John wanted a chart with only the 80 highlighted as £80 and the rest of the axis as normal 10, 20 etc
This involved a simple Custom Number Format being applied to the Y Axis, Number Format of the Chart.
Custom Format: [=80]”£ “0;0;0;
IS THAT ALL
That Simple Custom Number format tells excel to apply at custom format of “£ “0 when the value is 80, otherwise use a normal 0 custom format.
“£ “0 means, Display a £ and a space in front of the number with no decimals
0 means, Display the number with no decimals
WHAT ELSE CAN I DO WITH CUSTOM NUMBER FORMATS AND CHARTS
This technique can be extended in a number of areas
Highlight Just a Single score
Custom Format: [=80]”£”0;;;
Highlight Two Scores
Custom Format: [Blue][=80]”%”0;[Red][=100]”P”0;
Using Wing Ding, Web Dings and Other Characters
Custom Format: [Blue][=100]”4″;[Red][=80]”8″;
and the Web Dings Font
Custom Format: [Blue][=70]”P”;[Red][=90]”O”;
and the Wing Dings 2 Font
SO HOW DO THESE WORK?
As with cells you can apply custom Number formats to any of the Charts numerical objects including the Charts Axis and Data Point Labels.
1. Select the Chart and then the Axis or Data Point Labels.
2. Right Click and select Format Axis
3. Select the Number Tab
4. Custom Format
Put the custom format in the Format Code dialog and Add
5. Close the Format Axis Dialog
CAUTION
If you setup a fancy Custom number Format as say
[Blue][=100]”4″;[Red][=80]”8″;
and then set the axis scaling as Minimum 10, Major Unit 20, the two number 80 and 100, from the Custom format will not display as Excel will skip them according to the Axis Scale.
Downloads
You can see how all the above Charts are made using the Sample Data File Attached
Version – Excel 1997/03, Excel 2007/10.
LINKS
The links below will explain the intricacies of Custom Number Formats.
http://www.ozgrid.com/Excel/excel-custom-number-formats.htm
http://www.ozgrid.com/Excel/CustomFormats.htm
http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/02/25/custom-cell-formatting-in-excel-few-tips-tricks/
The formats described above can be used as equally well with Charts Numbers as with Cell Numbers.
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE CUSTOM NUMBER FORMATS ?
What are your favorite custom number formats?
Share your custom formats or ideas in the Comments below:
Hui…
For a list of my other contributions at Chandoo.org please visit: Hui…
15 Responses to “Make a Bubble Chart in Excel [15 second tutorial]”
Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!
Whyyyyyyyy?
The idea is to tell how to make a bubble chart. I got an e-mail from a reader recently asking how the scatter bubble is made. So I thought a 15 second tutorial would be a good idea to show this.
Did that email go "Dear Chandoo, I know that you scorn bubble charts, but if I don't do one in Excel for my boss then he'll fire my sorry ass, and my children will have to be sold for medical experiments in order for me to be able to afford the upgrade path to Excel 2010"?
If so, fair enough...it's all in the greater good 😉
Chandoo,
I am using excel 2003 and it is not working. The x axis is not the one that I enter in x axis column. Please help! Thanks.
Sorry, after few attempts, I managed to get the right result. I shouldn't select the title (header) of the table and select only the data to produce the right bubble chart.
What's wrong with bubble charts? Is there a better method for displaying scatter plots with lots of overlapping data points? Don't tell me you'd rather jitter!
@Sanwijay: Cool.
@Precious Roy: There is nothing wrong with bubble charts. Infact, it is the only way to show 3 dimensional data (x,y and sizes) without confusing your audience. Jeff is worried that people might misuse the chart. As with any chart, bubbles also have a place and time for using them.
I recommend using bubble charts to show relative performance various products in several regions and similar situations.
Also, human eye is notorious in wrongly estimating the bubble sizes (as we have to measure areas). See http://chandoo.org/wp/2009/07/28/charting-lessons-from-optical-illusions/
We can partially improve bubble charts by adding data labels, but if you have too many bubbles, the labels will clutter the chart and make it look busy.
I can't seem to find a way to plot more than ten bubbles on a chart and need to know how to add more
@KW.. why would such a thing happen. I am sure you can add more bubbles that that. Can you tell us exactly what you are doing...
Example table:
A B C (size)
Me: 25 30 15%
Him: 30 22 11%
Her: 12 30 20%
I am trying to make a bubble chart where the Y axis is A, the X axis is B, and the size of the bubble is C. There should be only 3 bubbles. I keep ending up with six (with the labels being only "Me" and "Her"). My goal is to have three bubbles, one representing each person. Clearly I am doing something wrong. Can you help explain...?
Hi,
I wanted to add data labels to the bubbles. Each bubble represents a different company name. Excel allows me to add the size, legend, x axis values and y axis values. How do I add instead- Company A, B, C, D for the bubbles?
youon you have to choice every data for every company..
ex:create bubble for A company,after that click right> add data label> adjust data labels :format data labels and choose : series name.
i hop u will succeed .
[...] we create a bubble chart with 2 bubbles. 1 for the actual mustache & 1 for target [...]
If we want bubble size to be controlled by one column, but the bubble labels to be controlled by another column, how can this be achieved?
many thanks!!!!