A Step-by-Step Guide to

Advanced Data Visualization

E XCEL 2016 / O FFICE 365

Jon Schwabish
POLICYVIZ.COM
Table of Contents 1
Table of Contents

Introduction 5

Basic Data Visualization Principles 6

Overlaid Gridlines 15

Overlaid Gridlines with a Formula 34

Overlaid Gridlines with a Scatterplot 40

Vertical Line 53

Block Shading (annual-annual) 71

Block Shading (monthly-annual) 79

Broken Stacked Bars 93

Vertical Bullet 102

Horizontal Bullet 116

Dot Plot 125

Table of Contents 2
Table of Contents

Slope 137

Vertical Bar-Scatter 147

Horizontal Bar-Scatter 154

Lollipop 162

Sparklines 170

Gantt 177

Heatmap 189

Diverging Bars 199

Tile Grid Map 210

Marimekko 223

Data Visualization Books 237

Table of Contents 3
Acknowledgments Licensing Agreement
This guide would not have been possible without the support and Copyright © Jon Schwabish 2017. All Rights Reserved.
help of a number of people. Ebook design and tech-editing could not
This ebook, including any attached files, contains confidential,
have been done without the superb help of Glenna Shaw at
privileged and/or copyrighted information for the sole use of the
GlennaShaw.com. A number of other people in the Excel
original purchaser. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
communities have been inspirational to this and much of my other
stored, transmitted, or shared in any form or by any means,
work including Jon Acampora at ExcelCampus.com, Dave Bruns at
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or
ExcelJet.net, Jorge Camoes at ExcelCharts.com, and Jon Peltier at
otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976
PeltierTech.com. I encourage you to visit their websites to extend
United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of
your Excel abilities even further.
me, the author.
I also owe a debt of gratitude to many in the data visualization
Any use, distribution or disclosure to others is strictly prohibited. If
communities who have either helped develop some of the
you are not the original purchaser and have received this ebook in
visualization types shown below and best practices to visualizing
error, please delete the original and all copies. Federal copyright laws
data (not exclusively in Excel) including Alberto Cairo, Ann Emery,
prohibit the disclosure or other use of this information without
Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic, Andy Kirk, and Robert Kosara. There are
express written permission.
many, many others, so please forgive me for not including all of them.
I encourage you to read the books, blogs and other writings and This basically means I’d like to know and approve before this is
materials from these and many others in the data visualization field. reproduced or shared. Requests for permission can be sent to Jon
Schwabish at [email protected].

4
Introduction
There is an increased recognition that effectively visualizing data is knowledge of Excel, how to create basic graphs, adding different
important to anyone who works with and analyzes data. To that data series, and combining graph types will be useful. There are
end, there has been an explosion in data analysis and data certainly different strategies to creating some of these graphs, but
visualization tools over the past few years. For many people, the approach I present here allow you to not only create those
however, Microsoft Excel continues to the be the workhorse for graphs, but also give you the techniques you can use elsewhere to
their data visualization needs. If you are an Excel user, the default create your own graphs. Along with this guide you will also receive
chart types in do not need to limit your data visualization an Excel file that you can use to recreate the graphs on your own or
capabilities; extending the tool to create other chart types is indeed to use as templates for your own work.
possible.
Should you have questions or need clarifications, please contact me
In this step-by-step guide to data visualization in Excel, you will using the Contact form at PolicyViz.com
learn how to create nearly 20 new graphs in Excel 2016/Office 365 (https://policyviz.com/about/contact/).
(O365). Each tutorial will lead you through the steps to create each
Thanks,
chart type (instructions and images use the 2016 version of Excel on
PCs, but are very similar to those on the Mac). Some basic, working Jon Schwabish

Introduction 5
Basic Data Visualization Principles
This guide is not intended to be an introductory guide to best unnecessary icons or pictures; ornamental shading and gradients;
practices in data visualization. Instead, it is intended to show you and unnecessary dimensions. Too many graphs use textured or filled
how to extend the capabilities of Microsoft Excel so that you can gradients when simple shades of a color can accomplish the same
create more and better visualizations. Yet, three basic principles task.
seem especially useful to guide your creation of better, more effective
visualizations. 3. Integrate the Text and the Graph
As a first, simple step, legends that define or explain a series on a
1. Show the Data graph are often placed far away from the content—off to the right or
People read will read the graphs in your report, article, or blog post below the graph. Integrated legends—either right below the title or
to better understand your argument. The data are the most directly on the chart—are more accessible.
important part of the graph and should be presented in the clearest
These three principles embody the idea that the graph creator should
way possible. But that does not mean that all of the data must be
support the reader’s acquisition of information quickly and easily. By
shown—indeed, many graphs show too much.
stripping out unnecessary clutter and emphasizing the data, your
2. Reduce the Clutter graphs can more clearly and more effectively communicate
Cart clutter, the use of unnecessary or distracting visual elements, information. However, default graph options in many graphing and
tends to reduce effectiveness of the graph. Clutter comes in many statistical programs tend to add clutter and to separate text and
forms: dark or heavy gridlines; unnecessary tick marks, labels, or text; graphs.

Basic Data Visualization Principles 6

Chart Tools Quick Tour
This guide will help you change many of those defaults in Excel graphs. That being said, the goal of this step-by-step guide is to give
2016/O365, so a quick tour through the basic graph layout options you the tools and strategies for pushing past the standard graph
seems appropriate. The Excel graphing engine is quite powerful and types.
allows you to control a wide variety of formatting options for your

Basic Data Visualization Principles 7

Design Tab
Once you’ve created a graph and selected it, a Chart Tools tab will available under the ‘Add Chart Element’ button replaces the Layout
appear at the top of your ribbon consisting of two tabs: Design and tab on previous versions of Excel and allows you to modify the
Format. The Design tab contains options that allow you to apply appearance of axes, titles, gridlines, and more.
different default ‘Chart Layouts’ and ‘Chart Styles’. The options

Basic Data Visualization Principles 8

Each of the options in the ‘Add Chart Element’ menu allows you to choose
from a set of pre-populated options, or to open a menu with more options.
The image at left shows the options available under the Axes button—here,
I will usually select the “More Axis Options” to offer as many options as
possible.

Basic Data Visualization Principles 9

For purposes of this guide, the ‘Change Chart Type’ button
(second-to-last button on the right) and the ‘Switch
Row/Column’ button (fourth-to-last button on the right) will be
used regularly. The ‘Change Chart Type’ button will allow you to
change the type of chart for all the data on the chart, or a
selected series. One of the new features in Excel 2016/O365 is the
series of dropdown menus in this menu that allows you to
change the chart type for each series within a single menu. In
previous versions of Excel, you would need to do this one series
at a time.

Basic Data Visualization Principles 10

Format Tab
The Format tab contains the standard outline and fill color options. There is also a Size section of the menu from which you can select
the size of your graph.

Basic Data Visualization Principles 11

 In the very top-left section of the Format tab is the ‘Chart Elements’ drop-down menu.
The list in this drop-down menu consists of everything in your chart including titles, axes,
error bars, and every series. If you have a lot of objects on your chart, this drop-down
menu will help you to easily find and select what you need.

Basic Data Visualization Principles 12

Chart Elements Menu
One of the new features in Excel 2016/O365 is the ‘Chart Elements Selecting the options will bring up a menu that will appear in a
Menu’ that appears just outside the top-right part of the chart when vertical banner along the right-edge of the window. From here, you
you select it. Appearing as a ‘plus’ symbol, the menu is identical to can modify the appearance of different chart elements.
the ‘Add Chart Elements’ button in the Design tab.

Basic Data Visualization Principles 13

A couple of new features in Excel 2016 are worth mentioning. First, Second, Excel 2016 has a larger (and growing) charting library,
you can now select a specific data range to use as labels in your accessed in the “Recommend Charts” area of the Charts tab. Among
chart. This comes in quite handy when, for example, you want to the new chart types is a Treemap, Histogram, Box & Whisker, and
add custom labels to a scatterplot. Instead of having to do the Waterfall chart. It should be noted, however, that not all of these
labeling manually, you can select the data labels series in the chart types are available on the version of Excel 2016 available on
spreadsheet. the Mac.

Basic Data Visualization Principles 14

Overlaid Gridlines
The Overlaid Gridline chart is a column chart with gridlines on top OverlaidGridline tab in the Advanced Data Visualizations with Excel
of the columns. This type of chart allows viewers to absorb the 2016 Hands-On.xlsx spreadsheet to create the chart.
column data as segments rather than single columns. Use the

Overlaid Gridlines 15
1. Begin by creating a column chart from columns A (“Group”)
and B (“Main Series”).

