The most commonly used chart type for discrete data is the column chart. Each vertical column in the chart represents one data value, with the height of the column denoting the frequency of the value.

Here’s an amazing chart that shows the S&P 500 and each round of Quantitative Easing. It was created and shared by the excellent @trade2day1. The chart is color coded to show every major QE program.

Color is arguably one of the most important graphical assets for data presentation, from medical imaging to pie charts. By varying just three primary components of color (hue, saturation and ...

You can also choose a 3-D chart to add some aesthetic texture to the graph. These different graph options are relatively easy to create in Excel when you're looking to visually represent a data range.

Each circle in the chart represents a conflict (data was pulled from the Conflict Catalog, 1400-2000 — so it doesn’t include the past 15 years).