Stacked bar(column) charts are a popular way to depict 2 more series of related data, like sales of 2 products.
But there are several ways to stack the bars in a bar chart. Here is a list of 6 ways to stack them
1. One on top of another
Advantages: Easy to create, takes less space
Drawbacks: Hard to compare, only first value starts at zero
2. Separated
Advantages: Easy to read and compare
Drawbacks: takes more space, needs extra calculation for the gap series
3. Mirrored:
Advantages: looks fancy and takes less space, good for large data sets
Drawbacks: needs extra calculation
4. Partially Overlapped
Advantages: Easy to compare, Easy to make
Drawbacks: One series dominates another, good where domination is needed (like this vs. last year)
5. Completely Overlapped
Advantages: easy to compare
Drawbacks: Needs extra formatting, not always produces good results
6. Hanged from Top and Bottom
Advantages: none
Drawbacks: difficult to compare, needs extra formula to calculate gap series
I like 2 and 5 and use them whenever I can.
What about you? How do you like your bars?
PS: for the purpose of discussion neglect other important chart elemets like labels, colors etc.
11 Responses to “Fix Incorrect Percentages with this Paste-Special Trick”
I've just taught yesterday to a colleague of mine how to convert amounts in local currency into another by pasting special the ROE.
great thing to know !!!
Chandoo - this is such a great trick and helps save time. If you don't use this shortcut, you have to take can create a formula where =(ref cell /100), copy that all the way down, covert it to a percentage and then copy/paste values to the original column. This does it all much faster. Nice job!
I was just asking peers yesterday if anyone know if an easy way to do this, I've been editing each cell and adding a % manually vs setting the cell to Percentage for months and just finally reached my wits end. What perfect timing! Thanks, great tip!
If it's just appearance you care about, another alternative is to use this custom number format:
0"%"
By adding the percent sign in quotes, it gets treated as text and won't do what you warned about here: "You can not just format the cells to % format either, excel shows 23 as 2300% then."
Dear Jon S. You are the reason I love the internet. 3 year old comments making my life easier.
Thank you.
Here is a quicker protocol.
Enter 10000% into the extra cell, copy this cell, select the range you need to convert to percentages, and use paste special > divide. Since the Paste > All option is selected, it not only divides by 10000% (i.e. 100), it also applies the % format to the cells being pasted on.
@Martin: That is another very good use of Divide / Multiply operations.
@Tony, @Jody: Thank you 🙂
@Jon S: Good one...
@Jon... now why didnt I think of that.. Excellent
Thank You so much. it is really helped me.
Big help...Thanks
Thanks. That really saved me a lot of time!
Is Show Formulas is turned on in the Formula Ribbon, it will stay in decimal form until that is turned off. Drove me batty for an hour until I just figured it out.