Overlaid Gridlines 16
2. Remove the title.

Overlaid Gridlines 17
3. We’re now going to add the four “Line” series to the chart. that are highlighted in blue and drag across. Alternatively, you can
There are a few ways to do so. If you select the chart itself, you’ll right-click on the chart and choose the “Select Data” option to add
notice that the data are highlighted in the worksheet. You can these series one at a time. We’ll start by just adding the data in rows
simply select the little blue square at the bottom of the cells 2 through 6; the data in rows 7-11 will come later.

Overlaid Gridlines 18
4. You will now have a clustered column
chart, five series for each group. Select the
orange series for “Line 5” on the graph.
Under the “Design” tab under “Type” in
the ribbon, select “Change Chart Type”
(the third menu from the right). You can
now use the dropdown menus to change
the graph type for each series. Change the
Chart Type for each “Line” series to “Line”
and press “OK.”

Overlaid Gridlines 19
Each series except the “Main Series” now become lines.

Overlaid Gridlines 20
5. If we were to simply change the
lines to white, they would end in
the middle of the bars of the A and
E groups. We now move each of
those four lines to the “secondary
axis” so we can get them to stretch
through the bars. To do so, first
select a line, right-click, and select
“Format Data Series” (alternatively,
use the CTRL-1 keyboard shortcut).
Go to the “Series Options” tab and
select the “Secondary Axis” option.

Overlaid Gridlines 21
6. You’ll notice that a new y-axis has appeared on
the right side of the graph. When you’re done
moving all four series to the secondary axis, this
new y-axis should go from 0 to 25 (if not, adjust
the y-axes to be the same by selecting the axis
and right-clicking or using the CTRL-1
keyboard shortcut).

Overlaid Gridlines 22
7. There is also now a secondary x-axis, but we need to turn it on. To have checkmarks next to them (“Primary Horizontal”, “Primary
do so, select the “Axes” option in the “Chart Elements” menu by Vertical”, and “Secondary Vertical”). Turn on the “Secondary
pressing the “plus” button that will appear when you select the Horizontal” axis by selecting the checkbox.
chart. By hovering over the “Axes” menu, three of the boxes will

Overlaid Gridlines 23
8. Change the colors of the lines to white using the
“Format” tab option. And notice that the lines
still end in the middle of the bars for the A and
E groups.

Overlaid Gridlines 24
9. We fix that by changing how the data points line up with
the tick marks. In a default line graph in Excel, the data
markers line up between the tick marks; notice how the line
begins in the middle of the A bar, between the y-axis and
the tick mark between the A and B groups. By placing the
data markers on the tick marks, we can extend the lines
through the bars.
To do so, we’ll format the secondary x-axis (by right-
clicking and navigating to the “Axis position” options under
“Axis Options” in the “Format axis” menu (using the CTRL-
1 shortcut or using the menu from the ribbon). Here, change
the “Position Axis” marker from “Between tick marks” to
“On tick marks”. Notice how the lines now shift out slightly.

Overlaid Gridlines 25
10. Add your vertical primary axis line (Excel
2016 leaves it off as default), select the
axis and add the line under the “Format
Axis” menu. Doing so, will show some
overlap between the “gridlines” and the
axis line. We can do a couple more things
to line this up just the way we want it.

Overlaid Gridlines 26
11. We want to extend the data series for each “Line” series graph, select the “Select Data” option, and edit each of the 4 “Line”
through row 11. One way to do this is to right-click on the series to extend the data series.

Overlaid Gridlines 27
Alternatively, you can select the line on the chart and you’ll You can then drag the selection box to extend the data series.
notice that your data are selected in the spreadsheet.

Overlaid Gridlines 28
This won’t fix the overlap issue, but you’ll notice
that the group labels are shifted over to the left.
This is because we now have ten values tagged
to this secondary horizontal axis.

Overlaid Gridlines 29
12. We need to now change where the data markers line up with You’ll notice how the lines shift in slightly so that they don’t overlap
the tick marks. Once again, format the secondary x-axis and the vertical axes.
change the “Position Axis” back to “Between tick marks”.

Overlaid Gridlines 30
13. We also want to turn off the secondary horizontal axis. But (accomplished in the middle of this same menu) and set the “Line
don’t delete it! You need to turn off the tick marks and labels Color” to “No line”.

Overlaid Gridlines 31
14. Repeat the process in Step 13 for the secondary
vertical axis, remove the gridlines and style the
rest as you see fit.

Overlaid Gridlines 32
Final Version with Styling

Overlaid Gridlines 33
Overlaid Gridlines with a Formula
In this version of the Overlaid Gridlines chart, I create a stacked approach a bit more flexible: the “Breaker” cell allows you to modify
column chart. Each section of the chart is given a white outline so where the “gridlines” appear. Use the OverlaidGridlines_Formula tab
that it appears like there are gridlines. There are fewer steps in this in the Advanced Data Visualizations with Excel 2016 Hands-On.xlsx
approach, but it’s a bit more difficult to get the data set-up. The spreadsheet to create the chart.
worksheet contains a rather complicated formula that makes this

Overlaid Gridlines with a Formula 34

1. Create a stacked column chart from cells C16:M20. These are the cells that contain the formula.

Overlaid Gridlines with a Formula 35

2. Notice how the default version of
the chart plots the columns; we
want to plot the rows. To do so,
select the chart and the “Switch
Row/Column” button in the
“Design” tab of the ribbon.

Overlaid Gridlines with a Formula 36

3. Now it’s just a matter of styling. Change the fill of each
shape under the “Shape Fill” dropdown in the “Format”
menu to the same color. Similarly, change the color of
the “Shape Outline” to white and increase the thickness
to your desired weight. Of course, delete the existing
(default) gridlines, legend, etc.

Overlaid Gridlines with a Formula 37

4. Repeat for all 5 series.

Overlaid Gridlines with a Formula 38

Final Version with Styling

Overlaid Gridlines with a Formula 39

Overlaid Gridlines with a Scatterplot
In this version of the Overlaid Gridlines graph, we’ll combine a OverlaidGridlines_Scatterplot tab in the Advanced Data
column chart and a scatterplot. We’ll then add horizontal error bars Visualizations with Excel 2016 Hands-On.xlsx spreadsheet to create
to the scatterplot points to mimic the gridlines. Use the the chart.

Overlaid Gridlines with a Scatterplot 40

1. Create a column chart with the “Main Series” data.
Delete the existing gridlines and chart title. Then,
right-click on the chart and choose “Select Data” in
the menu.

41
2. In the next menu, under “Legend Entries (Series)”
select “Add”.

42
3. We are going to add the scatterplot series, so after choosing (B10:B14) in the “Series values:” box. You’ll end up with a paired
“Add”, insert the reference to the “Scatter” name in the “Series column chart.
name:” box (cell A8) and (what will become) the y-series

43
4. Select the orange (“Scatter”) series and under the “Design” tab In the resulting menu, change the chart type for the “Scatter” series
in the ribbon, select “Change Chart Type”. to a scatterplot chart type.

44
5. We have only assigned y-values to the scatterplot series, so we choose “Select Data” again. Select “Edit” for the “Scatter” series and
now need to give it the x-values. Right-click on the chart and insert the cell reference for the x-values (A10:A14).

45
6. We now have the scatterplot overlaid with the column chart. “More Options” and menu item and in the resulting “Add Error
We now need to add the horizontal error bars. To do so, select Bars” menu that appears, select the “Scatter” series and select
the “Error Bars” option that appears in the “Chart Elements” “OK”.
menu that appears when you select the chart. Now, select the

46
7. You may notice that Excel will, by default, add
both vertical and horizontal error bars. The
default pane is for styling the Vertical Error
Bars. We don’t need these, so you can press
delete.

47
8. What we want to do is to style the horizontal
error bars. Select those error bars (again, by
right-clicking or using CTRL-1) and you’ll be
brought to the Horizontal Error Bars formatting
pane.

48
9. Some changes to make here: Under “Direction”
select “Both” and under “End Style” select “No
Cap”. At the bottom, under “Error Amount”,
select the “Custom” menu and hit the “Specify
value” button. Here, you’ll be prompted for a
Positive and Negative Error Value. We’ll insert
a reference to cell A17 for both values here. Why
2.4 for the error bar value? The error bars refer
to the position along the x-axis. We want the
lines to extend from the scatterplot point just
beyond the A bar, so that results in two
“positions” plus a bit more.

