How to create an Interactive Chart in Excel? [Tutorial]

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Imagine you have a worksheet with lots of charts. And you want to make it look awesome & clean.

Solution?

Simple, create an interactive chart so that your users can pick one of many charts and see them.

Today let us understand how to create an interactive chart using Excel.

PS: This is a revised version of almost 5 year old article – Select & show one chart from many.

A demo of our interactive Excel chart

First, take a look at the chart that you will be creating.

How to create interactive chart using Excel - Demo

Feeling excited? read on to learn how to create this.

Solution – Creating Interactive chart in Excel

  1. First create all the charts you want and place them in separate locations in your worksheet. Lets say your charts look like this.
    Create charts in separate ranges like this...
  2. Now, select all the cells corresponding to first chart, press ALT MMD (Formula ribbon > Define name). Give a name like Chart1.
    Select all cells corresponding to first chart and give them a name like Chart1
  3. Repeat this process for all charts you have, naming them like Chart2, Chart3
  4. In a separate range of cells, list down all chart names. Give this range a name like lstChartTypes.
  5. Add a new sheet to your workbook. Call it “Output”.
  6. In the output sheet, insert a combo-box form control (from Developer Ribbon > Insert > Form Controls)
    Insert combo-box form controls - Excel
  7. Select the combo box control and press Ctrl+1 (format control).
  8. Specify input range as lstChartTypes and cell link as a blank cell in your output sheet (or data sheet).
    [Related: Detailed tutorial on Excel Combo box & other form controls]

    Combo box form control settings - Excel interactive chart tutorial

  9. Now, when you make a selection in the combo box, you will know which option is selected in the linked cell.
    Demo of combo box & cell linkage - Excel interactive chart tutorial
  10. Now, we need a mechanism to pull corresponding chart based on user selection. Enter a named range – selChart.
  11. Press ALT MMD or go to Formula ribbon > Define name.  Give the name as selChart and define it as
    =CHOOSE(linked_cell, Chart1, Chart2, Chart3, Chart4)
    PS: CHOOSE formula will select one of the Chart ranges based on user’s selection (help).
  12. Now, go back to data & charts sheet. Select Chart1 range. Press CTRL+C to copy it.
  13. Go to Output sheet and paste it as linked picture (Right click > Paste Special > Linked Picture)
    Pasting a picture link - Excel interactive chart tutorial
  14. This will insert a linked picture of Chart 1.
    [Related: What is a picture link and how to use it?]
  15. Now, click on the picture, go to formula bar, type =selChart and press enter
  16. Move the image around, position it nicely next to the combo box.
  17. Congratulations! Your interactive chart is ready 🙂

Video tutorial explaining this chart

Watch below tutorial to understand how to make this chart.

(or watch it on our Youtube channel)

Download Interactive Chart Excel file

Click here to download interactive chart Excel file and play with it. Observe the named ranges (selChart) and set up charts to learn more.

More Examples of Dynamic & Interactive Charts

If you want to learn more about these techniques, go thru below examples.

Do you use interactive charts?

Dynamic & interactive charts are one of my favorite Excel tricks. I use them in almost all of my dashboards, Excel models and my clients are always wowed by them.

What about you? Do you use interactive charts often? What are your favorite techniques for creating them? Please share your tips & ideas using comments.

Want to learn more? Consider joining my upcoming Dashboards & Advanced Excel Masterclass

I’m very excited to announce my upcoming Advanced Dashboards in Excel Masterclass in USA.

Chandoo.org & PowerPivotPro.com will be hosting this two day, intensive hands-on Masterclass. Enhance your Excel skills to create interactive, dynamic and polished looking dashboards your boss will love. Don’t miss out, this is a one-time opportunity to attend my live workshop in Chicago, New York, Washington DC & Columbus OH in May and June 2013. Places are strictly limited.

Click here to know more & book your spot in my Masterclass

Above article is a preview of the tips and tricks you will be learning in the Masterclass.

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32 Responses to “More than 3 Conditional Formats in Excel”

  1. m&a in recessionary market says:

    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... 🙂

  2. James says:

    V E R Y N I C E !!!!

  3. Lincoln says:

    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?

  4. Chandoo says:

    @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 cell

    Let me know if you still get this error...

  5. Lincoln says:

    Ah. I've simply declared cell as a range.
    All good now

    Noob at work.

    Thanks for the article. Very helpful. 🙂

  6. Paul says:

    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.

  7. Jahabar says:

    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.

  8. Chandoo says:

    @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. 🙂

  9. serdarb says:

    very nice post...

  10. Stružák says:

    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

  11. [...] 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 [...]

  12. 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

  13. asm says:

    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?

    • Chandoo says:

      @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.

  14. [...] 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. [...]

  15. Pitichat says:

    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

  16. Justin B says:

    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.

  17. Paul Chapple says:

    @ 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!!

  18. Rajeev says:

    Hi Dude,

    Thanks for this very useful macro. That was very helpful.

    Kepp up the good work.

    Cheers.

  19. Wagner says:

    Explanation like yours is so important to everyone that want to learn more and more in Excel. Thanks a lot. You are the man ! 🙂

  20. Lee says:

    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!

    • Hui... says:

      @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.

  21. Cathy says:

    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

  22. Anurag says:

    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.

  23. CCC says:

    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.

  24. Bob says:

    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?
     

  25. [...] hi Check below link More than 3 Conditional Formats in Microsoft Excel - How to? | Chandoo.org - Learn Microsoft Excel O... [...]

  26. Graham Hartell says:

    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

  27. Sebastian says:

    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

  28. Tom says:

    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

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