Bar chart or Line? Scatter plot or box plot? These are the questions we ask ourselves when we set out to make a chart. In this article let me tell you how to pick a chart type so you can make best charts for every situation.
Why is it important to pick right chart?
Because right charts lead to right decisions. We use charts to tell stories, evaluate alternatives, understand trends or find-out if everything is normal. So, an incorrect charting choice can lead to poor judgment of the messages where as a correct chart can lead to right and faster decisions.
How to pick a chart type:
Chart making process can be divided in to 4 steps
- Find-out what you want to say?
- (Re)arrange the data
- Prepare the chart
- Format the chart
1. What is the purpose of this chart?
This is the first and most important step in chart preparation. You must ask yourself, “what is the purpose of this chart?”. Once we know the clear reason why the chart should exist, we will naturally be able to select the correct chart type for that reason.
But I realize that finding the reason itself can be a bit tedious. So I have listed down 6 common reasons that we often have to make a chart:
- to Compare
- to show the Distribution
- to explain Parts of the Whole
- to tell the Trend over time
- to findout the Deviations
- to understand the Relationship
Let us understand these reasons along with the type of charts that go well with these.
1. To Compare:
What it means? You want to compare one set of value(s) with another.
Examples:
- Performance of Product A vs. Product B in 5 regions
- Interview performance of various candidates
Charts that can be used for this reason:
- Bar Charts,
- Column Charts
- Scatter Plots
- Pie Charts
- Line Charts
- Data Tables
2. To Show the Distribution
What it means? You want to show the distribution of a set of values (to understand the outliers, normal ranges etc.)
Examples:
- Distribution of Call waiting times in a call center
- Distribution of bugs found in 10 week software testing phase
Charts that can be used to show distribution:
- Column Charts
- Scatter Plots
- Line charts
- Box Plots
3. Parts of Whole
What it means? You want to show how various parts comprise the whole
Examples:
- Individual product sales as a percentage of whole revenue
- Browser types of customers visiting our website
Charts that can be used to show Parts of Whole:
- Column Charts
- Bar Charts
- Pie Charts
- Data Table
4. Trend over time
What it means? You want to understand the trend over time of some variable(s).
Examples:
- Customer footfalls on the last 365 days
- Share price of MSFT in the last 100 trading sessions
Charts that can be used to show Trend Over Time:
- Column Charts
- Line Charts
- Data Table
5. Deviations
What it means? You want to see which values deviate from the norm.
Examples:
- Failures (or bugs) in the context of Quality Control
- Sales in Various Stores
Charts that can be used to show Deviations:
- Column Charts
- Bar Charts
- Line Charts
- Data Table
6. Relationship
What it means? You want to establish (or show) relationship between 2 (or more) variables
Examples:
- Relationship between Search Phrases and Product Purchases in your website
- Relationship between in-store sales and holidays
Charts that can be used to show Relationship:
- Scatter Plot
- Line Chart
- Data Table
How to pick a chart type when you have more than one reason for the chart?
Simple, use common sense. If I were you, I would either cut down the messages to one or make 2 charts (each conveying one message). If that is not possible, I would consider using dynamic charts or combination charts.
2. (Re)arranging the Data
Even when we know the message and corresponding chart, sometimes, our data may not support us. We then have to rearrange the data. Using excel formulas, pivot tables, tables and data cleaning tools we can easily massage the data.
Once we have the data in required format, we proceed to step 3.
3. Prepare the chart
Since you have already picked the chart type in Step 1, this is very straight forward. Most of the regular charts are available in MS Excel as default charts. You can insert them with few clicks.
But for some special chart types, you may have to prepare the chart by helper series, formatting etc.
4. Format the chart
While most formatting is done as per individual taste, there are some ground rules that apply on almost all charts. Here they are,
- No non-zero axis scale on bar charts [reasons and discussions]
- Make subtle grid-lines (or remove them) [how to remove grid lines]
- Add labels to important points [labeling techniques]
- Add descriptive, bold titles
- Position axis, scales at the right places (for eg. y-axis to the right on a large time series chart)
- Use simple, easy colors
A final word:
The ideas in this post are meant to be guide lines, not final words in the world of visualization. While these rules can help you make a good chart, a great chart take so much more. Knowledge of your data, Passion for what you do and Genuine focus on your audience’ needs can make your chart truly outstanding. All the best.