49
10. In the “Line Color” tab, you can change the line
color to a white solid line and in the “Line Style”
tab, change the line width to 1.5 pt.

50
11. Right-click (or CTRL-1) to format the scatterplot
points and under “Format Data Series”, select
the “Marker” Options” tab and then select
“None” for “Marker Type”. This will hide the
marker, and all you are left with is the column
chart with overlaid gridlines.

51
Final Version with Styling

52
Vertical Line
This tutorial shows you how to add a vertical line to a line chart. This programs (e.g. PowerPoint) and is linked to data for easier updating
could be used to mark an event, a policy change, or some other and replication. Use the VerticalLine tab in the Advanced Data
annotation. This approach is superior to drawing a line or shape on Visualizations with Excel 2016 Hands-On.xlsx spreadsheet to create
the graph because it is a part of the graph and can be moved to other the chart.

Vertical Line 53
1. Start by making the line graph using cells
A1:B13. You’ll notice you get two lines.
Excel assumes that you want to plot the
values in column A and not use them as x-
axis labels.

Vertical Line 54
2. If you select data and remove the “Year” series and remake the you’ll get a graph of the Participation series with the Year labeled
chart to use A2:A13 as Horizontal Axis labels, along the axis.

Vertical Line 55
3. We’ll add the vertical line by adding a scatterplot chart
to the line chart and then dropping a vertical error bar
from that point. We start by adding the scatterplot
point. Right-click on the chart and choose the “Select
Data” option. (You’ll notice I’ve deleted the title, legend,
and gridlines here.)

Vertical Line 56
4. From there, select “Add” and input the “Series
name” (cell A15) and the y value of 50 into the
“Series values” (cell B17) into the box.

Vertical Line 57
5. You’ll notice that two things occurred. First, the
y-axis moved from a maximum of 50 to a
maximum of 60. Excel will not allow you to put
a data series at the maximum of the chart, and
we just added a y-value of 50 to the chart.
Second, a data marker didn’t appear. This is
because we have just added a line to the chart,
but a line needs two points, so nothing appears
on the chart. To select our newly-added point to
the chart and convert it to the scatterplot, use
the dropdown menu in the “Format” tab. The
“Scatter” series will appear in that dropdown.

Vertical Line 58
6. The “Scatter” series is now selected, so while it is selected, we In that menu, select the “Scatter” option in the dropdown menu next
will change it to a scatterplot by choosing the “Change Chart to the “Scatter” series and press “OK”.
Type” button in the “Design” tab on the ribbon.

Vertical Line 59
7. We’ve now changed the point to a
scatterplot, but need to feed it an x-value.
To do so, right-click on the chart and
choose “Select Data.” Select the “Scatter”
series, click “Edit”, and input the x-value
(cell B16) into the “Series X Values” box.

Vertical Line 60
The scatterplot now appears on the chart at the y-value of
50 and an x-value of 2—note that this is the 2nd position, not
the year 2001. If, instead of 50, cell B16 was set to 2001, Excel
would interpret this as the 2,001st position on the horizontal
axis as illustrated here. Leave the x value at cell B16 on your
chart.

Vertical Line 61
8. Time to add the vertical error bar. Select the “Error Bars” menu menu if you select the “Scatter” series first and then select the
option in the “Chart Elements” menu that appears when you “Error Bars” option in the “Chart Elements” menu.) In either
select the chart. In the “Add Error Bars” menu, select the case, select the “More Error Bars Options” in the “Error Bars”
“Scatter” series and press “OK”. (You can skip this additional menu.

Vertical Line 62
9. Excel will add both horizontal and vertical error
bars. Notice that you’ll first be brought to the
Vertical Error Bars formatting menu. From
here, make a few changes: Change the
“Direction” to “Minus”, the “End Style” to “No
Cap”, and select the “Percentage” option in the
“Error Amount” menu and type 100 into the box.
Notice the vertical error bar will drop to the x-
axis.

Vertical Line 63
10. Notice that you’re also left with a horizontal
error bar, which we don’t need, so select it and
delete. To hide the scatterplot marker, select it
and select format (right-click or CTRL-1). In the
“Marker Options” tab, select the option for
“None”.

Vertical Line 64
11. Finally, adjust the maximum of the y-axis to 50
by formatting the y-axis (again, right-click or
CTRL-1) and changing the “Maximum” value to
50.

Vertical Line 65
12. As an aside, you can easily add annotation to this line by
taking the following steps.
a. First, instead of naming the series “Scatter”, give it the
name of the annotation you want; for example, “2001
Policy Passed”.

Vertical Line 66
b. Second, select the marker for that series and right-click
to add data labels.

Vertical Line 67
Alternatively, you can use the drop-down
menu in the top-left of the Format tab to
directly select the data marker.

Vertical Line 68
c. Third, select the data label and right-click
to format. In the menu, check the box for
“Series Name” and uncheck the box for “Y
value”. Format the label as you see fit.

d. You can also accomplish the same goal by

adding a Data Label to the point. In the
Data Label formatting menu (which you
can get to by selecting the Data Label and
using the CTRL+1 keyboard shortcut),
selecting the “Value from Cells” option.
The new menu will allow you to select a
cell for the label. (Note: this custom Data
Labels option is not available in the Mac
OS.)

Vertical Line 69
Final Version with Styling.

Vertical Line 70
Block Shading (annual-annual)
This chart type is typically used to mark some period of time behind annual and annual—the chart is made quickly and easily. Use the
a line or column chart, for example, a forecast period or to mark BlockShading_Annual tab in the Advanced Data Visualizations with
recessions. When the frequencies of the data match up—in this case Excel 2016 Hands-On.xlsx spreadsheet to create the chart.

Block Shading (annual-annual) 71

1. First, notice that if you leave the “Year”
label in cell A1 and insert a line chart with
cells A1:C13, Excel will plot the “Year”
series.

Block Shading (annual-annual) 72

2. Deleting the “Year” in cell A1 and then
inserting a line chart with cells A1:C13
generates the line chart we’ll start with.

Block Shading (annual-annual) 73

3. Select the “Dummy” (orange line) series, and
under “Change Chart Type” in the “Design” tab
on the ribbon, change the chart type for that
series to a clustered column chart using the
dropdown menu.

Block Shading (annual-annual) 74

4. Select the “Dummy” (orange bars) series and
right-click to format. In the “Series Options”
tab, change the “Gap Width” to 0%.

Block Shading (annual-annual) 75

5. Format the y-axis (by right-clicking or CTRL-1)
and change the maximum y-value to 50 (to
match the “Dummy” series).

Block Shading (annual-annual) 76

6. Style as you like by deleting the legend, changing the color
of the bars, and the number and appearance of the
gridlines.

Block Shading (annual-annual) 77

Final Version with Styling

Block Shading (annual-annual) 78

Block Shading (monthly-annual)
This version of the block shading chart is more complicated than the building the chart requires using the secondary axes. Use the
one where the data frequencies line up. In this case—where the one BlockShading_Monthly tab in the Advanced Data Visualizations with
series is annual and the shading is monthly (e.g., recessions)— Excel 2016 Hands-On.xlsx spreadsheet to create the chart.

Block Shading (monthly-annual) 79

1. We start in the same way as the previous chart
except with the “Year” label in cell A deleted.
Create a line chart using the data in cells A1:B13.

Block Shading (monthly-annual) 80

2. Then delete the title (and legend).

Block Shading (monthly-annual) 81

3. Right-click on the chart and choose “Select Data”.

Block Shading (monthly-annual) 82

4. We will add the “Recession Dummy” series by
selecting “Add” in the resulting menu. Then, reference
cell F1 for the “Series Name” and that series (cells
F2:F145) for the “Series values”. This will slide the blue
series far over to the left because Excel now views this
as a line chart with 144 spaces (corresponding to the
number of observations in the “Recession Dummy”
series).

Block Shading (monthly-annual) 83

5. Select the orange (“Recession Dummy”) series,
right-click and move that series to the
“Secondary Axis” by selecting the option in the
“Series Options” tab.

Block Shading (monthly-annual) 84

6. Again, select the orange (“Recession Dummy”)
series, and under “Change Chart Type” in the
“Design” tab on the ribbon, change the chart
type for that series to a clustered column chart.

