During a recent training program, one of the students asked,
Thermo-meter charts are very good to show how actual value compares with target (or budget). But how can we add another point for say Last Year value to the chart with out cluttering it.
Something like this:
Sounds interesting? Read on.
Step 1: Create a bar chart from your data
Assuming you have data like this,
Select and create a bar chart from it. We need 3 bars (in different colors). If needed, use the Switch Rows / Columns button from Chart > Design ribbon. Once done, you should have something like this:
Step 2: Add Error bar to Last year series
Select the last year series & Add % error bar. Now, select the error bar and press CTRL+1 to format it.
- Set error percentage to 1% (for smaller chart sizes, you need 2 or 3%)
- Remove error bar caps.
- Go to line style and set begin style as a dot
At this stage, your chart should look like this:
Step 3: Overlap series & Remove fill colors
This is easy. Select any series and press CTRL+1 to format it. Set series overlap to 100%.
Then select last year series and set its fill color to none.
Select Target series & set fill color to none.
Set outline to the same color as actual series and make line thickness as 1 pt.
Step 4: Clean-up
Finally, remove legend, grid lines, axes and re-size the chart.
Congratulations! you have just made a custom thermo-meter chart.
Download thermo-meter chart template
Click here to download the workbook & play with it. Examine how the chart is made and see what additional customizations can be made.
Do you use Thermo-meter charts to compare actual with targets?
I think thermo-meter charts are the easiest way to compare actual with target. I use them often in my dashboards & reports.
What about you? what kind of charts do you use to compare actual with target (or budget) values? Please share your techniques and ideas using comments. Go!
Compare Actual with Target values? Check out these
Please see these articles to learn how to compare actual with target values.
- Best charts to compare actual vs. targets
- Budget vs. Actual charts – 14 variations
- Using form controls to interactively compare
- World education rankings – interactive comparison chart
17 Responses to “Custom Number Formats – Colors”
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.
@Duncan
Each version of Excel, post 2003, renders colors slightly differently
Different language versions may also have different default color palettes
Hello in french
excel 2010
colo1 = couleur1 = black
[couleur1]; [couleur2]; etc..
@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
@Andras
Without a Hungarian version of Excel 2003 I don't think I can assist
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]
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.
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!)
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?
Unfortunately the TEXT function doesn't color the cell as number formatting does.
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.
[…] explains how to set up custom number formats with a wide array of […]
Thanks Hui - works a treat!
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?
Exactly what I was looking for - thank you!
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
Thank You!