Howdy folks. Jeff Weir here. The subject of today’s post is “What would James Bond have in his Personal Macro Workbook”. The Personal Macro Workbook is a secret place where you can save frequently used macros, automation snippets and code modules so that you can call them from any file and save tons of time, not to mention look dashingly good in-front of your boss. In this article, we’ll take a look at how to set up a personal macro workbook and use it.
The other day, undercover Excel secret agent KV came up a great list of interview questions in response to Chandoo’s great article What are best Excel interview questions?
I particularly liked this one:
Do you have a Personal Macro Workbook setup ? If yes, what are the most common macros you use in your daily work?
Secret Agent KV obviously has some purpose-built gadgets stored in his Personal Macro Workbook that he employs to kill inefficiencies. And he obviously also knows the two top-secret reasons to keep code in a Personal Macro Workbook:
- To keep it safe from international spy rings.
- So you can whip it out whenever you are cornered by any evil-looking spreadsheet.
While that first point is important, that second is the clincher: code stored in a personal workbook can be unleashed with a simple judo-chop to the throat. Err, I mean a simple Alt + F8 to the keyboard:
And the best thing of all: this top secret code can be recycled over and over again, just like a James Bond plot!
But I don’t know how to write code… I hear you say. (I’ve bugged your office). Well…does James Bond build his own top-secret gadgets? No, of course not. He has Q to do it for him:
Okay, okay…so you don’t have Q at your disposal. But you do have G:
Google. Because the secret code for world Excel domination has been leaked all over the internet, by the likes of secret agent KV and 10,000 other spooks just like him. Many strains of this code are highly lethal to just about any kind of inefficiency you could ever think of. You just need to cut and paste it into your Personal Macro Workbook and you’re on your way to world Excel Domination.
So in the international war on spreadsheet terror, KV’s on to something. Which is why I asked him if to digital pen to digital paper, and share some more of his ill-gotten top secret code with us here on ExcelWikiLeaks.
Unfortunately for us, he said no. So I told him that unless he complies by this time tomorrow, I’ll publish his real name. So he said yes. (Khushnood Viccaji is obviously a man with something to hide. But don’t worry, Khushnood …your secret identity is safe with me.) So tune in tomorrow to see secret spy code in action.
Meanwhile, I’ll set the scene by showing you where and how to stash your to secret code. And after that, I’ll point you to some code I’ve only just completed that could well save you hours if you use Pivots a lot. So read right to the end, good spooks.
What exactly is a Personal Macro Workbook?
Often on the internet you’ll find workbooks that you can download that contain useful inefficiency-killing code. But those macros are firmly attached to the workbooks they live in. So as long as you have those workbooks open, you can use those macros. But as soon as you close those workbooks, those macros are no longer available.
But just as secret agents have briefcases with false bottoms (and possibly girls with false body-parts), Excel has a hidden workbook – the Personal Macro Workbook – that gets opened automatically any time you start Excel.
So just like James Bond’s hidden gadgets, any code you stash in there is constantly at your command, just waiting to be whipped out and triggered at the slightest provocation. (Which reminds me of another aspect of Mr Bond, but we’ll keep this family friendly for now, eh?)
How do we set up our Personal Macro Workbook?
Note that the Personal Macro Workbook doesn’t exist until we instruct Excel to create it. But that’s simple. If you’ve got Excel 2010, here’s how. (If you’ve got a different version, you may need to do some secret squirrel industrial espionage via Google to get the secret plans for your particular version)
Step One: Make sure the Developer Ribbon has been enabled.
This isn’t strictly necessary, but we’ll go ahead and do it anyway. Have a look at the top of the workbook. Do you have a menu option ‘Developer’ showing?
Yes? Great.
No? No problem, let’s sort that now. Click File, and select the Options option:
Now click Customize Ribbon, and then check the Developer checkbox on the right hand side, then press OK:
Cool, now that Developer option should show in the ribbon.
