Last Updated: 28/07/2026
Charts are one of the fastest ways to turn raw spreadsheet numbers into insights you can actually see. In this DCP web tutorial, we walk through exactly how to build professional-looking charts in LibreOffice Calc – a free, open-source alternative to Excel – using a simple business revenue and expense example.
Getting Started: Download and Install LibreOffice
Before you can start charting, you’ll need the software itself:
- Open your web browser and search for LibreOffice.
- Click through to libreoffice.org.
- Click the Download button and select your operating system (Mac, Windows, or Linux).
- Follow the installation prompts just like you would for any other software.
Once installed, open LibreOffice Calc – the spreadsheet application we’ll be using throughout this tutorial. As always, the first step with any new project is to save your file (File → Save As) and give it a name.
Step 1: Set Up Your Data
For our first example, imagine you’re running a business and want to track monthly revenue over the course of a year.
- In Column A, type Month.
- In Column B, type Revenue.
- Highlight both header cells and make them bold to set them apart as titles.
- Right-click Column B, choose Format Cells, and set it to Currency – you can select whichever currency matches your country (the tutorial uses British Pounds).
- Type Jan in the first data cell, then click and drag the fill handle (bottom-right corner of the cell) down through cell 13. LibreOffice will automatically fill in the remaining months.
- Fill in made-up revenue figures for each month.
Save your work regularly as you go.
Step 2: Create Your First Chart (Column Chart)
Highlight your data range (just the cells with content, not the whole sheet), then click the Insert Chart button in the toolbar. By default, LibreOffice loads a column chart – perfect for this first example.
From here:
- Click Chart Elements to add a title (e.g., “Yearly Revenue Overview”).
- Label the X-axis as “Month” and the Y-axis as “Revenue.”
- Move the legend to the top of the chart for a cleaner look.
- Click Finish, then click outside the chart area to deselect it.
You can now click and drag the chart to reposition it, and resize it by dragging the bottom-right corner. A nice finishing touch is adding borders around your data table (right-click → Borders) so it looks polished when printed – check File → Print Preview to see how the table and chart will appear together on the page.
Step 3: Try a Pie Chart
Using the same revenue data, select it again and click the chart tool. This time, choose Pie Chart.
- You can toggle between 3D and 2D styles – a flat 2D pie chart is often cleaner and easier to read.
- Add a title through Chart Elements (e.g., “Yearly Revenue”).
- Note that pie charts don’t use X/Y axes like bar or column charts do.
- Position the legend at the top and click Finish.
Important tip: Pie charts work best with two-column data (a category and a single value). If you try to use them with multiple data series, LibreOffice will only pull the first column of values — so save pie charts for simple, single-metric comparisons.
Step 4: Build a Multi-Series Chart
Real business data often involves tracking more than one expense category at once. To demonstrate this, copy your Month column into a new section of the spreadsheet, then add three new columns:
- Telephone Bill
- Fuel Cost
- Travel Cost
Format these columns as currency, add borders, bold your headers, and fill in sample figures for each month.
Select the full data range and insert a column chart again. This time, you’ll see multiple coloured bars per month – one for each expense category – with a legend distinguishing telephone bill (blue), fuel cost (orange), and travel cost (yellow). Add a title (“Yearly Expenditure”), label your axes, and position the legend at the top.
This kind of multi-series column chart is especially useful for spotting patterns – for example, noticing that fuel costs dropped to £0 in one particular month, which might flag a cost-saving opportunity worth investigating.
Step 5: Experiment with Line Graphs
Using the same multi-column data, try a line graph – another strong option for visualising trends over time. Add your title, axis labels, and legend just as before. Line graphs are especially effective for showing how multiple values move and change across a timeline.
Formatting Tips for Print
Keep an eye on the darker grid lines in your spreadsheet – these represent page breaks. For the cleanest printed output, try to position your charts so they fall within the same page as their related data. If a chart spills onto a separate page, consider printing your data and charts on separate sheets or documents instead.
Final Thoughts
Charts make it easy to visualise trends, compare categories, and spot outliers in your data – often much faster than scanning rows of numbers. LibreOffice Calc gives you several chart types (column, pie, and line, among others) so you can experiment and find what best represents your specific dataset.
Download LibreOffice Calc for free and start practicing with your own business data – you might be surprised how quickly a good chart reveals insights that raw numbers hide.
