How to create a Then vs. Now interactive chart in Excel?

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You have been there before.

Trying to compare last year numbers with this year, or last quarter with this quarter.

Today, let us learn how to create an interactive to chart to understand then vs. now.

Demo of Then vs. Now interactive chart

First, take a look the completed chart below. This is what you will be creating.

Then vs. Now interactive chart - How to create this in Excel

Inspiration for this chart

Before we jump in to Excel and understand how this is done, let me thank NY Times for providing the inspiration for this chart. I saw a similar chart in their climbing income ladder visualization.

Creating Then vs. Now chart in Excel

1. Arrange data

As usual, the first step is to get the data in to Excel. Structure your data like this.

Data for Then vs. Now chart

2. Insert a combo box control to select a region

Insering combo box form control and formatting it - then vs now chartSince our chart will display values for one region at a time, we need a mechanism to let user control which region is displayed. We will use a combo box control do this. Follow these steps.

  1. Go to developer ribbon and insert combo box form control.
  2. Right click on the combo box and go to format control.
  3. Set up input range to list of regions in your data.
  4. Set up cell link to a blank cell in your workbook.

Related: Introduction to form controls.

3. Fetch selected region’s data

Now that we have a combo box to select which region to show in the chart, next step is to fetch data for selected region. You can use either VLOOKUP or INDEX formulas to do it.

Using VLOOKUP formula:

Assuming region name is in D17, and data is in values table, write:

=VLOOKUP(D17, values, 2, false)

to get 2nd column (then sales) value.

More on using VLOOKUP formula

Using INDEX formula:

Assuming region number is in D16, and data is in values table, write:

=INDEX(values[then],D16)

4. Create a chart showing then to now movement

Next step is to create a chart that would show a line going from then value to now value. Lets take a closer look the line to understand how to make it in Excel.

Examining then vs now chart - a closer look at how to create it

We can create this chart with either XY (scatter) plot or line chart. Lets go with scatter plot.

In your workbook, set up a table like this:

Then vs. now values for selected region

Then, select the above and create a scatter plot. Select the scatter plot with connecting lines.

5. Formatting the chart

Since we want to show a thick circle at the beginning of then value and arrow at the end of now value, lets go ahead and do the formatting song and dance.

Formatting starting point of then vs now chartFormatting the first point:

  1. Select the first point of then values (you need to click once on it, take 3 deep breaths, click again and sacrifice a goat).
  2. Press CTRL+1 to format the data point.
  3. Go to Marker options and select built in marker and use the circle symbol.

Formatting ending point - then vs. now chartFormatting the last point:

  1. Select the last point (same as above, but this time sacrifice a chicken)
  2. Format the data point.
  3. Go to line style, select End type and choose arrow.

Formatting horizontal axi - then vs now chartFormatting the horizontal axis:

  1. Select horizontal (x) axis and press CTRL+1
  2. Set axis minimum to 1, maximum to 6.
  3. Click ok and delete the axis as we do not need it on the chart.

6. Adding “Break-up” of now values chart

This is easy, Just select fetched break-up values for selected region and create a bar chart. Format it as per your fancy.

7. Put everything together

Place the combo box, scatter plot and bar chart together in a nice fashion. Add a surrounding box shape so that everything looks like one report.

Add a descriptive title on the top. If possible, make chart title dynamic so that you can show the selected region name and % change in it.

8. Your Then vs. Now chart is ready

That is all. Your Then vs. Now chart is ready. Go ahead and flaunt it.

Final Then vs. Now chart with all bells and whistles

Download the chart workbook

Click here to download the chart workbook and play with it. Examine the formulas, chart settings and shapes to understand how this is set up.

Do you make then vs. now charts?

I think about half the charts made businesses around the world fall in to this category. I make these type of charts all the time. I use a variety of chart types to convey this information. Thermometer chart, waterfall chart and conditionally formatted tables are some of my favorite techniques.

What about you? Do you create then vs. now charts? what type of charts do you use? Please share your techniques and ideas using comments.

Learn more…

If you are not working in a cave or behind a huge stack of desks, chances are your job involves communicating for a living. Go ahead and read-up below articles to learn how to communicate with charts better, when it comes to then vs. now situations.

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26 Responses to “FIFA Worldcup Excel Spreadsheets [Roundup]”

  1. J. J. says:

    Nice roundup! Do you know of any one-page spreadsheets which will be updated by an administrator after each game? Would be nice to be able to print out the latest results whenever I feel like checking them as I probably won't be following closely every day.

    I actually haven't tried any of the above ones yet, but I thought I'd mention this one that I found which makes a nice one-page form you can fill in dynamically. http://exceltemplate.net/sports/world-cup-2010-schedule-and-scoresheet/

  2. Diego Garcia says:

    I would like to recommend you these one: http://www.anotagol.com/
    You can choose your interface language (english, spanish, italian, portuguese, german or french) and your country for the timezone of match. I like it very much.

