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Stacked Bar Excel Waffle Charts

You are here: Home / Excel Charts / Stacked Bar Excel Waffle Charts
stacked bar waffle chart
December 10, 2020 by Mynda Treacy

Last week we looked at building Excel waffle charts using Conditional Formatting. This week we’re looking at building Stacked Bar Excel waffle charts.

Some might say this technique is easier, although it may appear daunting when you look at the number of steps. Don’t let that put you off though, it’s super easy.

The other benefit with using this technique is you can represent precise proportions, as shown below where the Gamma series is 8.5%:

Stacked bar Excel Waffle Charts

You can also easily add/remove series from stacked bar waffle charts.

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Stacked Bar Waffle Charts Step by Step

The data layout that supports the charts uses formulas to determine which segments should be coloured for each series, plus it has a dummy series for the error bars in column B:

data for Stacked Column Excel Waffle Charts

Tip: you can download the file for this tutorial and simply change the data in cells B4:C6, and add/remove series to the table as required. Modify the formulas by following the pattern of changes from the formulas in column E to F.

Step 1: Insert Stacked Bar Chart

Select all chart data (cells B9:E19) > Insert tab > Charts: 2-D Stacked Bar Chart:

insert 2-d bar chart

Step 2: Change Error Bar series chart type

Select the Error Bar series in the chart > right-click and select Change Series Chart Type…

change series chart type

Change the Error Bar series to a scatter with straight lines. This will automatically place it on the secondary axis.

scatter with straight lines

Step 3: Set axis maximum and minimum

Set the X axis and secondary Y and X axis minimum to 0 and maximum to 10. Select the secondary Y axis > CTRL+1 to format:

set axis min and max

Repeat for X axis.

Step 4: Remove gap width for remaining bars

Select one of the bars in the chart > CTRL+1 to format > Set gap width to 0%:

format series

Step 5: Add Error Bars to the Error Bar series

Select the Error Bar series line > click the plus sign to reveal the chart elements list > Error bars > More Options:

add error bars

In the Error Bar Options set the vertical error bar to Both directions, No Cap and Fixed Value of 10:

error bar options

Then go to the Paint Bucket icon and set the formatting to a solid white line:

select horizontal error bars

Repeat for the horizontal error bars. Select the Horizontal Error bar from the ‘Error Bar Options’ drop down:

error bar formatting

Step 6: Hide Axis Labels

Select the chart > click on the + menu > Deselect Axis labels:

remove axes

Step 7: Hide Error Bar series

Select the Error Bar series scatter chart line and format to ‘no line’:

hide lines

Step 8: Set Plot Area Fill Colour

Select the plot area and set a fill colour for the remaining squares:

plot fill colour

Step 9: Hide Chart Title [Optional]

I don't need the title, so I'm deselecting it from the + menu, but you can keep it if you want:

remove chart title

Step 10: Remove Error Bar series from the legend

Select the legend item (left click twice to select), then press delete:

tidy up legend

Step 11: Resize the chart

Lastly, resize the chart so that each segment is square. And there you have a Stacked Bar Excel Waffle Charts:

Stacked Bar Excel Waffle Charts

Thanks

Thanks to Nick Hillman, Associate Professor, University Wisconsin-Madison who shared his template for waffle charts here.

stacked bar waffle chart
Mynda Treacy

Microsoft MVP logo

AUTHOR Mynda Treacy Co-Founder / Owner at My Online Training Hub

CIMA qualified Accountant with over 25 years experience in roles such as Global IT Financial Controller for investment banking firms Barclays Capital and NatWest Markets.

Mynda has been awarded Microsoft MVP status every year since 2014 for her expertise and contributions to educating people about Microsoft Excel.

Mynda teaches several courses here at MOTH including Excel Expert, Excel Dashboards, Power BI, Power Query and Power Pivot.

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Category: Excel Charts
Previous Post:Excel waffle ChartsExcel Waffle Charts with Conditional Formatting
Next Post:Changing Data Source Location in Power Querychanging power query data source settings

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jomili

    December 31, 2020 at 3:52 am

    I’m following the directions, but my results don’t match yours. On the horizontal error bars, if I set the direction as Both I get another set of columns to the left of the chart. Setting it to “Plus” corrects that. I’m also not getting the white lines coming all the way down. the Endpoints of the white lines follow the (invisible) line of the Error bar. I’d attach my chart or a picture of it but don’t know how.

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      December 31, 2020 at 8:00 am

      Hi Jomili, please post your question on our Excel forum where you can also upload a sample file and we can help you further.

      Reply
  2. jomili

    December 31, 2020 at 3:12 am

    Hmm, are we missing steps 11 and 12? We go from m10 to 13.

    Reply
    • Mynda Treacy

      December 31, 2020 at 7:59 am

      Oops! No, I misnumbered the steps. Fixed now 🙂

      Reply

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