Block Shading (monthly-annual) 85

7. With a column chart now created—and tagged to the menu in the “Chart Elements” menu, select the checkbox next to
secondary axis—we need to “turn on” the secondary horizontal “Secondary Horizontal.”
axis. To do so, select the chart, and under the “Axis” dropdown

Block Shading (monthly-annual) 86

8. The orange column chart will seemingly flip to the
secondary axis, and the blue line will stretch out as it did in
the first step.

Block Shading (monthly-annual) 87

9. We want the bars to stretch along the entire
vertical axis. So, format the secondary vertical
axis (select it and right-click or CTRL-1), and
under the “Axis Options” menu, change the
“Minimum” value to 1 and the “Maximum” value
to 2 (note that this works because the
“Recession Dummy” series is set to 1; you can
use a different number if you want, but these
minimum/maximum values would then also
change).

Block Shading (monthly-annual) 88

10. Format the column chart (by selecting and
right-clicking or CTRL-1), and under the “Series
Options” tab, change the “Gap Width” to 0%.

Block Shading (monthly-annual) 89

11. In that same menu, you can change the colors
of the bars using the “Fill” section.

Block Shading (monthly-annual) 90

12. Turn off the secondary horizontal and vertical axes by setting the “None” in the “Axis Options” section of the “Format Axis” menu.
“Line color” to “No line” and “Tick Marks” and “Labels” to

Block Shading (monthly-annual) 91

Final Version with Styling

Block Shading (monthly-annual) 92

Broken Stacked Bars
Stacked bar or column charts have the disadvantage that it can be table below in rows 9-15. Interspersed between the data are
difficult to compare series that do not lie on the same vertical axis. “Dummy” data series; each one is equal to 65 minus (denoted in the
This tutorial shows how to break up a stacked bar chart so that each formula using an absolute reference) the neighboring cell. 65 is
series sits on its own vertical axis. used only because it is larger than the largest data value of 56; 70,
80, even 57 would also work. Use the BrokenStackedBars tab in the
The data are set up in a particular way. You’ll notice that I have the
Advanced Data Visualizations with Excel 2016 Hands-On.xlsx
raw data sitting in the top table in rows 1-6. I’ve made a new data
spreadsheet to create the chart.

Broken Stacked Bars 93

1. Create a stacked bar chart using the data in columns A9:I15. series.) Notice how the chart is grouping the series by columns
(Notice that I deleted the “Group” name in cell A9 before doing instead of by rows.
so; otherwise, Excel will plot the group numbers as a data

Broken Stacked Bars 94

2. To switch this, select the “Switch Row/Column” button in the The chart is now grouped by rows instead of columns.
“Design” tab on the ribbon.

Broken Stacked Bars 95

3. We’ve switched the plot, but Excel puts the 6th
group at the top of the chart and the 1st group at
the bottom. We’d like to have the order of the
graph mimic the order of the data in the
spreadsheet. To do so, format the y-axis (select
the axis and right-click or hit CTRL-1) and in
that menu, make two changes: In the “Axis
Options” tab, check the box next to “Categories
in reverse order” and change the “Horizontal
axis crosses:” option to “At maximum category”.
The first change flips the order of the data, but
it also moves the x-axis to the top of the chart;
that’s why the second step is needed.

Broken Stacked Bars 96

4. We now hide the “Dummy” series by changing their fill to “No Fill”
using the “Format” menu.

Broken Stacked Bars 97

5. We now need to change the spacing of the
vertical gridlines to match the vertical
alignment of the data bars. Select the horizontal
axis and right-click or CTRL-1 to format. Change
the axis to span from 0 (in the “Minimum”
section) to 260 (in the “Maximum” section), and
change the “Major Unit” to 65 to match the
variable used to construct the spacing.

Broken Stacked Bars 98

If you don’t want that final gridline on the
chart, you can cheat a bit and change the
minimum value to 0 and the maximum value
of the horizontal axis to 259.9.

Broken Stacked Bars 99

6. You can delete the legend if you like. You can
also delete just the four “Dummy” series labels
in the legend by separately selecting and
deleting each one. You can also delete the x-axis
because the markers don’t make much sense at
this point.

Broken Stacked Bars 100

Final Version with Styling

Broken Stacked Bars 101

Vertical Bullet
A bullet chart contains 5 data series: an observed (actual) value; a using a stacked bar chart and secondary axes. Use the
target value; and three (or more) ranges (e.g., poor, good, and Vertical_Bullet tab in the Advanced Data Visualizations with Excel
excellent). This tutorial shows how to create a vertical bullet chart 2016 Hands-On.xlsx spreadsheet to create the chart.

Vertical Bullet 102

1. Create a stacked column chart using the data for Region A
in column B.

Vertical Bullet 103

2. We want these series to be stacked, so you need to use the “Switch Row/Column” button in the “Design” tab.

Vertical Bullet 104

3. We’ll move the Value and Target series to the secondary axis
by selecting each, right-clicking (or CTRL-1), and selecting
the “Format Data Series” option at the bottom of the menu.

Vertical Bullet 105

4. In the format menu, select “Secondary Axis” in the “Series Options” menu.

Vertical Bullet 106

5. After you move the first series to the secondary
axis, you won’t be able to select the other series.
To select the next series, use the dropdown
menu in the far top-left section of the “Format”
tab, then click Format Selection.

Vertical Bullet 107

6. Once both series are moved to the secondary
axis, format the series to change the “Gap
Width” to 400% (you’ll only need to do this for
one of the series).

Vertical Bullet 108

7. We’ll now change the Target series to a
scatterplot to create the marker. Select the
Target series and then select the “Change Chart
Type” menu in the “Design” tab. Use the
dropdown menu to change the chart type for
the Target series to “Scatter”.

Vertical Bullet 109

8. Now that it’s a scatterplot, you can format as
you like. Select the scatterplot point, format by
right-clicking, and under “Marker Options” of
the format menu, select the dash under the
“Built-in” menu. You can also increase the size.

Vertical Bullet 110

9. Alternatively, if you don’t like the look of the
scatterplot marker, you can change the marker
to a circle and add a horizontal error bar to the
point. To do so, select the point, and add an
error bar using the “Error Bars” option in the
“Chart Elements” menu. Delete the vertical
error bar and format the horizontal error bar:
a. Change the “Direction” to “Both”;
b. Change the “End Style” to “No Cap”;
c. Change the “Fixed value” to “0.2”

Vertical Bullet 111

You can also change the appearance of the horizontal
error bar:
e. In the “Line Style” menu, change the
width (I’ve used 2 pt here)
f. In the “Line Color” menu, change the
color (I’ve used pink here).

Vertical Bullet 112

10. Be sure to set both y-axes to the same range
with a minimum and maximum of 0% and
100%, respectively.

Vertical Bullet 113

11. Recolor and format the different series as needed. To extend
the series to include all four Regions, simply select the chart
and drag the blue data box to the right.

Vertical Bullet 114

Final Version with Styling

Vertical Bullet 115

Horizontal Bullet
The horizontal bullet chart presents the same data as in the vertical tricky version of this approach is that you need to be careful with the
version, but this approach is slightly different (you could use the data and where the Target sits in the different ranges. Use the
same approach for the vertical version, though it’s more difficult to Horizontal_Bullet tab in the Advanced Data Visualizations with Excel
apply the vertical version to the horizontal bars). The somewhat 2016 Hands-On.xlsx spreadsheet to create the chart.

Horizontal Bullet 116

1. Begin by creating a stacked bar chart using cells A1:B7.
Notice how the Target* series differs when it sits within the
“Good” range instead of the “Excellent” range.

Horizontal Bullet 117

2. If you select the first option in the “Insert Chart” menu,
you’ll notice that you get a Clustered Bar Chart instead of a
Stacked Bar Chart. To change, select the “Switch
Row/Column” button in the “Design” tab of the ribbon. You
can also select this chart option directly in the Insert Chart
menu by selecting the option to the right.

Horizontal Bullet 118

3. Move the Value (gold) series to the secondary
axis by selecting and formatting (either by right-
clicking or CTRL-1). Move the series to the
“Secondary Axis” under the “Series Options” tab
and change the “Gap Width” to 400%.

Horizontal Bullet 119

4. Fix both sets of horizontal axes to go from 0%-
100%.

Horizontal Bullet 120

5. Delete the secondary horizontal axis, legend, and gridlines.
Format the different series to the desired colors. Notice that
the “Excellent” series is broken into two groups—to the left
and right of the “Target” series—so be careful to give those
two series the same color.

