sure the “My table has headers box” is checked (if you have headers). Then click “OK.”
With the table still selected, go to the Insert tab and choose a chart type.
When you add more data just below the table, it gets automatically looped into the table. You will see the table formatting being applied to each new row.
The new rows will be added in real-time to the chart as well.

Make sure you save your new changes so that your chart stays up-to-date. Not only that, but now your table has a clean, consistent format. Stay tuned to learn how to flip data on its side using the Transpose feature.