Step two: Record a ‘dummy’ macro into your Personal Macro Workbook
To create our Personal Macro Workbook, we simply record a macro and tell Excel to put the macro inside it. Excel then realizes “Well, duh…I better create a Personal Macro Workbook first, because it doesn’t actually exist yet”.
To do this, click on the Developer option in the ribbon, which brings up a whole heap of fancy looking options. (Don’t worry, even James Bond doesn’t know what most of these do).
Now click the Record Macro option that shows in the left hand side of the Developer ribbon:
Note that you could also click the exact same icon that you’ll find down the bottom left hand corner of the spreadsheet:
Either way, this brinks up the Record Macro dialog box:
By default, Excel tells you that it will store the macro it’s about to record in This Workbook. But that’s not what we want this time. Instead, we want Excel to store the macro in our Personal Macro Workbook, which will force Excel to create the Personal Macro Workbook.
So change that “Store Macro In” drop-down to this:
Now go ahead and push OK.
Now…I don’t want you to panic or freak out or anything… so promise me you’ll listen very calmly to what I’m about to say. Promise? Okay, good. The Macro Recorder is now recording everything you do. So try not to make any sudden moves or pull any funny faces. Don’t pick your nose. And please, don’t make any loud body noises. Because it’s all going down on tape. Just act normal. (Unless of course you routinely pull funny faces while picking your nose to the tune of loud bodily noises. In which case, give me you best abnormal.) That’s it.
Okay…now we want to carefully stop recording. Why? Because the purpose of this exercise is not to actually create magnificent code, but rather to create a secret compartment within Excel in which to store magnificent code. And merely recording a completely blank macro like we just did is enough to get Excel to create our top secret Personal Macro Workbook.
To shut this thing down, I need you to s-l-o-w-l-y reach into your spy satchel and pull out the red-handled, thin-nosed wire cutters. Now, c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y unscrew the bomb housing, and locate the detonator. See the blue wire sticking out of the detonator? C-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y cut it before the timer goes to Zero.
No, wait a minute…I think it’s the red wire.
NO, WAIT…THAT’S NOT IT EITHER. Umm…ahh…err….Ah…quick…Jeff…think…argggh…Oh No…Mummy!
WAIT, I REMEMBER NOW! To shut this thing down, push the STOP RECORDING buttons in the ribbon:
Alternately, you can click the Stop Recording icon that you’ll find down the bottom left hand corner of the spreadsheet:
Phew, that was close. Sorry about that. Hey, well done, you! Believe it or not, just by setting the macro recorder to Record and then clicking Stop forced Excel to create your very own Personal Macro Workbook. Who said giving birth was hard, eh! So where is this new baby? Well, duh…she’s hidden. I mean, really! Are you fit to be a parent, with an attention span like that?
Alright, alright, if you really want me to prove this immaculate conception, then click View from the top of the ribbon, and then click Unhide:
BEHOLD! A secret hidden workbook called PERSONAL!. Just waiting to be filled with your secret stash of code.
Isn’t she a beautiful baby? Look, she has your father’s eyes! (Don’t bother pushing OK to unhide her…this was just to prove that she exits.)
Step three: Put some re-usable code in there
The easiest way to get code into your Personal Macro Workbook is via something called the Visual Basic Editor, or VBE for short. You can open the VBE by pushing Alt + F11 from Excel. (Pushing Alt + F11 again takes you back to Excel). Go ahead, give it a try. You’ll see something like this:
Scary, isn’t it. It doesn’t look anything like the Excel that we know and love. In fact, it’s about as attractive as a villain from a Bond film. But don’t worry, we’ll defeat this bad boy together.
(Note that depending on your settings, you might see a few more windows than what the above screenshot shows. So just ignore any of the below steps that aren’t relevant.)
The first thing we want to do is to bring up something called the Project Explorer window, which is a tree-map view of all the different workbooks and Add-Ins that you currently have loaded. To make it visible, select Project Explorer from the View tab:
…which will bring up this:
And look…we can already see our new baby listed on the side: Personal.XLSB. This being a spy flick and all, Excel gave our new Personal Macro Workbook the code name XLSB. (Note that if your version of Excel is a little older, you will see Personal.XLS instead. Basically you have the Sean Connery bond, and not the Danial Craig revision. But they are both deadly.)
