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Effective Charts and Dashboards for Excel users

Archive for the ‘Chart Types’ Category

Making Excel maps without VBA

Making Excel maps without VBA

If you want to make a choropleth/thematic map in Excel without programming perhaps conditional formatting is all you need. Here is how to do it: Select a few hundred columns and rows; Set width and height to 3 (more or less, depending on the resolutions you want);

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Finally revealed: the optimal number of categories in a pie chart

Finally revealed: the optimal number of categories in a pie chart

It’s very simple, really: you do not compare proportions in a pie chart. Because a pie chart is not a comparison chart, it’s a part-to-whole chart. When you do this: what you really want to do is to compare each slice to the whole, like this: because,

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Chart: Education vs. GDP in Europe

Chart: Education vs. GDP in Europe

(click to enlarge) I have a single and very simple resolution for 2013: make more charts. Simple charts, just to play with the data. Here is the first one. I like scatter plots with a time dimension, even though data points often look like drunken sperm. When

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Bars and lines: méfiez-vous des morceaux choisis

So, this data visualization thing is new to you, but you already know enough to avoid basic mistakes (pies, 3D…). While playing with the data, you make these two charts: You already know that a bar chart helps you to compare data points, while a line chart is

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Bamboo charts: People at risk of poverty or social exclusion

Bamboo charts: People at risk of poverty or social exclusion

Here is the percentage of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the European Union and a few other countries: We are going to resist the urge to identify them and use our preconceptions against them. Let’s dig deeper instead. Some groups are more exposed

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The Horizon Graph Is a Reorderable Matrix Too: Unemployment Rate 1976-2012

The Horizon Graph Is a Reorderable Matrix Too: Unemployment Rate 1976-2012

Here is the draft result of my little weekend project, making horizon graphs in Excel: I’m probably using too many color bands, but I like it! The horizon graph is a very compact way to display lots of data points and a shiny example of how to

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Animation, Small Multiples or the Reorderable Matrix? Growth of Walmart, Excel Edition

Animation, Small Multiples or the Reorderable Matrix? Growth of Walmart, Excel Edition

In data visualization, animation is overrated. OK, it’s an interesting option if you can see a clear pattern emerging when displaying data over time/space (and, thanks to animation, we were introduced to this communicator extraordinaire named Hans Rosling). It’s fun to make an animated GIF like the

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I love 3D bar charts

I love 3D bar charts

OK, maybe “love” is too strong a word. Let’s say that 3D column/bar charts are like a tall and ugly building: better appreciated from the top, where you can’t see it but you can enjoy a great view. Like this: Now, change the viewing angle, remove gaps

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The best of two worlds: the scatterplot pie

The best of two worlds: the scatterplot pie

The best chart is always task-dependent, but let me assume that you would choose the scatterplot as the best chart and the pie as the worst. They are like water and oil: impossible to mix them! Are they? Let me tell you about a little experiment. I

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The Unbearable Lightness of Pie Charts [Data Visualization for Excel Users]

The Unbearable Lightness of Pie Charts [Data Visualization for Excel Users]

Well, a data visualization book cannot avoid pie charts, so here it is, a page about pie charts for my tutorial Data Visualization for Excel Users. Enjoy and comment, please…  

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