Excel infographics, like the one below, are easy to build and there are loads of tools you can use to add some sparkle. Infographics are suited to one off brochure style reporting designed to catch your eye and be easily digestible and memorable. They’re often found in newspapers or other print publications because they draw […]

The Excel Forecast Sheet and charts are a new feature available in Excel 2016. In just a few clicks you can get a forecast done for you, including a snazzy chart like the one below: This new forecasting tool creates a copy of your data and inserts it on a new sheet in your file, […]

Plotting data over time can reveal patterns and trends, but often blips in the data require further explanation. We can help our user by labelling events in Excel charts to highlight key points in time that may explain those blips or patterns revealed in the data. For example, the chart below monitors Phil’s average running […]

Format your dashboards and reports fast with these pro Excel chart formatting tips. Pro Tip 1 – Select Multiple: Hold the SHIFT or CTRL key to select/de-select multiple charts or objects. Pro Tip 2 – Select All: Select one chart then press CTRL+A to select all. Note: This will select all Objects so if you […]

Dumbbells and Lollipop Charts Excel Dot Plots, dumbbells and lollipop charts are good for comparing one, two or three points of data. For example, year on year, before or after or A vs B. They make a nice change from a column or bar chart (like the one below) and are less cluttered: Column and […]

When you think of visualizing parts to a whole in Excel charts the first thing that’s likely to come to mind is the pie chart, or if you’re Homer Simpson then you might think of doughnut charts! Being outnumbered 3:1 by football (soccer) fans in my household, I get to see my fair share of […]

Highlighting the minimum and maximum in an Excel chart can help focus your readers’ attention. We can manually select points or columns and change the color, and that’s fine for static charts, but if your chart gets updated then you’ll want to automate the process. The approach is slightly different for line charts and column […]

The default Excel chart legends can be awkward and time consuming to read when you have more than 2 series in your chart. As your eye flits back and forth from legend to chart any ability to quickly interpret the data dwindles away. Just try it with the example below: Presenting charts like this does […]

Excel Pivot Chart Drill down buttons are a new feature available in Excel 2016. You’ll find them in the bottom right of your Pivot Chart. They’re available whenever you have more than one field in the Axis area of the Pivot Chart (which is the Rows area of your PivotTable). You can see below that […]