What we need to do is expand that Personal.XLSB node by clicking on the + sign to the left of it. Here’s what the first level looks like:
So now we see a folder called Microsoft Excel Objects and another one called Modules. The Microsoft Excel Objects node expands out to show us two further nodes called Sheet1 and ThisWorkbook:
…but we don’t use these, so just ignore them. What we want is to expand the Modules node:
Now we just need to double-click on that Module1 thing to bring up the Code Window associated with this module. You might already see a code window, or even a whole bunch of them floating on top of each other. Double-clicking on a particular Module will bring the applicable code window to the top.
And look, there’s that Macro we recorded earlier. That’s not so scary is it…now we know where code turns up when recorded to the Personal Macro Workbook – in a Module. Any time you record a new macro, Excel sticks it in a Module. If you’ve already been recording Macros during your current Excel session, then Excel sticks it in the same Module. If you start a new session (e.g. close down Excel, then restart it and record another Macro) then Excel would put the code you record in a new module. And any time you put new code into a Module – either by using the Macro Recorder or by cutting and pasting code directly in to a Module, then when you close Excel it will prompt you if you want to save changes to your Personal Macro Workbook.
It doesn’t really matter which of the Modules you store your code in in that Personal Macro Workbook – just so long as each routine has a different name. In fact, you can have just one module in there if you like that contains hundreds of different routines. I have several modules, that I’ve given names like modPivotTables and modText and modCharts, with each module containing routines related to the name of the module. I find this makes it easier to track down where a particular routine is stored, in case I want to make changes to it in the future. You can rename Modules by bringing up the Properties window. To do this, select view from the Toolbar, and then click Properties Window:
…which will bring up a new window that will probably sit right below the Project Explorer window by default:
If it’s floating somewhere else, just double-click it and it will then ‘dock’ below the Project Explorer window as shown above. To change the name of a Module, just type the new name where I’ve indicated above.
So now we know where to copy new code, if we want to store it there for reuse. Sweet! So let’s delete that code, and put something useful in there right away, shall we?
So what other kinds of things might you want to put in there?
Well, efficiency comes in all shapes and sizes. I’ve got macros in there that are just a few lines long, and that save me a mere two or three mouse-clicks, like this one:
Sub ClearFormats()
Selection.ClearFormats
End Sub
All that does, is clear the formats from the selected range. In fact, it does exactly the same thing as this does:
...the only difference is that I assign this to a keyboard shortcut of [Ctrl] + [C] so that I don't even have to take my hands off the keyboard to launch it. (Sure, I could use Excel's shortcut of [Alt]+[H]+[E]+[F]. But that's more random digits than my memory or fingers can usually handle.)
Assigning a keyboard shortcut to launch a Macro is easy. First, we switch from the VBE back to Excel using [Alt]+[F11], and then we push [Alt] + [F8] to bring up the Macro Dialog Box:
Then we click the Options button on the bottom right, which brings up the Macro Options dialog box, where we can enter in the key combination we want to use:
I usually use a combination with [Shift] in it, because this stops me overwriting any of Excel's existing keyboard shortcuts.
Can I put clever home-made Worksheet Functions in there too?
You bet. I often store custom-made functions - called User Defined Functions - in my Personal Macro Workbook that can be used within a formula in a cell, without having to even launch the Run Macro dialog box.
For example, say you have some delimited text in a column like so:
Let's say you wanted to extract the 3rd item in that list, but for some reason can't use Text-To-Columns because you don't want to blow your Excel Ninja cover. You'd need a pretty complicated formula to do this. Probably something like this:
=MID(A2,FIND("|",SUBSTITUTE(A2,";","|",2))+1,FIND("|", SUBSTITUTE(A2,";","|",3))-FIND("|",SUBSTITUTE(A2,";","|",2))-1)
That formula is a pain to remember how to put together, not to mention a drag to write. So instead, you could just store the following function in your Personal Macro Workbook:
Function SplitText(str As String, strDelimiter As String, lngOccurance As Long)
Dim varArray As Variant
varArray = Split(Expression:=str, delimiter:=strDelimiter)
SplitText = varArray(lngOccurance - 1)
End Function
Then you could use it in any workbook by using this formula:
=PERSONAL.XLSB!SplitText(A2,";",3)
...for exactly the same effect. But with much less effort.