Horizontal Bullet 121

6. You can now select the chart and drag the blue data box to
extend the chart to cover all four Regions.

Horizontal Bullet 122

7. Notice how this approach generates a large red box for the
Target* series in Region D. You need to do some manual
work here to recolor the that segment. Select that segment
(not the entire series) and color as needed. Color the
Excellent-Low segment as your target color.

Horizontal Bullet 123

Final Version with Styling

Horizontal Bullet 124

Dot Plot
The dot plot is a nice alternative to a paired or stacked column/bar the DotPlot tab in the Advanced Data Visualizations with Excel 2016
chart where you want to compare values for different categories. Use Hands-On.xlsx spreadsheet to create the chart.

Dot Plot 125

1. Creating a Dot Plot in Excel 2016 consists of a
series of scatterplots. To start, create a
scatterplot from cells B1:C11. The data are set up
in such a way to keep the three data series
(Bottom, Middle, High) next to each other, but
this also means we need to switch how Excel
plots the x- and y-series. So, after having
inserted the scatterplot, right-click on the chart,
choose “Select Data”, select the “Bottom” series
and then the “Edit” button. Here, switch the
data—the “Height” series (B2:B11) should go in
the “Series Y values:” box and the “Bottom”
series (C2:C11) should go in the “Series X values:”
box.

Dot Plot 126

2. Add the “Middle” and “High” series by right-
clicking on the chart and choosing the “Select
Data” option. Select the “Add” option and fill in
the menu options—for the “Middle” series, fill
in the “Series name:” box with cell D1; the “Series
X values:” with cells D2:D11; and the “Series Y
values:” with cells B2:B11. Repeat for the “High”
series. (If you haven’t noticed, the “Height”
series is used for all three series here because it
doesn’t (and shouldn’t) change.)

Dot Plot 127

3. We are going to use Error Bars to add the
horizontal lines that connect the points. To do
so, select the orange “Middle” series in the
chart, and then the “More Options” in the “Error
Bars” dropdown menu in the “Chart Elements”
menu that appears when you select the chart.

Dot Plot 128

4. You’ll notice that the first set of error bars you are prompted
to format are the vertical error bars. We don’t need these
error bars, so you can select and delete them.

Dot Plot 129

5. Then, select and format the horizontal error
bars (by selecting and then right-clicking or
CTRL-1). In the menu, choose “No Cap” in the
“End Style” section of the menu. Then, select the
button for “Custom” for the “Error Amount”. For
the “Positive Error Value”, insert the reference
for the “PosError” series in cells F2:F11. For the
“Negative Error Value”, insert the reference for
the “NegError” series in cells G2:G11.

Dot Plot 130

6. We now move to setting up the labels so that
they sit next to the blue points (the “Bottom”
series). To do so, we can use the “Value From
Cells” feature in the Data Labels options menu
(not available in versions prior to Excel 2016).
Select the “Bottom” series, right-click and select
the “Add Data Labels” option in the menu.

Dot Plot 131

7. Format the data labels by selecting them and
right-clicking or using the CTRL+1 keyboard
shortcut. In the “Label Options” menu, check
the box next to the “Value From Cells” option.
In the pop-up box, select the state names from
cells A2:A11. Uncheck the box next to the “Y
Value” label and in the “Label Position” section
of the menu below, select the option next to
“Left” to move the labels over.

Dot Plot 132

8. If you’d rather have the labels further away from the data
and right-aligned, you can add a new scatterplot series with
the y-values equal to the “Height” series and the x-values
equal to a constant (in this example, the number 18 works).
Then, again, add the data labels using the “Value from Cells”
option and place them to the left of the points. Now hide
the markers by right-clicking and changing the “Marker
Option” to “None”.

Dot Plot 133

9. Complete the formatting by changing the shapes and colors
of the points and deleting gridlines and y-axis, as desired.

Dot Plot 134

10. If you want to add arrows to the error bars—as shown in the
DotPlot_Arrows tab in the Advanced Data Visualizations
with Excel 2016 Hands-On.xlsx spreadsheet—you can add
another “Middle” series. From the first “Middle” series, add
a horizontal error bar that goes to the left (Minus); from the
new “Middle” series, add a horizontal error bar that goes to
the right (Plus). Use Left Arrow for the custom negative
error values and Right Arrow values for the custom positive
error values. In the “Line Style” tab of the “Format Error
Bars” menu, select the “Arrow settings” as you see fit.

Dot Plot 135

Final Version with Styling

Dot Plot 136

Slope
The slope chart uses lines to enable comparisons of different Use the Slope tab in the Advanced Data Visualizations with Excel 2016
categories. It is most effective when comparing multiple series with Hands-On.xlsx spreadsheet to create the chart.
only 1-3 data points.

Slope 137
1. Start by creating a line chart using the data provided in cells
A1:C6.

Slope 138
2. Excel will create a line chart along the columns here, but we
want to flip that. Select the chart and then select the “Switch
Row/Column” button in the “Design” tab on the ribbon.

Slope 139
3. It’s now a matter of styling and adding the data
labels. To get the lines to fill up the entire chart
space, first delete the legend. Then, format the
x-axis (select and right-click or CTRL-1): In the
“Format Axis” menu, select the “On tick marks”
button at the bottom under the “Axis position”
section of the menu. This lines up the data
markers with the tick marks and thus takes up
the whole chart space. You can also turn off the
tick marks by selecting “None” in the “Major
type” dropdown menu under “Tick Marks”, and
turn off the line in the “Line Color” tab. Press
“Close” and you can then delete the vertical axis
and horizontal gridlines.

Slope 140
4. Now to add the data markers. Begin by selecting the pink
line, right-click, and select “Add Data Labels” in the menu.

Slope 141
5. This will add a data label to either end of the line. Notice
how they are both aligned to the right of the point and
consist of the value of the point. This is fine for the point on
the right, but for the point on the left, we want the data
marker to be to the left of the point and to include the state
name.

Slope 142
6. Select the data labels—this will select both—so select the
left label again so that only that label is selected.

Slope 143
7. Right-click and select the “Format Data Label”
option in the menu. Here, you can check the
box next to “Series Name” (in addition to the
“Value” box that is already selected), and select
the “Left” option under the “Label Position”
section of the menu. You can also change the
separator from a comma to a (space) if you
want. Repeat for the remaining lines.

Slope 144
8. The advantage of making these selections through the menu
is that the labels will all be aligned together. With text
boxes, you would need to do that alignment manually. You
can now select the plot area and resize it so that the labels
fit on the chart. Style chart as desired.

Slope 145
Final Version with Styling

Slope 146
Vertical Bar-Scatter
In this chart, we combine a column chart and a scatterplot for Data Visualizations with Excel 2016 Hands-On.xlsx spreadsheet to
comparing values. Use the Bar-Scatter_Vertical tab in the Advanced create the chart

Vertical Bar-Scatter 147

1. Create a clustered column chart using the poverty rate data
in A2-C11.

Vertical Bar-Scatter 148

2. Select the Poverty Rate series (the blue bars)
and change the chart type to a “Line with
Markers” by using the dropdown menu in the
“Change Chart Type” menu in the “Design” tab
of the ribbon.

Vertical Bar-Scatter 149

This will give you a marked line on top of the column chart.

Vertical Bar-Scatter 150

3. To get rid of the line, format the Poverty Rate
series by selecting and right-clicking (or CTRL-
1). In the format menu, change the “Line Color”
to “No line”. That will make the line disappear,
but the markers will remain.

Vertical Bar-Scatter 151

4. Style the chart elements as you like.

Vertical Bar-Scatter 152

Final Version with Styling

Vertical Bar-Scatter 153

Horizontal Bar-Scatter
In this chart, we combine a bar chart and a scatterplot for comparing Visualizations with Excel 2016 Hands-On.xlsx spreadsheet to create
values. Use the Bar-Scatter_Horizontal tab in the Advanced Data the chart.

Horizontal Bar-Scatter 154

1. Create a bar chart using the poverty rate data in A2-C11.

Horizontal Bar-Scatter 155

2. Notice that the order of the data in the chart
differ from those in the spreadsheet. We want
those to be the same, especially for this chart.
Format the y-axis: In the “Format Axis” menu
(use the CTRL+1 keyboard shortcut), check the
box next to “Categories in reverse order” and
change the “Horizontal axis crosses:” option to
“At maximum category”.

