How to Select Right Chart for your Data ? Scatter plot or box plot? These are the questions we ask ourselves when we set out to make a chart. Because, “Selecting right chart for our data” is very important to tell our story. In this article, we will learn how to “select the right chart” based on our data and situation. Why is it important to make right chart? Because right charts lead to right decisions. We use charts to tell stories, evaluate alternatives, understand trends or find- out if everything is normal. So, an incorrect charting choice can lead to poor judgment of the messages where as a correct chart can lead to right and faster decisions. The Chart Making Process: Chart making process can be divided in to 4 steps. Find- out what you want to say?(Re)arrange the data. Prepare the chart. Format the chart. Free Downloads for Microsoft Office. Please report any broken links immediately so we may keep this resource up to date! If you would like your download listed here. Yesterday I have learned this cool excel charting trick and I cant wait to share it with you all. The problem: I have too many charts & want to show one. Finding out what you want to say. This is the first and most important step in chart preparation. You must ask yourself, “what is the purpose of this chart?”. Once we know the clear reason why the chart should exist, we will naturally be able to select the correct chart type for that reason. Graphics are easier to grasp than text and numbers. Charts are a great way to visualize numbers. We show you how to create charts in Microsoft Excel and when to best.But I realize that finding the reason itself can be a bit tedious. So I have listed down 6 common reasons that we often have to make a chart: to Compareto show the Distributionto explain Parts of the Wholeto tell the Trend over timeto findout the Deviationsto understand the Relationship. Let us understand these reasons along with the type of charts that go well with these. To Compare: What it means? You want to compare one set of value(s) with another. Examples: Performance of Product A vs. Product B in 5 regions. Interview performance of various candidates. Charts that can be used for this reason: Bar Charts,Column Charts. Scatter Plots. Pie Charts. Line Charts. Data Tables. To Show the Distribution. What it means? You want to show the distribution of a set of values (to understand the outliers, normal ranges etc.)Examples: Distribution of Call waiting times in a call center. Distribution of bugs found in 1. Charts that can be used to show distribution: Column Charts. Scatter Plots. Line charts. Box Plots. 3. Parts of Whole. What it means? You want to show how various parts comprise the whole. Examples: Individual product sales as a percentage of whole revenue. Browser types of customers visiting our website. Charts that can be used to show Parts of Whole: Column Charts. Bar Charts. Pie Charts. Data Table. 4. Trend over time. What it means? You want to understand the trend over time of some variable(s). Examples: Customer footfalls on the last 3. Share price of MSFT in the last 1. Charts that can be used to show Trend Over Time: Column Charts. Line Charts. Data Table. Deviations. What it means? You want to see which values deviate from the norm. Examples: Failures (or bugs) in the context of Quality Control. Sales in Various Stores. Charts that can be used to show Deviations: Column Charts. Bar Charts. Line Charts. Data Table. 6. Relationship. What it means? You want to establish (or show) relationship between 2 (or more) variables. Examples: Relationship between Search Phrases and Product Purchases in your website. Relationship between in- store sales and holidays. Charts that can be used to show Relationship: Scatter Plot. Line Chart. Data Table. What to do when you have more than one reason for the chart? Simple, use common sense. If I were you, I would either cut down the messages to one or make 2 charts (each conveying one message). If that is not possible, I would consider using dynamic charts or combination charts. We then have to rearrange the data. Using excel formulas, pivot tables, tables and data cleaning tools we can easily massage the data. Once we have the data in required format, we proceed to step 3. Prepare the chart. Since you have already selected the chart type in Step 1, this is very straight forward. Most of the regular charts are available in MS Excel as default charts. You can insert them with few clicks. But for some special chart types, you may have to prepare the chart by helper series, formatting etc. Format the chart. While most formatting is done as per individual taste, there are some ground rules that apply on almost all charts. Here they are,No non- zero axis scale on bar charts . While these rules can help you make a good chart, a great chart take so much more. Knowledge of your data, Passion for what you do and Genuine focus on your audience’ needs can make your chart truly outstanding. All the best. References: Communicating Numbers – White Paper by Stephen Few . Please share using comments. Share this tip with your friends. How to Conditionally Show or Hide Charts - Excel Chart Templates & Tutorials . But you don’t want to clutter the project report with all of them. You would rather want to show one chart and let user choose to see the any of the other two, like this: The Solution: Use INDIRECT() and a nifty image hack. First, create your charts in a separate worksheet like this (remember you need to create all 3 charts first)Once the charts are created adjust the width and heights of 3 cells and place one chart in each like above. Now, go back to the sheet where you want to control the display, and define a new named range. Lets call it get. Chart. You can define new named ranges from menu > insert > name > define. A sample formula is below: IF('View them here'! This is just for a placeholder purpose, so any picture would do, including that of your cat’s. So when you adjusted the cell sizes in the sheet with charts and created indirect references through INDIRECT() formula and used it in the named range, excel fetched the content of the cell (the chart) and replaced your cat’s picture with that. This powerful little trick can help you make interactive dashboards within little space. Pretty cool, eh? Download and see in action. Here is a link to the downloadable conditional chart display workbook. I have tested this in Excel 2. I guess it should work the same way in most of the modern versions of excel. Feel free to drop a comment if you see this not working in a particular version. Share this tip with your friends. Written by Chandoo. Tags: charting, dashboards, downloads, fun, hacks, howto, ideas, INDIRECT(), Learn Excel, microsoft, Microsoft Excel Conditional Formatting, spreadsheets, tricks, tutorials, visualizations. Home: Chandoo. org Main Page? Doubt: Ask an Excel Question.
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