Note that we have to prefix the formula with PERSONAL.XSLB! so that Excel knows where to find the code behind this puppy.
If you send the workbook to someone else that doesn't have the same Macro in their Personal Macro Workbook, then they will just get a #NAME? Error. To avoid this, you could send them the Macro itself and point them to this article. Or you could copy the code from your Personal Macro Workbook and paste it into a Code Module in the Workbook you are sending. To do this, select the workbook of interest in the VBE, then click INSERT and select Module from the menu, as shown below.
This will put a blank Code Module in the workbook itself, and then you can copy the in the workbook that you are sending out, and then copy the macro from your Personal Macro Workbook into that empty Module:
...and then ditch the =PERSONAL.XLSB bit in your formula:
=ExtractElement(A2,3,";")
Those are fairly trivial, aren't they? What about a really intricate gadget?
At the other extreme, I've got macros in there that I've worked on for months, that save me hours if not days of work. And some let me do the downright impossible.
Here's an example: Imagine you've got a list of 1000 Top Secret Passwords (left) and a PivotTable of 20,000 Top Secret Passwords (right). And imagine that in order to save the world, you need to filter the PivotTable on the right so that it exactly matches the list on the left. Quickly.
How long do you think it's going to take you to filter that pivot using this:
Hours? Days? What if the fate of the free world depends on you getting it right? Worried you might make mistakes? Would you even notice? Would you bother checking? How will you even do this...as that PivotFilter Dialog box says, Not All Items Showing! So we can't even see all items to filter them. Goodbye free world!
Enter my FilterPivot macro, that lives in my Personal Macro Workbook. It's just itching for a fight like this one. Let's judo-chop the keyboard with Alt + F8, bring up the Run Macro dialog box, and see it in action, shall we?
Look, there it is. All I need to do now is select it, push Run, and follow the instructions:
*BING*...Done! See - the PivotTable on the right is filtered so that it exactly matches the list on the left.
How's that. Neat, eh! This code is really, really fast under a range of different scenarios. It works out whether it's quickest to:
- make all items visible in the pivot, and then hide just the PivotItems that don't match the filter terms; or
- hide all but one items in the PivotField, and unhide just the PivotItems that do match the filter terms
If you've got a PivotTable with 20,000 items in it, then here's how long it takes:
- Filter on 100 search terms: 7 seconds
- Filter on 10,000 search terms: 1 minute, 30 seconds
- Filter on 19,900 search terms: 5 seconds
Want one of your very own? Go and visit my recent post Filtering Pivots Based On External Ranges over at the Daily Dose of Excel blog, and cut and paste away. Note that this code requires Excel 2010 or later...and you want to scroll to the end of the acticle and look for the code under the heading Faster Approach. If you've got 2007 or earlier, all is not lost: look for the code listed under the Slower Approach heading. It's not as fast as the times I've posted above, but still a heck of a lot faster than doing it my hand.
That's the beauty of the web - there's weapons-grade code just waiting for you to steal. So again, you don't have to know how to write code in order to highly leverage VBA. All you need to know is how to Google, Cut, and Paste. Heck, even Austin Powers can do that without screwing it up!
That's more than enough for today. Tune in tomorrow, and we'll see what kind of time-savers Secret Agent KV has in his Personal Macro Workbook.
And if you know of amazing routines published on the web somewhere that are Personal Macro Workbook ready, then let us know about them in the comments below. But only if these routines are ready to go, and are the best of the best. Like the code at these two links:
http://peltiertech.com/WordPress/label-last-point-for-excel-2007/
http://datapigtechnologies.com/blog/index.php/auto-format-pivottables-to-match-source-data/
About the Author.
