It all began with my Excel Dashboard Tutorial – Making a dashboard with player statistics. I have used bar charts with axis whose minimum is not zero, to create a dramatic effect in the charts. See below:
Jon Peltier commented saying that,
Rule #1: Bar and column chart value axes should start at zero. Since the lengths of bars and columns represent their values, starting at a position other than zero will lead to a misleading display.
As always Jon raised an excellent point. I liked it so much that I wanted to get your opinions on this axis scaling issue.
What do I think about this visualization rule ?
First the positive points about the rule:
- If you start axis at non-zero values, it gives a wrong impression about the data. In my example above you might end up thinking the top value is actually 10 times that of bottom value.
- The rule helps easy interpretation of data, since everything starts at zero.
Now the negative points about the rule:
- Not all data starts at zero (like the above with values ranging from 8000 to 12000). So when you create a bar chart for the data (why only bar charts, because they are easy to make and read) often you end up creating charts from which making out any analysis could be slightly difficult
- Breaking this rule helps in creating dramatic effect on your charts, one of the reasons we use them. Often when you use data with narrow range, creating dramatic effect could be difficult. Axis adjustments can help (you may want to try logarithmic axis scale as well)
Finally, I think this rule can be broken as long as we have right data and make alternative arrangements (like adding data labels) to ensure correct interpretation. Since this is a standard people have come to expect, it is better to make it clear to your audience about the axis range.
What do you think about the charting rule: Bar and column chart value axes should start at zero.
17 Responses to “Custom Number Formats – Colors”
You are right, Chandoo. I was playing with the colour numbers last week and some of them don't appear different from each other. Others are totally different from yours.
@Duncan
Each version of Excel, post 2003, renders colors slightly differently
Different language versions may also have different default color palettes
Hello in french
excel 2010
colo1 = couleur1 = black
[couleur1]; [couleur2]; etc..
@Hui, thank you very much again for this great post.
However - under Excel 2007, Hungarian version your solution does not work with color names. I've tried both English and Hungarian names, but drops an error message "not valid formats"
Do you have any idea how to solve this issue?
thanks in advance
@Andras
Without a Hungarian version of Excel 2003 I don't think I can assist
Have you tried using the colour numbers? I couldn't get the names to work (despite using an english version of excel). but it did work with the numbers though. I left out the "u" and was easily able to produce burgundy using [color9]
Here a possible solution: find an English version of Excel, write there the formats using English names, then open the file in the Hungarian version and see the translation.
In Excel 2007 I can't get the colour names to work e.g Sea Green but the numbers do e.g color3 - colour3 does not work so I must bow to the country that has stolen my language (ha ha!)
Hey chandoo, nice Tip!
Wouldn't be easier just apply some conditional formatting for negative numbers and another for positive numbers? Or there's some cases that you can't do that?
Unfortunately the TEXT function doesn't color the cell as number formatting does.
Hi Hui,
Great post Sir, love the new way of formatting with color numbers.
I am using 2007, and it leads me to the last color number 56.
Thanks Hui.
[…] explains how to set up custom number formats with a wide array of […]
Thanks Hui - works a treat!
Thank you, very helpful.
Trying to figure out if it is possible to apply color only to a part of the cell?
E.g. I have a value formatted as Accounting with a currency symbol.
Those I find somewhat distracting though necessary. If I could make them less obtrusive by coloring them gray while the number would stay black, that would be great. Tried tinkering with the format string, but didn't get the desired result. Single color for complete cell value works, but coloring just part of it could not be achieved. Maybe somebody managed that?
Exactly what I was looking for - thank you!
colour in the Australian doesn't work - we have to go American and no problem.
I always thought is was 56 colours notice you have 57. Cool.
thanks
Analir Pisani
Customised Microsoft Office Training Specialist
Sydney - Australia
http://www.azsolutions.com.au
Thank You!