Constructing and Evaluating Your Design Solution - Data Visualization: A Successful Design Process - page 156

Microsoft Excel ( http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/excel/ ) is ubiquitous
and has been a staple diet for many of us number crunchers for most of our working
lives. Within the data visualization world, Excel's charting capabilities are somewhat
derided largely down to the terrible default settings and the range of bad-practice
charting functions it enables. (3D cone charts, anyone? No, thank you.)
However, Excel does allow you to do much more than you would expect and,
when fully exploited, it can prove to be quite a valuable ally. With experience
and know-how, you can control and refine many chart properties and you will
find that most of your basic charting requirements are met, certainly those that
you might associate more with a pragmatic or analytical tone.
Sample screenshot of Excel's charting capabilities