Jeff Weir – a local of Galactic North up there in Windy Wellington, New Zealand – is more volatile than INDIRECT and more random than RAND. In fact, his state of mind can be pretty much summed up by this:
=NOT(EVEN(PROPER(OR(RIGHT(TODAY())))))
That’s right, pure #VALUE!
Find out more at http:www.heavydutydecisions.co.nz
115 Responses to “73 Free Designer Quality Excel Chart Templates – Grab now and become a charting superman”
There's nothing worse than the default MS chart formats. Thank you for working to rid the world of these eyesores.
Man, you sure do have a fetish for Excel.
What about line charts? These are great but not feeling the love for the lines. -C
[...] 73 Free Designer Quality Excel Chart Templates - Grab now and become a charting superman Plantillas para gráficos de excel (tags: charts excel grafico) [...]
Hi...These templates aint working
Message Received: Drawing conversion failed.
@Monte Bel - thank you for visiting PHD and commenting 🙂 Hope you liked the templates
@ Kapil : thanks 🙂
@Cristobal: Thanks for visiting PHD, btw, the line charts are there, just load the template and convert the chart type from bar chart to line chart, the colors would adjust automatically (they should 😛 ), let me know if this doesn't work.
Really cool templates, many thanks, I downloaded them for future use. Bye
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[...] ...http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/notebook/2008/03/24/080324gonb_GOAT_notebook_schjeldahl73 Free Designer Quality Excel Chart Templates - Grab now and become a charting superman add to del.icio.us add to Stumble How many times you created a chart in Microsoft excel and [...]
Excellent prepared
Vuélvete un Superman de las Gráficas en Excel (Inglés)...
Si eres un Ingeniero sin la menor idea de como combinar colores y hacer mas atractivas tus gráficas, aquí podrás encontrar unas plantillas para que puedas volver tus gráficas en Excel mas atractivas y dejes con el ojo cuadrado a tu Jefazo. NOTA: Los co...
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Vota este post en teknear.com...
Hi, your chart templates are great. I did n't understand how to create 1*1 pixel in paint brush with the colour of my choice.
@DRN ... thanks, you can create the color of your choice in mspaint by,
1. go to start > all programs > accessories > paint and click on it
2. double click on any of the color buttons at the bottom
3. select "Define custom colors >>"
4. enter RGB values for your color choice
5. click on "Add to custom colors"
6. click OK
7. select paint bucket tool (tool tip says "fill with color")
8. click on the image area
9. go to menu > image > image attributes (or press ctrl+E)
10. enter 1 as width and height
11. save as bmp or jpg or gif
cool, now you have a 1*1 pixel in color of your choice.
Let me know if this helps you... 🙂 welcome to PHD...
Thanks a lot...I got it 🙂
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Chandoo, You are a Freaking Genius, you saved me atleast 2 days of work.
Thanks Man for this, great to see some value been added to the Internet.
Please do post some more sample, this will be really helpful to alot of us.
@Dhondu ... welcome to PHD, thanks alot for your comments.. 🙂
thank you!!!
you made my day..too much helpful
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Dear Chandoo,
Really you are great yar! I learned most of the Conditional Formatting by your tips. If you have any other tips and tricks in excell please send me a link.
Thank You
With regards.
Is it possible to display charts simply by selecting the data, and is it possible to change the chart by selecting another data.
Please reply.
Dear Excel Master,
Hi Chandoo I have changed your name ...You are really great..I have download all cool templates for future use.
If you have any other tips and tricks in excel please send me a link.
Have nice Weekend Bue.
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Thank you so much sir, Really cool templates, I downloaded them for mu day to day use. KEEP IT UP!
@Sadiq Ali: Hi sorry, I didnt notice your question till now "Is it possible to display charts simply by selecting the data, and is it possible to change the chart by selecting another data."
well, its not possible to plot charts dynamically by selecting data unless you are willing to write some VBA. There are other techniques to make charts look dynamic, I will write about one such technique sometime soon.. keep watching this blog 🙂
@Nikhil - welcome to PHD blog, thanks for your comments. Sure, just subscribe to our mailing list or blog content feed to get fresh hot excel tips everyday.