  3. [...] Passend zu gerade laufenden Fußball-WM gibt es auf Chandoo.org alles wissenswerte über Excel-Anwendungen für den Fußball-Fan. [...]

  4. Rohit1409 says:

    Great!!!

    I strongly recommend this :

    http://www.en.excel-soccer-2010.de/downloads

    Chandoo how you found this ...

  5. Chandoo says:

    @Rohit.. really beautiful file. I missed it during my research. Now, I recommend it. 🙂

  6. Mourad Louha says:

    Hi Chandoo - thanks for the recommandation 🙂 - Regards

  7. [...] Excel, then print it on the other side of your Match Schedule from step 2 above. There are several other Excel spreadsheet templates you can download, but this is probably the only one-page version you can find; plus, it [...]

  8. Robert says:

    Does anybody know how to re-create this(?): http://www.marca.com/deporte/futbol/mundial/sudafrica-2010/calendario-english.html
    ...or do you know where a template can be found? I am DYING to have something like this on my site. When I found it, I had been looking for the longest time for a circular calendar. I found a couple that weren't adequate. Then I stumbled upon this one and my eyes nearly popped out of my head. If anyone can lead me in the right direction, I would be eternally grateful!

    Thanks in advance!
    Robert

  9. Chandoo says:

    @Robert...

    Doing something like that is a lot of work. You can probably get it done with some hired help from a flash developer.

  10. Pedro Wave says:

    @Robert, the World Cup flash in the Spanish Marca newspaper is impresive, but not much as my own animated spreadsheet with the Goals of 2010 World Cup South Africa in Excel that I just published into my blog:
    http://pedrowave.blogspot.com/2010/06/goals-of-2010-world-cup-south-africa-in.html

    Download from here:
    http://cid-6b219f16da7128e3.office.live.com/view.aspx/.Public/Goals%20South%20Africa%20Animated.xlsx

    And start to enter the goals of the rest of matches.

  11. Neil says:

    Has anyone seen, or made, a Spreadsheet where you can record the scorers and see a 'top scorers' chart. Would be a nice enhancement

  12. Chandoo says:

    @Neil... checkout this one http://www.inflexionary.com/sports/world-cup-2010-excel

    it uses macros to fetch scores from web (and provides very comprehensive analysis too)

    @All.. Thanks for the comments. I have updated the post with few more links now.

  13. Sergio Mathias says:

    Hi,
    Check this dashboards too:
    http://dashboards.org/world-cup-dashboards-and-visualizations/
    😉

  14. [...] Here is a collection of FIFA World Cup Spreadsheets if you are more in to that sort of thing. | [...]

  15. [...] Cup fever is here!In FIFA Worldcup Excel Spreadsheets Roundup, Chandoo has some links to useful World Cup tracking workbooks. Only one of them (the first one) [...]

  16. [...] World Cup fever is here!In FIFA Worldcup Excel Spreadsheets Roundup, Chandoo has some links to useful World Cup tracking workbooks. Only one of them (the first one) [...]

  17. Hey, you missed ours! It has everything you need and more, but not a whole pile of silly extras (National Anthems, etc).  I'll be making another one for the 2014 world cup.  We had over 4000 hits on it!

  18. Neil says:

    @Michael Harwood.

    Where is it then? You should have posted a link  

  19. phillip says:

    Sie sollten an einem Wettbewerb teil zu nehmen für einen der besten Blogs im Web. Ich werde empfehlen Sie diese Seite!
    Google translation: You should take part in a contest for one of the best blogs on the web. I will recommend this site!

  20. [...] and welcome to the forum, Maybe these similar spreadsheets might give you a few initial ideas: FIFA Worldcup Excel Spreadsheets [Roundup] | Chandoo.org - Learn Microsoft Excel Online If you have specific areas / formulae / layout choices for parts of your spreadsheet that you are [...]

  21. Petros says:

    Calling all football fans around the globe! The biggest football festival will kick off on the 12th June 2014 and everyone is placing their bets of who will have the honour of lifting the golden trophy.

    Use our free interactive Excel templatel to predict the World cup finalists ! No macros !

    http://www.spreadsheet1.com/world-cup-2014-free-excel-prediction-template.html

  22. marten says:

    I also made a Worldcup-tracker, with MS Access, which can also generate reports in Excel
    e.g. a match-schedule with locations on y-axis and dates on x-axis, see:
    http://worktimesheet2014.blogspot.com.es/2014/05/excel-with-match-schedule-for-2014-fifa.html
    and:
    http://worktimesheet2014.blogspot.com.es/2014/05/match-access-app-to-track-world-cup.html

  23. Vivek Ranjan says:

    where can i find raw data in excel file format of fifa world cups (1930-2014)

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