Earlier in the week Chandoo presented Give more details by showing average and distribution
At the top of the post was a small screen capture from Amazon.com showing a 5 Star chart showing that Twilight had a 3.5 Star Rating (way over-rated if you ask me).
I received an email shortly afterwards from Rajiv, “How can I make one of those charts ? ” with the Stars Circled
It’s actually very simple and this post will show you how.
The Technique
The technique involves putting a mask in front of a single bar from a Bar Chart
The mask has a plain background and has cut-outs where the Stars are, which are transparent and so only the bar chart shows through in those areas which are cut out.
Lets Do It
On a worksheet we need a cell where we have a Rating Value, lets use B2
Make the value in Cell B2, 5
Select the cell B2 and Insert Chart
Insert a Bar Chart (Clustered Bar)
Delete the following chart objects
- Title
- Legend
- Major Grid Lines
Select the Horizontal Axis
Format Axis
Change the Horizontal Axis Scale to
- Minimum 0
- Maximum 5
Delete the Horizontal and Vertical Axis
Move the chart and resize the Bar to your requirements
Change the Bar’s Fill to suit
Set Border color to No Color
Insert Picture
Import the 5 Star mask attached here
Position the mask in front of the charts Bar
With the mask selected shift the Right hand side and then left hand side so that you can just see the edges of the bar.
Check the placement by trying the numbers from 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 0.1 in B2
You should see all the stars perfectly when the placement is correct
Select the Chart and 5 Star Mask together
Use Shift while selecting each one
Group the Chart and Mask together, so that they can’t be moved
Your are free to shift and resize this combined object on your worksheet as required
Vertical Charts
A Similar technique can be used for Vertical Charts using a Column Chart instead of a Bar Chart
Masks
The masks used here were made in CorelDRAW, but can be made in any Drawing/Paint program like Paint.NET, that allows you to save PNG’s with Transparency effects
The masks consists of:
- 5 Stars which have no outline color and are transparent
- 1 Rectangle which is White with no Outline color
The 6 objects are then Joined enabling the holes of the Stars to show through the White Rectangle
Using this technique any shape can be used as a mask
I have included the following masks for you to practice with or use:
5 Stars Mask with Outlined Stars,
If anybody knows how to join objects together in Excel to make holes through them as required here, Please let us know in the comments below:
Thermometer Charts
The above technique is great for application to Thermometer Charts, where the Thermometer can take on all values from 0 to 100% or 0 to $200,000
or whatever you require.
Files
All the above examples are shown in one file which you can download here or here for the 2003 Version
Download the Waves and Chameleon 2007 or Waves and Chameleon 2003 examples
Extensions of the Technique
This technique can be extended in a number of areas
The Thermometer chart above shows one such area
The other is applying multiple Masks to multiple Bars/Columns in one chart, But I’ll leave you to practice that.
Limitations of the Technique
Two main limitations of this technique are:
Scaling
As Excel charts are scaled, Excel internally decides what space should be between the Plot Area, Titles and the edge of the Chart Area. This is not maintained constantly and hence the Plot Area may scale at a different ratio to the Chart area and overlying mask.
If this happens Ungroup the Chart and mask and reset ecverything at the new size.
Mask Color
The mask has a Fixed color, in the above examples it is white.
The mask cannot be colored in Excel to Match the background color of the Worksheet if it isn’t white.
So a new Mask will need to be made.
What Do you Think of this Technique
What Do you Think of this Technique?
How else can you see this technique being extended?
Let us know in the comments below:
27 Responses to “9 Box grid for talent mapping – HR for Excel – Template & Explanation”
Great stuff! I can understand how to add a slicer to the pivot table, but how do you implement the departmental selector on the 'Filter' formula scheme?
Just saw this on your Youtube channel, and it’s areat idea...!
An easy way to overcome the "ugliness" of pivot tables and get it to look nice (in the format of the Output sheet), would be to simply build a sheet with the nice map at the top, a pivot underneath it and a slicer next to formatted map and then reference each of the 9 cells in the formatted map to the “related” cell in the Pivot.