@Shanker - Welcome to PHD blog. Thanks for your comments. Keep visiting this place to enjoy more tips 🙂
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Hi Chandoo!
I've been reading through a lot of the site for hours and I got a question man, I've encountered recently some excel documents a co-worker downloaded which is sort of a quiz, basically a game quiz, it has an image of a movie and you had to guess the name in a box then, a box below gave you a correct with green bgcolor or wrong in red bgcolor. My question is what kind of formula or way, can I get to use this so I can do some quiz test for some students? it's a very ingenius way to pop the brain a bit with excel. I appreciate the time you put into this site, keep up the work.
hi chandoo,
is my second time typing it seems my explorer sucks, I'll make it short this time, I received an email with an excel document that does a quiz where they showed you an image of a movie and you had to answer which movie is it from, almost case sensitive capitals don't matter, so i would like to know what is the formula or whatever it is so i can apply it on educative ways for classes. thanks for the time you put into this site.
@istreva ... thankfully your first comment made to my server before crashing your browser. Welcome to PHD and thanks for the comments 🙂
You can create a quiz in excel by using protected cells and conditional formatting. I will write a tutorial on this may be in the next 2 weeks. Basically the way to do this is to have the answers in a range that is protected so that no one can view it, and then use conditional formatting on cell(s) to change color to red / green based the answer entered by quiz taker.
I think that would be awsome, I've been trying to figure that out but I'm not an excel guru, I studied some computer programing and done some javascript, so i thought there would be some "if" "then" involved, I think If you can point me in one direction with one sample I can manage to replicate the process and maybe even add on some more to it! Thanks man, 6 hours a day in the office can be very insighfull reading your site 🙂
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Hi
I just found this site and am happy to find other people interested in Excel as much as I am!. I have a problem because my IE can't find the link to download the charts. Are they still available??
Thanks
Joseph
@Joseph: Welcome to PHD and thanks for visiting us 🙂
You can download the files from http://cid-b663e096d6c08c74.skydrive.live.com/embedrow.aspx/Public/73%20Free%20Designer%20Quality%20Excel%20Chart%20Templates.zip it is a one zip file available for download from Live.com's skydrive. Let me know if you have access issues, I can upload the file to my own server and give you another link.
Thanks,
Hi Chandoo, this site is really useful for my report. Everyone might admire me as of my interesting presentation. nice day!
Thaopham: Awesome... I am happy you found this useful 🙂
I am still not able to download these templets.......ti shows access denied.....sorry for being too demanding but if you could mail to my id azmat1979@rediffmail.com it would be highly appreceiated
hi Chandoo... this is of great help and saves a lot of time...
Thanks
Fantastic! I don't use Excel much, but this is so cool, I had to download the templates 🙂
Thank you.
Great work!!! This is very useful!! Cheers - Deepak
[...] Earlier on pie charts: Why no one likes your pie & what to do about it? | In cell pie charts | 22 beautiful pie chart templates for excel [...]
perfect! thanks very much for your contribution.
Excellent charts!
Microsoft must buy your chart templates and use them in their next Office release.
May God bless you.
Hi Chandoo,
Thank you very much...I learned a lot conditional formatting &
Dashboard technique because of you.
If you can provide more dashborad examples clearly..then it will be
a great help.
Regards
Rajinikanth
thanks for your valuable chart templates. really they are very useful. keep up good job.
@Nick: Welcome to PHD and I am happy you liked these charts.
Hi Chandoo,
Its very good help for every one who wants to prepare the charts,
your templates are good and I utilised some of the templates with some modifications.