Horizontal Bar-Scatter 156

3. We are now going to change the poverty rate
(blue) series to a scatterplot. Select the blue
series and select the scatterplot option in the
dropdown menu in the “Change Chart Type”
menu found under the “Design” tab on the
ribbon.

Horizontal Bar-Scatter 157

When you change the series to a scatterplot, the graph is
going to look very weird. This is because Excel is filling it its
own values for the x- and y-series.

Horizontal Bar-Scatter 158

4. We need to now go in and assign them to the
right position. So, right-click on the chart and
choose “Select Data.” Select the Poverty Rate
series and select the “Edit” button. Assign the
correct series to the x- and y-positions: the x
series is the Poverty Rate (cells B3:B11), and the
y series is the “Y-series” data shown in Column
D (D2:D11).

 The Y-series is created in such a way that the

points are aligned with the center of the bars.
This approach works because, by default, Excel
won’t let you plot data at the maximum of the
vertical axis, so it will round up from the
maximum value. We take advantage of this by
using odd numbers and thus getting the data
markers to line up with the bars.

Horizontal Bar-Scatter 159

5. With the data now in the correct order, you can delete the
y-axis, legend, and format the two series as desired.

Horizontal Bar-Scatter 160

Final Version with Styling

Horizontal Bar-Scatter 161

Lollipop
A lollipop chart is basically a bar chart except that the end of the bar where the data are encoded. Use the Lollipop tab in the Advanced
is replaced with a dot (the candy) and the bar itself is replaced with Data Visualizations with Excel 2016 Hands-On.xlsx spreadsheet to
a line (the stick, if you will). The lollipop graph reduces a lot of the create the chart.
ink on the page and I think helps the reader focus just on the end

Lollipop 162
1. Create a bar chart with the Spending data using cells A1:B6.
You’ll notice that Excel sorts the data with Category E at the
top of the chart. Personally, I want my data to be visualized
in the same order as it appears in the spreadsheet. So, the
first step is to re-sort the data so that Category A appears at
the top of the chart.

Lollipop 163
2. To do so, format the y-axis by selecting it and
right-clicking or using the CTRL-1 shortcut. In
the “Format Axis” menu, check the box next to
“Categories in reverse order” and change the
“Horizontal axis crosses:” option to “At
maximum category”. The first change flips the
order of the data, but it also moves the x-axis to
the top of the chart; that’s why the second step
is needed.

Lollipop 164
3. To change this to the lollipop, we’ll use error
bars. Select the bars in the chart, and select the
“More Options” option in the “Error Bars”
section of the “Chart Elements” menu available
when you select the chart.

Lollipop 165
4. Excel will automatically add horizontal error
bars to the chart. In the “Horizontal Error Bar”
menu, change the “Direction” to “Minus”, and
the “End Style” to “No Cap”. We also want to
select the “Percentage” option in the “Error
Amount” area of the menu, and place a 100 in
the box. This will create a horizontal error bar
that goes to the left all the way to the y-axis,
regardless of the data.

Lollipop 166
5. In the “Line” menu (the first option in this
menu) change the “Begin Arrow type” to the
circle and increase its size (if you like) in the
“Begin Arrow size” menu just below. (You can
also change the color in the “Line Color” menu.)
(Note: Excel 2016 reversed how ‘begin’ and ‘end’
were defined, so if you’ve made this graph in an
earlier version of Excel and opened it in Excel
2016, you’ll notice that the circle is in the wrong
position.)

Lollipop 167
6. Change the fill on the blue bars to “No Fill” by selecting the
bars and selecting “No Fill” in the “Shape Fill” dropdown
located in the “Format” menu on the ribbon.

Lollipop 168
Final Version with Styling

Lollipop 169
Sparklines
Sparklines are a simple chart type that show small versions (or “small Use the Sparklines tab in the Advanced Data Visualizations with Excel
multiples”) of graphs. Beginning with Excel 2010, Sparklines became 2016 Hands-On.xlsx spreadsheet to create the chart.
a default option, available in the “Insert” tab of the ribbon.

Sparklines 170
1. Select where you would like to place your Sparklines (though
this could be done later too).

Sparklines 171
2. Select the “Line” option in the “Sparklines”
menu in the “Insert” tab on the ribbon.

Sparklines 172
3. Select your data for the “Data Range:”.

Sparklines 173
4. Hit OK and the Sparklines fill in.

Sparklines 174
5. Using the Sparkline Tools, you can format the color of the (in the “Show” tab), or even change the chart type to columns (in
Sparklines (in the “Sparkline Color” drop down), add markers the “Type” tab).

Sparklines 175
Final Version with Styling

Sparklines 176
Gantt
The Gantt chart consists of horizontal lines or bars and is typically This Gantt chart has a slightly different look than the typical
used as a schedule-tracking device to show the duration of different approach. Use the Gantt tab in the Advanced Data Visualizations with
values or actions. It’s easy to create a Gantt chart in Excel by simply Excel 2016 Hands-On.xlsx spreadsheet to create the chart.
highlighting cells in the spreadsheet, but Glenna Shaw shared a way
to create a different style of Gantt chart using a line chart with
markers.

Gantt 177
1. The basic Gantt chart using filled-in
spreadsheet cells is shown here. We are going to
add data to those cells to plot them in a graph.
Use the =ROW() formula to place the value of
each row in the highlighted cell. You could also
manually type in some values, but the ROW
formula is a bit faster and easier to update.

Gantt 178
2. Insert a Line with Markers chart using the data in cells
A2:H8.

Gantt 179
3. You’ll notice that the order of the lines in the graph
don’t match the order of the data in the
spreadsheet. As we’ve done before, format the y-
axis so the order of the chart matches the order of
the data by right-clicking the axis (or using the
CTRL+1 keyboard shortcut) and check the box next
to “Values in reverse order”. Adjust the axis
minimum to the lowest row number - 1 and
maximum to the highest row number + 1 to use the
full plot area of the chart.

Gantt 180
4. We can delete some of the unnecessary chart
elements such as the y-axis, horizontal gridlines, and
legend.

Gantt 181
5. We can add vertical gridlines by selecting the x-
axis (now at the top of the chart), and selecting
the Gridlines option in the Chart Elements
menu that appears when you select the plus
button to the right of the chart.

Gantt 182
6. We are now going to add the labels to the chart.
If you select the first (top) series, you’ll notice
that both points are selected. If you click again,
only the first (left) point is highlighted; right-
click and select Add Data Label.

Gantt 183
7. Click on the data label twice and right-click (or
CTRL+1) and make two changes: select only the
“Series Name” option under Label Options, and
select the “Left” option in the bottom Label
Position menu.

Gantt 184
8. This first label doesn’t look like it moved over to the left,
but if you select the plot space (not the whole chart, just
the space inside) you can shift it to the right and the
label is now lined up to the left of the point. Now repeat
the process for the other series.

Gantt 185
9. One advantage of Excel 2016 is that you can adjust the
size of the data label boxes. You may find, for example,
that the “Design Presentation” label is wrapped on
two lines. If you want this label to be on just one line,
you can select the box and select it again—this will
bring up empty circles around the box; selecting those
will enable you to adjust the size of the text box.

Gantt 186
10. You can also change the color of the labels to match
the colors of your lines.

Gantt 187
Final Version with Styling

Gantt 188
Heatmap
Heatmaps are typically used to show high-frequency data in a This visualization is relatively easy to create using Excel’s Conditional
compact format. You might think of them as a table, but instead of Formatting menu and then a little trick to hide the numbers. Use the
showing the actual numbers, the heatmap shows colors. Heatmap tab in the Advanced Data Visualizations with Excel 2016
Hands-On.xlsx spreadsheet to create the chart.

Heatmap 189
1. The basic data for this example consists of 7
variables for 28 cities, laid out in a simple grid.
We want to show frequency for each category.

 Gridlines are turned off for this worksheet.

Heatmap 190
2. To add color to the cells using Conditional
Formatting, select the first category (cells
B2:B28) and open the “Color Scales” option in
the Conditional Formatting dropdown found in
the “Home” tab. Select the “More Rules…”
option.

 If you wanted to show frequency for the entire

table instead of by category, you could select
your data and choose one of Excel’s predefined
color scale options.

Heatmap 191
3. In the resulting menu, you can select the colors
you would like to use. It is customary to use
lighter colors for smaller values, and darker
colors for larger values. Select the colors in the
“Color:” dropdown menu. Click OK.