Keep up the good work!
/Claus
Thanks Claus. That is a great idea 🙂
Hi Chandoo,
This is great! Curious how to make additional columns operate the same as the Department column (ex. have a "manager column") that would allow you to sort a 9 box by manager, area, or team in addition to department?
Feel free to email me if needed! mfry01@minnetronixmedical.com
Happy New Year
Madison Fry
I am curious about the smae thing. I would like to populate the 9 box with other views as well by adding additional columns. IE., I would like to add location, region, etc. Thank you.
This is great, thank you!
How can i see the whole data set of all the teams in the output table. Need a formula that will pick up all the employees
Hello,
Love the template. Thank you. Question - the drop down to pick a department on the Output tab does not seem to work on the downloadable template. Am I doing something incorrectly?
Thank you!
Hi Heather... Thank you. I am using Excel 365 to make the calculations. If you are using an older version of Excel, then the drop-down filter won't work.
Hi
I was able to follow your 9 box grid and modified based my needs. However, you tutorial did not show how to you create the filter for the "Pick a department. Can you kindly share how to create that filter that updated the grid. Thank you.
I am working on this project but I am struggling with the data validation for the department. I copy the worksheets data entry and output as the managers want to see different tabs for each managers.
I updated the source reference for each tab but It does not update the grid based on the new source. The list was updated but it does not populate the grid based on the performance and potential listed.
In addition the hyperlink Update Data and View Talent Map no longer works. Can you please help me.
I keep getting this error message in the pivot table:
This formula is invalid or incomplete: 'The expression is not valid or appears to be incomplete. Please review and correct the expression.
The following syntax error occurred during parsing: Invalid token, Line 1, Offset 14, ‘.
Hi, I used your 9-box excel template with excel 365. First off, thank you so very much. It is incredibly helpful!! My only question is that the boxes aren't big enough for all of the employees (specifically the middle which we call 'Core Employee'). Is there a way to make the boxes larger? Even though it is in excel, I am not able to increase row height (like I normally do in a speadsheet). Any ideas? Thanks again, Jody
Hi Chandoo,
Thanks for the great content. Re. 9 box grid, pls advise how do I increase the size of the box to accommodate more names?
Hi Chandoo,
I figured it out. Excel 365 has the format row height on the ribbon. Thank you
Merci Chandoo pour le modèle proposé,
j'ai une question et un souhait est il possible de développer davantage ce modèle en insérant la photo de chaque employé.
Hi Chandoo!
Great tutorial and tool, thank you! Your tutorial didn't include how to create additional filters on the "Output" tab. Could you please share how you did it?
Can this be done exactly in google sheets?
Hi Chandoo,
Thanks for the video it was really helpful. Is there any way to multi select the dropdown to display multiple or all departments rather than just one at once?
Hello Prish
I have Microsoft 365 and I am struggling to make the boxes larger/unable to increase row height; any idea how you made this work? Specifically in the Output tab where the map is?
Many thanks
Hello Jody, I have Microsoft 365 and I am struggling to make the boxes larger/unable to increase row height; any idea how you made this work? Specifically in the Output tab where the map is? Many thanks
Is there a way to change the 9 box wording descriptions, i.e. Work Horses, to our own internal langauge?
You can edit the file. The descriptions are textboxes.
Hi Chandoo, this is awesome and has worked perfectly. Due to a big organisation the 9 box grid on the output file is too small. I tried adjusting using the row/width ribbon under the format ribbon however it doesn't seem to work. Is there an easier way to adjust this?
Thanks!
When I drag the formula, it doesn't work, and the order I use with the data changes. In the beginning, the order is it is " candidates," " potential," and " performance," but when it goes to another column, it is " Potential," Performance," and "Candidates."Can you help me? Thank you very much, sending love from vietnam
Hi- I am working on the 9 grid project and I am trying to expand the box since I have over 100 names on a few of the columns. How do I do that?
Hi, Thank you this is great stuff and really useful.
As well as department as demonstrated on your clip, how can I display all candidates on the grid at once?
Many thanks in advance