Great job!!!!!!thanks
@Rajinikanth: Welcome to PHD and thanks for your nice words. I am very happy you liked the templates and using them in your work.
good day, dear, This is very useful, thanks a lot,
keep is going,
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I want to create a chart where the bars in the chart mirror the color in the cells used to create it. For example, if something is Red at 12% and Green at 85%, I want the columns in the chart to be Red at 12% and Green at 85%. Whenever I try to create the chart it colors each bar the same. Is what I want to do possible?
SHannon - one way you could do this is to add a different series to the chart for each colour that you will be using, then format those series the specific colours you want. The series would need to reference different columns, which would only contain the data specific to each colour.
For instance, if your original data was in a column starting from A2, then in the cell B2 (which will be where the green series of the graph points to) you would have a formula like =if(A2 > .80, A1, na()) which means that only data that meets your cut-off point for being green (80% in this example) gets copied there. Anything else gets entered as the error #N/A, which Excel doesn't plot.
THis should do the trick.
Thanks for your work. It's what I ever wanted in Excel, otherwise a good program.
Little question - the edges of the pie charts are uneven - is some anti-aliasing possible?
Dear Sir
Actually an looking for your help.
I have a folder which contain word and excel working on .However it me personal file but have to dispute in where a lots of person to get access with it .is it possible to put it with an easy way as read only just they can view it only.Thanking in advance for your help
@Martin... Try using Excel 2007, it makes the edges of charts look more smoother. More on the charting differences between 2007 and 2003 here: http://peltiertech.com/WordPress/why-i-dont-like-excel-2007-charts/
@Krishun... You can use the protect sheet options to protect ranges or whole worksheets from editing. Learn more here: http://chandoo.org/wp/2009/11/03/make-better-excel-sheets/
Excellent!! I've been looking for some nice looking charts!
You are an angel!!!! I have struggled with a pie chart, but not anymore!!
Thanks,
Wise Writers and Speakers
Hi Chandoo
When I try to download it does nt come as a normal zip folder and it asks which program to use? I tried excel and doesn't work! any ideas 🙁
@Catherine... sometimes live.com adds an underscore "_" at the beginning and end of the file name. just select the file, press "F2" and remove the "_" from end. This should make the file work with winzip (or expand all option).
its great..
thank you
Thats Gr8:-)
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Hi Chandoo,
I found these templates, and like the idea of using them. However, I must be missing something because when I follow the directions, the result I get is not what I expected. When I choose the range $N$9:$S$13 and select the user defined chart, I get a really strange result.
I found that I had to select only the data values ($O$10:$S$13), then when the used designed chart appears, manually re-enter the X Axis series ($N$10:$N$13), and the each references for each of the years ($O$9 etc.).
Any idea what I am doing wrong?
Regards David
Thank you! This looks great. The defaults look horrible. You've done a great job with these templates!
Great Work;
It is very useful in a real life and time saving as well.
Thank you
Saved me a lot of time and grief and gave me a much better quality of output than I would ever have achieved on my own
Much appreciated
Hi Chandoo - Have read your interview in msn. You are simply great and can stand as one of the roll model to the youngsters especially who scream by comparing themselves with others promortion or hike.
Best part is that you have realised what is your passion.
HEARY CONGRATS.
Rgds,
Gopinath
[...] Free Excel Chart Templates [...]
Do you have a simple Excell Add-On that gives Dashboard gauge results? My physicians need something easy to ready and the Gauge formot seems to be easy. Thanks
Dear Chandoo,
I just came across your site and I must say thank you very much for all the helpful tips. Saves all of us days of working so many things out ourselves!! I have a problem. I download the chart templates file from the link you gave but when I tried to open the Zip file using WinRar, I get an error message "The archive is either in unknown format or damaged". I have used WinRar to open other zip files without any problems. Is there any way I can re-download and open in WinRar? Are the templates still available? Thanks very much
Hi Chandoo,
Pls ignore earlier request (not the comments though!) as I managed to download and extract. Thank you once again
UnniK
[...] 73 Free Designer Quality Excel Chart Templates – Grab now and become a charting superman | Poi... (tags: excel graphs charts templates) [...]
Hi Chandoo
I do not know how to put curved text in the doughnut shape which aligns well with the lines.
