Download Free Add-In for Better Histograms
For Microsoft® Excel 97-2007, Windows or Macintosh
To download the Better Histogram add-in, right-click BetterHistogram_20070222_2050.xla, and choose "Save Target As" or "Save Link As" from the shortcut menu. Then save the BetterHistogram...xla file to a location you can remember. For Macintosh, instead of right-click, hold down the ctrl key, click the link, and choose "Download Link to Disk."
Launch Excel, and use Excel's File | Open command to load the BetterHistogram...xla file. (Alternatively, use Excel's Tools | Add-Ins command to install the add-in.) In Excel 2007, choose Office Button | Open.
On some Windows systems, if Excel's macro security setting is too high, you may need to choose Tools | Macro | Security | Medium before you can open the xla file. In Excel 2007, choose Office Button | Excel Options | Trust Center | Trust Center Settings | Macro Settings | Disable all macros with notification.
If you receive a security warning when you try to open the xla file, click the button Enable Macros.
(You may want to use Tools | Data Analysis | Descriptive Statistics to determine the minimum and maximum values of your data before using the Better Histogram add-in, so that you can decide on "nice" intervals for your histogram. In Excel 2007, choose Data ribbon | Analysis section | Data Analysis | Descriptive Statistics.)
Open an Excel worksheet containing your data, and choose Tools | Better Histogram. In Excel 2007, choose Add-Ins ribbon | Menu Commands section | Better Histogram. The following dialog box appears.
The data range must be a range of cells containing only numbers, i.e., no text. The start value must be a number less than or equal to the minimum value of the data range. The step value must be greater than zero. The stop value must be greater than or equal to the maximum value of the data range. The start, step, and stop values must be chosen so that there are at least two intervals.
When you click OK, the frequency distribution and better histogram are created on a new worksheet. You can modify the chart titles as you wish. If you want to modify the horizontal axis scale, please refer to the Excel 97-2004 step-by-step instructions in the pdf or html file. An example of a better histogram is shown below.