References:
Communicating Numbers – White Paper by Stephen Few [PDF]
Resources & Further Help:
- Chart chooser – Juice Analytics
- Data vis 101 – How to choose a chart – Hubspot
- Selecting right char type – KD Nuggets
- Charting Principles
- Charting Tutorials from Peltier Tech
- More articles from Stephen Few
- Charting Wisdom from Jorge Camoes
What is the process you use for Chart Selection?
I would love to know the process you use when selecting a chart type. Please share using comments.
32 Responses to “More than 3 Conditional Formats in Excel”
Dude,
Long time... whts up , I see that urs is the only business which is posting a "Excel" lent growth in this recessionary market....
Still alive ... so you will be able to reach me if make an attempt... 🙂
V E R Y N I C E !!!!
Hi Chandoo.
When I use your macro in my file, I keep getting a Compile Error because the "cell" variable is not defined.
Any suggestions?
@Lincoln: Did you have "option explicit" on?
I am sorry, I didn't define the cell variable.
you can add this line to the code just below the line "dim i"
dim cellLet me know if you still get this error...
Ah. I've simply declared cell as a range.
All good now
Noob at work.
Thanks for the article. Very helpful. 🙂
very, very helpful. I didn't know what "define named ranges" meant. one of my colleagues figured it out. I suggest you add the instruction "go to menu - insert/name/define and then make sure the cells at the bottom of the box change to reflect new values if you redefine the range." thanks.
Quite Intresting. If anyone could help. I am trying to do something like this but i want to define values and colours of the value in a range of cells ( Similiar) but i want the other cells to change colour when the value is same as the range defined. ANy help. I want instantaneous( Like conditional formatting) not like running macro.
@Jahabar: Welcome to PHD and thanks for the comments.
If your source range and target range have same dimensions and source range has 4 different formats (conditional formatting limitation, unless you are using excel 2007) you can do this. If you have more than 4 formats then you may have to use VBA (and create an event like worksheet_change and monitor the range).
Let me know if you come across a simple non-vba solution for this. 🙂
very nice post...
May I suggest a little modification of the code?
Adding "Application.ScreenUpdating = False" at the beggining of the macro and "Application.ScreenUpdating = True" at the end speeds up significantly the whole procedure. As well as omitting "Operation:=xlNone, SkipBlanks:=False, Transpose:=False".
Not a big deal in this example, but when formatting a larger range of cells, the difference is marked. I've tried to format the number 1457 of cells and the formatting was done 11 seconds faster. :-O
[...] you can overcome the conditional formatting limitation using VBA macros (again, if you are new to excel, you may want to wait few weeks before plunging in to [...]
Hi Chandoo
Thanks for this macro. I have done few changes to this macro to suit my needs. I had removed the defined names data2use and conditions2use to ActiveWindow.RangeSelection.Address
This way I can select the cells that require conditional formatting and then run the macro.
Kind Regards,
Vasanth
Chandoo, I am using 2007. I noticed the conditional formatting options are different - and they have some built in funtictions for stop light displays, and other dashboard type elements. My question is this, I need to display more colors in the stop light than the standard 3. The World Health Org (WHO) has a Pandemic Flu alert level between 0-6, so i wanted to drive a sharepoint dashboard using excel based on 7 distinct levels. Suggestions?
@ASM: very good idea. you can use font based symbols instead of excel traffic light icons to achieve this. the character "=" becomes a small circle when you change the font to "webdings". So you just need to insert a bunch of = signs and use conditional formatting to change the font color. If you need to combine numbers with symbols, then you can use 2 columns instead of one and format them accordingly. Let me know if you need some more help with this.
Also, if possible, share with us your dashboard when it is ready.
[...] Once we calculate values for all team members using the above formula, we can apply conditional formatting to make the heat map. In Excel 2007, this is one step. In earlier versions of excel, you need to specify 3 conditions to make the heatmap look hot enough or use a macro to get over the 3 conditional formats limitation. [...]
Chandoo,
Why do you use the "conditions2use" since you can change the VBA and replace "conditions2use" with "data2use" and you won't have to create a zone for conditional formating equal to the data zone.
The Data will be formated according the "formats2use". Just one thing, if you plan to have some "0" on your data zone, they will be formated like the first cell above your "formats2use" (the green cell with "Formats" inside in your exemple".
That's why you should leave a white empty cell above the first cell of the "formats2use" zone.
Regards,
Pitichat
Seeing as no one has posted what they actually might use something like this for here's my 2cents;
I used the same concepts to build a heatmap of a casino gaming floor, with each populated cell representing a gaming machine (Slot Machine), some simple metric bucketing to determine different shades for the cells, user selectable colours, ability to pick a 'machine' (click on a cell) and repaint the 'floor' showing only machines with similar charateristics, select a value range and repaint the 'floor' showing only the 'machines' within the value range. Users could switch between metrics and repaint the the floor.