Heatmap 192
The column will now be shaded with the colors
selected.

Heatmap 193
4. Repeat the process separately for the remaining
columns.

Heatmap 194
5. The last task is to hide the numbers. You can’t delete them
because the shading would then disappear, and you can’t
turn them to white (to match the background) because they
would then show through the colors. Instead, it’s a small
formatting trick. Highlight the 7 columns of data and right-
click (or use the CTRL-1 keyboard shortcut) to select
“Format Cells”.

Heatmap 195
6. Select the “Custom” option at the bottom of the
“Category:” menu. Type 3 semicolons (;;;) in the
“Type:” box.

Heatmap 196
7. Press OK. This number format hides the
numbers; they are still in the cells and can be
used and manipulated, and the colors remain.

 To make your heat map even easier to

understand,
● Average the category numbers by city
and sort largest to smallest, or
● Sort by city name, or
● Sort by state.

Heatmap 197
Final Version with Styling

Heatmap 198
Diverging Bars
Diverging bar charts are great for showing the differences of negative to show these categories diverging from a single midpoint. Use the
and positive values, such as Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree. DivergingBars tab in the Advanced Data Visualizations with Excel
Because they align around a central (neutral) value, it can be clearer 2016 Hands-On.xlsx spreadsheet to create the chart.

Diverging Bars 199

1. Create a stacked bar chart using cells A1:G4. You’ll notice
that Excel creates the chart along the columns, but we want
to plot the data along the rows. (You can also select the
second option on the right when you initially insert the
chart.)

Diverging Bars 200

2. To switch this, select the “Switch Row/Column” button in
the “Design” tab of the ribbon.

Diverging Bars 201

3. The “Dummy” series are just used as fillers, so set the “Fill”
on those series to “No Fill” using the “Shape Fill” menu in
the “Format” tab of the ribbon.

Diverging Bars 202

4. Add data labels to each series by right-clicking and selecting
the “Add Data Labels…” option from the menu.

Diverging Bars 203

5. Change the range of the x-axis (again, by right-
clicking or CTRL-1) to .5 for minimum and 2 for
maximum to use more of the space. You can also
delete the x-axis because the x-axis labels are
essentially meaningless.

Diverging Bars 204

6. Move the Legend to the top of the chart. Remove the
“Dummy” series labels by individually selecting and deleting
them.

Diverging Bars 205

7. Finally, recolor the series as you wish, with different color
palettes for either side.

Diverging Bars 206

 If you wish to place the “Group” labels closer to
the chart, you can label the first “Dummy”
series; right-click (or CTRL-1) on that series, and
change the “Label Contains” option to
“Category Name” and place the “Label Position”
at the “Inside End”. Then delete the vertical axis.

Diverging Bars 207

 You can also add a vertical bar at the midpoint
by adding a scatterplot to the chart. Right-click
on the chart and choose “Select Data” from the
menu. Add the new series (“Vertical” in row 23)
and change to a scatterplot (see some of the
other tutorials on how to do so). This new
scatterplot will be pegged to the “Secondary
Axis”, so you just need to modify the secondary
horizontal and vertical axes to place the point in
the correct position. Once positioned, add a
vertical error bar (see some of the other tutorials
on how to do so).

Diverging Bars 208

Final Version with Styling

Diverging Bars 209

Tile Grid Map
In a Tile Grid Map, the map areas are given a uniform size and 2016 Hands-On.xlsx spreadsheet to create the chart. I have included
shape—usually a square—and are arranged to approximate their a final, formatted version of the Tile Grid Map in the FinalTileGrid
real-world position. They can be constructed fairly easily in Excel tab of the file so that you don’t need to do some of the tedious
after some upfront time with cell formatting and formula building. retyping.
Use the TileGrid tab in the Advanced Data Visualizations with Excel

Tile Grid Map 210

The map is set up by typing the abbreviation of each state name
in the appropriate cell. I’ve already done this part for you.

Tile Grid Map 211

1. Change to the Page Layout by selecting the “Page Layout” button in the “View” tab of the ribbon. This sets the row and column
measurements to inches. Size the cells into squares (I set the row
and column widths to 0.5 inches). Either grab the columns (and
then rows) and change the width with your mouse, or right-click
on the columns (and then rows) and select the “Column Width…”
(or “Row Height…”) option. Change back to Normal view or
continue to work in Page Layout if preferred.

Tile Grid Map 212

 In the Excel file, the map is located in the left side of the One group is greater than the median and the other group is less than
worksheet and the data table is located to the right in columns or equal to the median. For each state in the map, the cell needs to
O and P. To the right of the data table is another cell that point to the appropriate point in the data column. For example, the
calculates the median value of the series (using the MEDIAN state cell for Alaska in the map (cell B4) will need to point to cell P2
formula); this measure splits the data into the two groups. (e.g., ‘=P2’).

Tile Grid Map 213

2. To get the state abbreviations in the cell and not
the data value from the formula, apply a Custom
Number Format for each state. You need to do
this one state at a time. For example, select
Alaska, and right-click (or CTRL-1). In the
“Format Cells” menu, go to the “Custom” option
and type in “AK”. This custom label hides the
number and replaces it with the “AK”
abbreviation. Repeat for every state.

Tile Grid Map 214

3. For each state in the map, the cell needs to
point to the appropriate cell in the data
column on the right. Select the state cell for
Alaska, in the formula bar type = and then click
on cell P2 in the data table to map it to Alaska’s
value. Hit enter. Map all the states to their
respective values in the data column.

Tile Grid Map 215

4. Excel’s Conditional Formatting menu is used to
set the colors in the map based on the number
of groups you want to show (above the median,
fill the cell with a dark blue; below the median,
fill it with light blue). To apply it here, select
the entire map and select the “New Rule” option
in the Conditional Formatting menu.

Tile Grid Map 216

5. We first add the formula for the blank cells.
Select the second option in the “New
Formatting Rule” menu, choose Blanks in the
Format only cells with: drop down, and format
those cells (using the “Format” button) to fill
with a white color.

Tile Grid Map 217

6. We next add the formatting for the data values. Add two
more conditional formatting rules as follows:
a. Format only cells that contain cell values less than or
equal to $S$2 with orange fill and black text
b. Format only cells that contain cell values greater than
$S$2 with blue fill and white text

 You can choose different fill and text colors. I’ve used shades
of blue as my example colors.

Tile Grid Map 218

7. The order of these formulas does matter. You
want the white (blank) formula to appear first;
you can do so by selecting the map cells,
selecting Manage Rules from the Conditional
Formatting menu, selecting that rule and using
the up arrow in the formula bar.

Tile Grid Map 219

 You can change the cutoff value from the
median to something else by changing the
formula in that cell.

Tile Grid Map 220

8. Finish by formatting the title and legend as desired.

Tile Grid Map 221

Final Version with Styling

Tile Grid Map 222

Marimekko
The Marimekko chart encodes two variables: one along the height of recolor each of the 100 columns. This will require working with a
the vertical axis and another along the width of the columns. The number of formulas, but it will be more flexible in the end. Use the
basic approach of this chart is to create a column chart with 100 Marimekko tab in the Advanced Data Visualizations with Excel 2016
columns, repeating values as necessary. We’ll group the data to make Hands-On.xlsx spreadsheet to create the chart.
it easier to color each series separately instead of having to select and

Marimekko 223
The data for this example consists of 10 items and for each item we have the
percent purchased (% Purchased). We also have the share of the total sold
for each item (% of Total), which sums to 100%. For the Marimekko chart,
we’ll put % Purchased along the vertical axis and % of Total on the
horizontal axis.
The data are found in columns B and C; the rest of the worksheet is
constructed to build the graph, and much of it repeats so that we can use
the VLOOKUP formula. This version of the Marimekko uses rounded data
values; if your data have decimals, simply multiply everything by 10 or 100
and use 1,000 or 10,000 columns in the chart.

Marimekko 224
Setting up the Data
COLUMN 1 [E]
Create a new column for the % of Total variable, but change it
from a percentage to an integer. You could copy and paste the
original data and change the format of the new cells (select the
cells and right-click or use the CTRL-1 keyboard shortcut), or use
a formula [E5=C5*100] so that the data can be easily updated.
COLUMN 2 [F]
Create a Count variable that denotes the cumulative count of each
item. We’ll start with the number 1, which is hard-coded in cell F3.
A simple formula [F6=F5+E5, F7=F6+E6, …] sets the number of
cells for each value. Thus, the first Item will ultimately be
represented by the 1st through 10th columns; the second Item starts
with the 11th column; and so on.
COLUMN 3 [G]
Repeat the % Purchased series; again, the formula [G5=B5] will
make it easier to update if the data change.

