Do you know how to make an ordinary line chart more special? Today we are going to show you how to make a line chart with fill effects, that is, an area chart.

Take this table as an example. This is the dynamic price-earnings ratio data of a certain country over a period of time. It is difficult for us to see the difference between the data. Therefore, we need to use an area chart to show the changes in the dynamic price-earnings ratio index.

1. First, we click the Insert tab.

2. Click the Chart button, then select the Line option in the popup dialog box.

3. Now select the needed line chart style.

4. Then we have successfully created a line chart.

Next, we will add a fill effect to the line chart to make our price-earnings ratio index more intuitive.

1. Click the Chart Tools tab, and then click Select Data.

2. In the popup dialog box, we need to add a new Series.

3. Click Add in Series, enter Fill as Series name.

4. In Series values, select the B3:B25 cell range and click OK to add a new series.

5. After setting, click OK. Now, there are two series in this table.

At this time, we only need to change the chart type of one series to a line chart, and the chart type of the other series to an area chart.

1. Click the Change Chart Type option.

2. Select the Combo option, then change the chart type of the series named Index to Line.

3. Change the chart type of the series named Fill to Area.

4. Now click the graphic to change it to an area chart.

We can also change the chart color as we want.

Click on the chart, change the color of the area chart to blue at FILL. Also, we can click on the line chart, and change the line chart to red.

Above are some methods for creating an area chart. Did you get it?

This skill could also be used in Microsoft Office Excel and OpenOffice.