Making Interaction Plots using Excel

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Yesterday I read about interaction plots on junk charts where he points out the merits of an interaction plot. Interaction plots show interaction effects between 2 factors. For eg. you can show how your product sales have changed between year 1 and year 2 using an interaction plot like below:

interaction plots

As you can see, interaction plot is a simple line chart with several series. You can easily make this in Excel. Here is a simplified tutorial to help you get started.

Step 1: Select the data and insert a line chart

This is simple, just insert a line chart from the data.

Step 2: Go to the line chart “data” and change rows to columns

You require this step only if your data is oriented differently.
switch rows / columns - interaction plot in excel

Step 3: Format the interaction chart

Since excel colors each line series differently, you need to change the colors, add labels, adjust the label source (from data to series) and then format grid lines etc.

That is all, your interaction plot is ready to go.

Download interaction plot template for excel and play with it

Click here to download the interaction chart template for excel and use it to make your own interaction plots.

Points to consider when you are making interaction plots,

  • Interaction plots can be too messy if you have a lot of series. Generally they loose the appeal after 6-7 series of data.
  • Chart formatting with more series of data can be a pain too. Use F4 key if you are found repeating same steps.
  • Make sure you don’t color individual series differently. You can use same color and label instead. It looks a lot better that way.
  • In cases like last year vs. this year or budget vs. actual, you can even use clustered bars. See more examples on budget vs. actual charts for inspiration.

What is your opinion about interaction plots?

I think they are good for small data samples. I have personally not used them, but I like the idea and will use them when there is an an opportunity. What about you? Have you used them in any professional setting? How did your audience feel about the chart? Tell us using the comments.

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17 Responses to “Custom Number Formats – Colors”

  1. Duncan says:

    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.

  2. Hui... says:

    @Duncan
    Each version of Excel, post 2003, renders colors slightly differently
    Different language versions may also have different default color palettes

  3. polo says:

    Hello in french
    excel 2010
    colo1 = couleur1 = black
    [couleur1]; [couleur2]; etc..

  4. Andras Ujszaszy says:

    @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

    • Hui... says:

      @Andras

      Without a Hungarian version of Excel 2003 I don't think I can assist

    • Sarah says:

      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]

    • Florinel says:

      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.

  5. Nigel says:

    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!)

  6. 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?

  7. Unfortunately the TEXT function doesn't color the cell as number formatting does.

  8. Khalid NGO says:

    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.

  9. […] explains how to set up custom number formats with a wide array of […]

  10. Colin says:

    Thanks Hui - works a treat!

  11. John Smith says:

    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?

  12. Shaun says:

    Exactly what I was looking for - thank you!

  13. 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

  14. Me Myself says:

    Thank You!

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