Woo-Hoo! Look What I Just Did With Charts By Using The AR Search Feature!

OK, I admit I am not the most adept when it comes to software like Excel, but one of my sister's (Karen - for those of you who've met her) is awesome at teaching herself all kinds of stuff when it comes to technology, and I knew she knew how to do charts and graphs.  And I wanted some of my own!

Karen and I spent a couple of hours on the phone, actually on Skype (it's FREE!), trying to get me up to speed, (okay kindergarten speed) on Excel so I could at least do the very basics for the types of charts or graphs that I'd like for some of my market reports.  She's so patient, and sometimes I am and sometimes I'm not, but we finally got to where I could do and create the basics for what I want.  And then I tinkered around and added color, changed some stuff up, etc.  Now, how to get them into my posts - we just could not figure that part out, no matter what we did!  U-G-H.........

I had read Gena Riede's post on the latest market information on Sacramento real estate, and loved how her graphs looked.  I asked her how she made hers, and how she got them into her posts.  I didn't know how to do what she emailed me as her steps to getting those beautiful charts into her post, so I kept thinking.

And my thinking led me to remember to use the "Search" feature here on AR. 

A little while back, I had read a post that Elizabeth Nieves had written and I thought she mentioned ScreenHunter, and downloaded that program right after reading her post.  But I couldn't figure out how to make it work like she had done.  And out of frustration, I was going to just delete it off my computer, but hadn't gotten around to it just yet.  If it wasn't something I picked up from Elizabeth, my apologies to whoever it was - I just tried to find the post or comment in a post where I learned about this, and I can't find it to link to.

So, back to the AR "Search" feature - I typed in 'excel charts in posts', and got a slew of links that came up.  Most of them weren't about what I wanted, but there were a few in there.  I did read and watch Jeff Turner's tutorial post on charts, using google charts, but I wanted to use the charts I'd already created with my sister in Excel. 

I kept reading, and found posts by Richard Dolbeare on Excel charts and some really cool things you can do with them, but I still wasn't seeing HOW to get them into a format that I could insert into my posts.  His posts on advanced excel charts are great reading for really making your charts and graphs look really cool, so check them out.

More reading....and then I found Joe Manausa's post, "How to Make Market Graphs for Your Blog".  Joe's got detailed steps in a video he put together on this post.  Most of that info included the steps I'd already done, and then towards the end he told how to get them into .jpg format.  And guess what??  He uses the program above that I was just about to delete - ScreenHunter!  I watched that part in detail, and then went to my desktop, and opened ScreenHunter up, and just stared at it again, still clueless.  But I was a little more determined this time around, and through their 'help' section, I finally GOT IT!!

           


I can see I still need to tinker with ScreenHunter to get better with it, but I am psyched to know I can now get charts and graphs into my posts - FINALLY!!

So, thanks for all the sharing that goes on in so many posts and comments.  If you're looking for some information, make sure to use the "Search" feature here on AR - you're sure to find exactly what you're looking for.  I certainly did!

Ann Cummings, New Hampshire REALTOR
RE/MAX Coast to Coast
Portsmouth NH
ann@anncummings.com
888-349-5678x 3839
Servicing the Coastal Areas of NH & Southern Maine     
New Hampshire and Maine Real Estate