Comments on: Replace Radar Charts with Tables to Make Comparison Easy

By: shiva

shiva — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:59:14 +0000

hello evry one………..can anyone help me out sorting my problm.I hav a task before me to design a dashboard design tool for Electronic corporation of india limited(ECIL).Ian equipped with raw data like turn ovr,profit before n after tx,networth,capital employed,value added. i have year wise annual reports frm 2003-2009.database shd be usd is oracle………….plllzzzz if anyone could help me……….will b very very thnk ful.

By: 100 Excel Tips & Resources for Everyone | All Time Hits | Pointy Haired Dilbert: Charting & Excel Tips - Chandoo.org

Sat, 30 May 2009 14:10:46 +0000

[...] 61. To create an instant micro-chart from your normal chart, use camera tool… Get Full Tip 62. Understand data to ink ratio to reduce chart junk, using even a pixel more of ink than what is needed can reduce your chart’s effectiveness 63. Combine two different types of charts when one is not enough, to use, add another series of data to your sheet and then right click on it and change the chart type… Get Full Tip 64. To reverse the order of items in a bar / column chart, just click on y-axis, press ctrl+1, and check “categories in reverse order” and “x-axis crosses at maximum category” options 65. To change the marker symbol or bubble in a chart to your own favorite shape, just draw any shape in worksheet using drawing toolbar, then copy it by pressing ctrl+c, now go to the chart and select markers (or bubbles) and press ctrl+v 66. To create partially overlapped column / bar charts, just use overlap and gap settings in the format data series area. A overlap of 100 will completely overlap one series on another, while 0 separates them completely.… Get Full Tip 67. To increase the contrast of your chart, just remove grayish background color that excel adds to the chart (in versions excel 2003 and prior) 68. To save yourself some trouble, always try to avoid charts like – 3D area charts (unstacked), radar charts, 3D Lines, 3D Columns with multiple series of data, Donut charts with more than 2 series of data… Get Full Tip 69. To improve comparison, replace your radar charts with tables… Get Full Tip [...]

By: Comparison Chart w/ Form Controls : Tutorial & Download | Charts & Graphs | Pointy Haired Dilbert - Chandoo.org

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:42:45 +0000

[...] says you have to learn only one thing a day? So, learn how to display one chart from many, prepare a matrix chart instead of data tables or make an incell bullet [...]

By: ambanmba

ambanmba — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 10:20:15 +0000

Or just use the Harvey Balls font and then you can just use normal numbers (no formula required).

http://www.ambor.com/public/hb/harveyballs.html

By: Chandoo

Chandoo — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:57:10 +0000

@Justin: agree…

another thing that comes to my mind is… instead of creating the string like “152 153 154 155″ you can actually type out these characters in between the quotes with default font (it used to work with alt+numeric code in olden days, I dont think it works anymore, nevertheless you can insert them using menu > insert > symbol and use the default font)

@Jon: Of course, lookup would be the smart way to design. hard coding the codes can always be a problem, especially you never know which character the boss likes

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 13:09:44 +0000

I think I’d just use a lookup table. That way, if I wanted for whatever reason to change the symbols I was using, I’d only have to change entries in some cells, rather than dig through a space delimited string (and risk messing up the delimited array).

By: Justin

Justin — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:57:43 +0000

Just glad to be shown such clever tricks.
I guess one reason for keeping the in-string lookup would be to be able use non sequential character codes.
I’m using a very buttoned down Office2k but others with more fonts may have some fun with this. .

By: Chandoo

Chandoo — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 04:50:22 +0000

@Michel: you are welcome

@Justin: Awesome stuff. I use char() and ascii code functions all the time because they are simple and reduce the clutter. Thanks for sharing that formual with us.

Going one step further, since we know all the symbols are from 152 to 155, you can just use char(152+normalized value) like: =char(152+floor(([cell with value]-1)/5,1))

By: Justin

Justin — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:35:46 +0000

Hi, love this.
I struggled with getting the symbols in the cell, so came up with a work around using the CHAR function..

Instead of the symbols you can enter the following as a string the symbol reference cell:
=”152 153 154 155″
and change the formula for the table to be:
=CHAR(ABS(MID( [cell with string] ,IF(FLOOR(([cell with value]-1)/5,1)+1=1,1,(FLOOR(([cell with value]-1)/5,1)-1)*4),4)))
Then simply change the font to Windings2

By: Best of Pointy Haired Dilbert - Oct 2008 | Pointy Haired Dilbert - Chandoo.org

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 09:01:52 +0000

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