It took a while to put together, but once in use was rolled out to four casinos and used for 4 years. It provided a portable (i.e. no custom software), easy to understand way to manage product from individual machine to groups / classes of product and made it very easy to see how products were performing in geographic relation to each other (something that tables & graphs can't easily do)
Needless to say it "wowed" many people who only saw Excel as a tool for managing numbers and table based reports
Being excel just about any user could maintain spreadsheet.
@ Justin B - Hey Justin, that counds AWESOME! Can I get a copy of the casino tracker, I work within a similar industry and would love to see how you've constructed it.
Also, from using this heatmap, I think I'm getting confused. To make the map change color, I thought you had to change the DATA2USE cells, but I see it only changes if you change the vales of thew cells within the CONDITIONS2USE cells. Am I thinking this wrong?????
Thanks all, this is REALLY making my life easier!!
Hi Dude,
Thanks for this very useful macro. That was very helpful.
Kepp up the good work.
Cheers.
Explanation like yours is so important to everyone that want to learn more and more in Excel. Thanks a lot. You are the man ! 🙂
[...] http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/10/14/more-than-3-conditional-formats-in-excel/ [...]
Chandoo,
If I wanted to replace the numbers 1-9 with text A-I, what would I need to do to the macro to make it work correctly?
Thanks!
@Lee
If the numbers are alone and not part of larger numbers >10 or with text you can simply use this formula
=CHAR(A1+64)Change A1 to your cell
Copy Down/Across as required
Then select the new cells and copy/paste as Values over themselves.
I'm trying to do a drop down list that will allow me to select a color and when I select that color it will change my cell to that color. i cannot use contion formating because I have 5 colors. Can you help me with this?
thanks
This tool was great. Can you please suggest a way to include conditions like if value in a cell lies in a range color some other cell red.
What do I need to change in the programing if I have a mix of numbers and letters. Example; 5003, 2B01, W005, 1020. I think the problem is the CInt code but I'm not sure.
EXCELlent - was able to use your macro with no problems. Found that modifying it to use the DATA2USE range achived the same result as using the condition2use range. If the two ranges were equal, your way allows the data range to have completely different values and still have the same color format at the end.
My data is a little different
I have an irregular shaped building with students in it.
I have a list of students assigned to the rooms with the courses they are on
and a color code for the courses
would there be a way of using indirect to translate the student names to color code the rooms to what courses they are on?
[...] hi Check below link More than 3 Conditional Formats in Microsoft Excel - How to? | Chandoo.org - Learn Microsoft Excel O... [...]
The ability to conditional format a range of cells based on criteria in a different, but matching for size, range of cells is exactly what I've been looking for. Unfortunately the macro falls over at the line conditions (i) = CInt (cell.value). I have specified the 3 rangenames, working in excel 2003 but cannot get it to work. Any ideas. I've checked rangenames several times (0-16 being used) but no luck. Thanks
Hello you also can use this code to force ur worksheet to run with more then on condition.
in this case the condition = case like in example if u want to format something between of the range 0 to 100 for a color
Set I = Intersect(Target, Range("B2:B8")) <-- thatch the rage u want to work with just set it up for range of cell u want to use to format
the second formula will show u Interior color nr index just time it and when u format the cell with a color it will show nr in the cell
enjoy
Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range)Set I = Intersect(Target, Range("B2:B8"))
If Not I Is Nothing Then
Select Case Target
Case 0 To 100: NewColor = 37 ' light blue
Case 101 To 200: NewColor = 46 ' orange
Case 201 To 300: NewColor = 12 ' dark yellow
Case 301 To 400: NewColor = 10 ' green
Case 401 To 600: NewColor = 3 ' red
Case 601 To 1000: NewColor = 20 ' lighter blue
End Select
Target.Interior.ColorIndex = NewColor
End If
End Sub
Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
Range("F1:F1") = Range("F1:F1").Interior.ColorIndex
End Sub
Hi Chandoo,
I tried to add the "More than 3 conditional formats for Excel" VBA macro
to my Excel 2008 for Mac and it didn't work. Would this VBA macro work
with Excel 2011 for Mac? Does it have to be a certain version: Student,
Home & Office, or Standard?
Thanks for your help.
Tom
[…] here is one vba macro that might be better if need lots of cases http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/10/14/more-than-3-conditional-formats-in-excel/ […]