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.
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.
2. Insert a combo box control to select a region
Since 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.
- Go to developer ribbon and insert combo box form control.
- Right click on the combo box and go to format control.
- Set up input range to list of regions in your data.
- 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.
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.
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, 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 the first point:
- Select the first point of then values (you need to click once on it, take 3 deep breaths, click again and sacrifice a goat).
- Press CTRL+1 to format the data point.
- Go to Marker options and select built in marker and use the circle symbol.
Formatting the last point:
- Select the last point (same as above, but this time sacrifice a chicken)
- Format the data point.
- Go to line style, select End type and choose arrow.
Formatting the horizontal axis:
- Select horizontal (x) axis and press CTRL+1
- Set axis minimum to 1, maximum to 6.
- 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.
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.
21 Responses to “Distinct count in Excel pivot tables”
The distinct count option works well but I have found that if I have a date field and want to group by year, month, etc. that option seems to be disabled. I need to do both, distinct count and group by year/month.
Example data; sales orders with item quantities with dates.
Challenge; sum the item quantities, count the distinct orders and group by month. How do I do this?
Perhaps that's not possible due to the grouping?
@Al... When you use data model based pivots, you cannot group values manually anymore. Why not use Excel 2016's default date grouping option? In this case we have just a few dates, so Excel is not grouping them, but if you have an year's worth of data, when you make the pivot with date in the row label area, Excel automatically groups them. If you have fewer dates or want to use your own grouping, just create a table with all dates, add columns with month, week, year etc. Then connect this table (these types of tables are usually called as calendar tables) to your data on date field as a relationship. Now you can create reports by month, quarter etc easily.
Is this the only way to do it in 2013? I find it rather cumbersome to have to create another data table listing dates with the another column for MONTH() and YEAR() to be able to summarise data for senior level...
I know people find adding calendar tables cumbersome, but it is a best practice and let's you add more layers of analysis quite easily. For example, adding analysis by weekday vs. weekend or by financial quarter or YTD calculations (you would need either Power Pivot DAX or some very carefully setup pivot table value field settings)
I had absolutely no idea this was possible. Very useful, nice work!
Doesn't work for 2010 version though (or at least not my works version)
Hi ,
The post has the following in it :
These instructions work only in Excel 2016, Office 365 and Excel 2013.
when i have 2 different Pivot tables, one without the enabled “Add this data to data model” option, and the other one with it enabled.. is there anyway i can link slicers between them?
if the answer is NO,, what to do ?
Quick note, the “Add this data to data model” option is not available for the Mac version.
perhaps outside scope of this article but I have found when I attempt to create a pivot table from an external data source (connection to a sql view) the "Add this data to data model" becomes greyed out. Anybody experienced and found a solution so I can start getting distinct count in my pivot tables?
Is there a way to still add a calculated field when using distinct count?
I found I can't change the date source after tick the " add this data to the data model", can you help to adv how to change the date source in such case?
Is there a way to update the source once you have added to the data model? I receive a new spreadsheet weekly and would like to update the connection so my tables pull from the new source.
Hi Crhis, I like how you have hulk (superhero) as your avatar. Do you know that there is a superhero in Excel too? It's Power Query. You can use it to solve your problem in a simple click. Here an intro if you need some guidance.
Powerful Introduction to Power Query
A big Thank you. It worked.
Hi, have survey data that I need to analyze but the challenge is that my key fields are showing horizontally. I tried to transpose the fields using Power Query, but unfortunately the new fields are returning same values on a pivot table despite using distinct values
How I can a do a pivot table with discount conts in some columns and then generate shor report filter pages. pls it drives crazy
Hi. Why grand total pivot of distinct count is 13? shouldn't it be 67?
Great Answer! Saved me lots of time!
Thank you!!!
Worked awesome! Thanks!!
Hi Chandoo,
I am using pivot tables for distinct count and now I need to update them with new set of data. But when I update the source data, all the columns and formatting of Pivot table disappears and I need to build it from Scratch.
Is there a possibility that I can update the source data with new rows added and also retain my pivot tables?