Marimekko 225
COLUMN 4 [I]
Repeat the Count variable [I5=F5]. (Note: Column H is left blank
to simply separate the groups of data.)
Column 5 [J]
Simple Item # here, counting up from 1 to 10.
Column 6 [L]
Repeat the Item # series [L5=J5]. (Note: Column K is left blank to
simply separate the groups of data.)
Column 7 [M]
Repeat the % Purchased variable [M5=G5]

Marimekko 226
Column 8 [O]
You can think of starting to build the chart by setting up this
column first. This Counter simply counts from 1 to 100. Don’t type
this manually—type a “1” in cell O4 and then the formula
[O5=O4+1] in the cell just below and drag it down to row 103.
[Column 9 [P]
We’ll use a VLOOKUP formula to bring over the data for the chart.
In cell P4, we put =VLOOKUP(O4,$I$5:$J$14,2,1) and drag it down
to row 103.
[Column 10 [Q]
In cell Q4, we put =VLOOKUP(O4,$F$5:$G$14,2,1) and drag it
down to row 103.

Marimekko 227
How the Formula Works

=VLOOKUP(O4, $F$5:$G$14, 2, 1)

=VLOOKUP(O4, 1
This is the thing we look up. We are going to match each entry in this This is the “range_lookup” value and tells Excel we want an
Counter series to another look-up table to pull out corresponding “approximate match” of the value in cell O3 instead of an “exact
values. match.” It’s good practice to specify this argument whenever you use
VLOOKUP. This is the key part of the formula for this exercise. What
$F$5:$G$14
We’re going to query the data we created earlier that consists of the the approximate match does, is only fill in those cells for which the
Count and Item # data in columns I and J. VLOOKUP matches the lookup value (in column I) does not exceed the lookup reference (the
first argument in the VLOOKUP formula to the first column in the I- Counter series). Thus, you’ll notice how the values in column P equal
J table, which is why we needed to order things the way we did in the the first item number for the first 10 entries and then, starting on the
11th entry, starts with the second item number.
first set of steps. (The dollar signs ($) act as the absolute references
so that we can copy and paste this formula without changing the cell In sum, this VLOOKUP queries the Counter series and pulls out the
references.) Item # from Column J to denote each series that will populate the
2 chart.
This corresponds to the column number we want to extract, so this
refers to the Item # data in column J.

Marimekko 228
COLUMNS 11-20 [R-AA]
We’re going to create 10 different data series (one for each Item) so formula is a little complicated, but once it’s inserted into the first
that we can add them all to one chart and then color each by simply column, we can just drag it horizontally and vertically.
grabbing the entire group. The numbers at the top of the series (in
So, in cell Q3, we have
Row 2) are important here and correspond to each Item Number. This
=IF($P4=R$3,VLOOKUP($P4,$L$5:$M$14,2,1),0)

Marimekko 229
Let’s Break It Down Again

=IF($P4=R$3, VLOOKUP($P4,$L$5:$M$14,2,1), 0)

=IF($P4=R$3, 0)
To start, the IF statement evaluates the first argument, here $P4=R$3. If the first argument is False, the formula places a 0 in the cell, as
We’re simply comparing the Item Number entered in the second row specified by the “0” at the end of the IF statement. As an example, for
to how many times each series will repeat in Column P. Notice the the first Item [Column P], the first 10 rows fill with 45% and the
strategic use of the absolute/relative reference “$” symbol; we use the remainder fills with 0%; for the second Item, the first 10 rows are set
references so the cell specifications don’t move when we drag the to 0%, the next 18 rows are 38%, and the remaining 72 rows are 0%.
formula across the worksheet.
Dragging this formula across and down will give you blocks of
VLOOKUP($P4,$L$5:$M$14,2,1), numbers that repeat the % Purchased values corresponding to their
If the first argument is True, the second argument is evaluated and shares of the total.
placed in the cell. That argument uses another VLOOKUP: Here, the
You could also use the formula
first argument ($P3) looks up the Item # from column P in the last set
=IF($P4=R$3,VLOOKUP(R$3,$P$4:$Q$103,2,1),0) which uses the data
of data placed in columns L and M, specified in the second argument
we set up in Columns 9 and 10 instead of Columns 6 and 7. Both
by [$L$5:$M$14]. The third argument in the VLOOKUP (the number
formulas will return the same values.
2) looks in the second column (column M). The final piece of the
VLOOKUP (the number 1) specifies an approximate match. The
VLOOKUP formula pulls out the % Purchased variable, which is the
thing we’re going to plot.

Marimekko 230
[Column 21 [AB]
In this example, we’ll place x-axis labels at every 10% increment.
To do so, we’ll create a custom x-axis series to add to the chart.
Here’s the formula: =IF(INT(O5/10)*10=O5,O5/100,""). This
formula uses the INT function to round the number down to the
nearest integer. If we divide the Counter series (in column O) by
10 and round down to the nearest integer [INT(O5/10)] and then
multiply by 10, we get whole numbers. If those whole numbers
equal increments of ten (which works because we divided by 10 in
the INT formula), we set the cell value to that percentage; if not,
the formula returns return an empty cell, denoted by the “ ” in the
IF statement. If you enter this formula in cell AB4 and drag it down
the column, you’ll only see “10%”, “20%”, “30%”, etc. show up in
the cells.

Marimekko 231
Create the Chart
1. We now create a column chart using the data in
columns R4-AA103. To close the gaps between
the columns, right-click on the series and
change the Gap Width to 0% and the Series
Overlap to 100%.

Marimekko 232
2. You can now easily change the color of each series (i.e., each
Item) by selecting it on the chart and using the “Fill” options
in the “Format” menu.

Marimekko 233
3. To add the x-axis labels to the chart, right-click on your
chart and choose Select Data and select Column AB4:AB103
as the Horizontal (Category) Axis Labels.

Marimekko 234
4. Now go back to the chart and format the x-axis
by right-clicking (or CTRL-1). Change the
Interval between tick marks from 1 to 10. You’ll
also need to select the Specify interval unit
option in the Interval between labels menu, and
Excel should fill in the 1 for you. Format chart as
desired.

Marimekko 235
Final Version with Styling

Marimekko 236
Data Visualization Books
If you wish to learn more about data visualization, there exists a large Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic. Knaflic’s Storytelling with Data (she has a
and growing set of books that will help you dive deeper into best blog of the same name) is a great introductory treatment to data
practices and strategies to effectively create and present your data. visualization, and how to pair text with graphs to lead your reader or
More books, blogs, and other resources can be found at user to a conclusion.
PolicyViz.com.
Naomi Robbins. A succinct guide to creating effective graphs,
Alberto Cairo. Cairo is a journalism professor, so his books primarily Robbins’ Creating More Effective Graphs gives you the basic
focus on data visualizations geared towards a wide audience. His first knowledge and techniques required to choose and create appropriate
two books on data visualization, The Functional Art and The Truthful graphs for a broad range of applications.
Art, cover fundamental overviews of data, some statistics, and data
Jonathan Schwabish. Designed for presenters of scholarly or data-
visualization.
intensive content, Better Presentations: A Guide for Scholars,
Jorge Camões. All of the visuals in Data at Work are built in Excel Researchers, and Wonks details essential strategies for developing
(though it is not a step-by-step guide) and covers covers a wide range clear, sophisticated, and visually captivating presentations.
of data visualization principles and strategies.
Edward Tufte. Author of four books, Tufte’s books are sometimes
Stephen Few. Few’s Show Me the Numbers and Now You See It: Simple viewed as classics in the field of data visualization. His The Visual
Visualization Techniques for Quantitative Analysis demonstrate how Display of Quantitative Information is especially relevant to
to present data effectively and strategically. introductory data visualization with different examples and
techniques.
Andy Kirk. Kirk’s Data Visualisation: A Handbook for Data Driven
Design is one of the few books that offers a system to conceptualize Dona Wong. Wong dedicates individual pages in her book, The Wall
and develop data visualizations. Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics, to specific graph types,
and how and why to choose the best chart to fit the data.

Data Visualization Books 237

Data Visualization Books 238