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How to create a bell curve chart template in Excel?

Author: Kelly Last Modified: 2024-08-20

Bell curve chart, named as normal probability distributions in Statistics, is usually made to show the probable events, and the top of the bell curve indicates the most probable event. In this article, I will guide you to create a bell curve chart with your own data, and save the workbook as a template in Excel.

Create a bell curve chart and save as a chart template in Excel

To create a bell chart with your own data, and then save it as an Excel template, you can do as following:

1. Create a blank workbook, and enter the column header In Range A1:D1 as following screen shot shows:
a screenshot of adding the headers of your own data

2. Enter your data into the Data column, and sort the data by clicking by clicking Data > Sort.
In our case, we enter from 10 to 100 into Rang A2:A92 in the Data Column.
a screenshot of sorting the data you entered in a column

3. Calculate the data as follows:

(1) In Cell C2, please type in below formula to calculate the average:

=AVERAGE(A2:A92)

(2) In Cell D2, please enter below formula to calculate the standard deviation:

=STDEV(A2:A92)

(3) In Cell B2, please type in one of below formulas, and drag the AutoFill Handle to the Range A3:A92.

A. In Excel 2010 or later versions:

=NORM.DIST(A2,$C$2,$D$2,FALSE)

B. In Excel 2007:

=NORMDIST(A2,$C$2,$D$2,FALSE))

Note: The A2:A92 is the range we enter our data, and please change the A2:A92 to the range with your data.
a screenshot showing the formulas and their corresponding results

4. Select the Range A2:B92 (Data column and Distribution column) ，and click the Insert > Scatter ( or Scatter and Doughnut chart in Excel 2013) > Scatter with Smooth Lines and Markers.
a screenshot of selecting a Scatter with Smooth Lines and Markers chart for the data range

Then a bell curve chart is created showing as following screen shot.
a screenshot showing a bell cyrve is created

You can format the bell curve by removing legends, axis, and gridlines in the bell curve chart.

And now you can save the created bell curve chart as a normal chart template in Excel with following steps:

5. Save the bell curve chart as a chart template:
A. In Excel 2013 or later versions, right click the bell curve chart, and select the Save as Template from the right-clicking menu;
B. In Excel 2007 and 2010, click the bell curve chart to activate the Chart Tools, and then click the Design > Save As Template.
a screenshot showing how to save the bell curve chart as a chart template

6. In the popping up Save Chart Template dialog box, enter a name for your template in the File name box, and click the Save button.
a screenshot of naming the template them saving

Quickly create a bell curve with an amazing tool

In this method, I will introduce the Normal Distribution / Bell Curve feature of Kutools for Excel. This feature will help you easily create a bell curve chart with only two clicks. In addition, this feature also supports to create a frequency histogram chart, and a combo chart of bell curve and frequency histogram as well.

Kutools for Excel: contains more than 300 handy tools for Excel. Free to try with no limitation in 30 days. Get it now!

1. Select the data range you will create a bell curve based on, and click Kutools > Charts > Data Distruibution > Normal Distribution / Bell Curve.

2. In the opening dialog, check the Normal distribution chart option in the Select section, and click the OK Button. See screenshot:
a screenshot of configuring the Quickly create a nornal distribution chart dialog box for creating a bell curve chart

Tips:
(1) It’s optional to type in the Chart title in the Chart title box;
(2) If you need to create a frequency histogram chart, please check the Frequency histogram chart option only in the Select section; for a combo chart of bell curve and frequency histogram, please check both options in the Select section.

If you only check the Normal Distribution chart option:
a screenshot of the bell curve when only the Normal Distribution Chart option is checked

If you check both Normal Distribution chart and Frequency histogram chart options:
of the bell curve when both Normal Distribution chart and Frequency histogram chart options are checked

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