Adding a trendline to a chart

When you analyze financial data, you should pay close attention to the…individual values within your data sets.…Even so, it's often beneficial to take a step back and look at the overall…trends in your data.…If you summarize your data using a chart, you can project future values…by adding a trendline.…A trendline only exists within the chart and the Excel program memory.…It doesn't actually add any data to your worksheet.…So if you want to add a trendline to a chart, all you need to do is click the…data series in the chart and this is important.…

You don't want to click somewhere in the chart, just selecting the chart area.…Instead, you want to select the data series and make sure that the data…points are highlighted.…That's how you know you are in the right position.…As soon as you select the data series, under Chart Tools, go to Layout, and then…in the Analysis group, click Trendline, and click Linear Trendline.…Excel adds the trendline to the chart so you can see what the average…progression will have been.…