Any one any idea?
Vinod
Chandoo....you rock!!! Thanks a tonne, man!
Hi Chandoo,
Cant download the templates as the link is not available anymore. can you please provide an updated link?
Many thanks
@Ahmet
The download links take you to a Sky Drive page
Just select the file from there
There are several online tools available that can help you create comprehensively designed flowcharts and graphs within few mins. These could be flash animated charts that could go in to a ppt slide.. Read more here.. http://askwiki.blogspot.com/2011/09/best-of-online-graphs-and-charts.html
By learning Microsoft Excel Online it helps me to work more effectively and more precise with the help of examples files were we can download and learn in more advanced terms in MS Excel. I appreciate the work of this online training programme to higher extent because it help lot of people who is willing and interested to work in Excel like me. I Love MS Excel to the higher extent. And I request you to please upload more example files so that the people like me can be benifited from Excel training.
Thank you.
N.Vishwanath.
I appreciate for all your help to make us learn Microsoft Excel in a more advanced terms. I request you to please update more exercise files, so that the people like me who are interested can be benifitted from learning MS Excel. I Like MS Excel to the higher extent.
i cash teachung
This looks great! I would really like to take a look at these. Is there another, more direct link to download the templates? The Sky Drive link doesn't work for me.
Nice templates! Thanks!
Biju
http://www.lenvica.com
Wonderfully creative and comprehensive. Bubble charts play an increasingly important role in my work. Any idea why Pie Charts can have leader lines to show the Label, but I cannot do that [easily or at all?] for bubble charts. As you know, bubbles can overlap or completely cover each other, so use of leaders can make them understandable. Thanks for any recommendations
Hi, I have a question regarding templates. Basically I have a series of data, theyre like 10 numbers. I calculated the summary statistics for it already and now I want to create a bell curve and have that bell curve automated where if I put in any number, it will plot it on my bell curve and I can see if its an outlier or how many standard deviations its away from the mean. Thanks
PS: Im using Excel 2007 and already have the Data Analysis Took Pak added.
Chandoo,
I have tried few times but can't use these charts. When I use the 1st method - nothing happes when I change the data??
more clear
Chandoo,
I want to build a 3-D charts for Item 1, 2, 3 and their sales for 2011 and 2012. Do you have a template for that?
Simon
@Simon
Setup your data like:
2011 2012Item A 17 20
Item B 15 13
Item C 12 16
2011 is above column with no. 17
2012 is above column with no. 20
Select the whole area including Items, Years and data
Goto Insert, Chart, select the 3D chart type you want to use
I think I need to clarify the data set a bit.
2011-01 2011-02 2011-03 2012-01 2012-02 2012-03Item A 17 20 23 34 32 32Item B 15 13 34 32 33 65Item C 12 16 34 32 44 99
I want the Items to stack in 1 bar per month, and show it in one list of bar for each year
Simon
@Simon,
Can you email file to me?
(Click on Hui above and look at bottom of the page for email address)
Hi Chandoo,
I like the look of the pseudo incell chart, how did you achieve such an effect? I've downloaded the templates, but there is no fill for any data series.
Thanks!
JY
i got to know abt chandoo.org recently, n since two days completely diggin out the site 😛 i just love working with excel n powerpoint n graphs etc.. this site is really "awesome". 😀
Do you have any cool templates for line graphs?
HI CHANDOO,
PLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW TO CREATE THAT SMALL BOX AS U HAVE CREATED IN A New Year Resolutions Template that Kicks Ass , IN WHICH WE HAVE TO TICK OR UNTICK.........
Does ANYONE know if its possible to make a CLOCK graph to depict overlapping work schedules for a crew at any particular job location? if so, where can I get it and/or how do I make it. Thanks for ANY feedback David.
update please...
Really cool templates, many thanks, I downloaded them for future use. Bye
Seeing the stuff in your website I feel astonished that how a man can be so brainy doing so many things single handed. Kudos to you.
Hi Chandoo excellent charts for free, but i ma trying to find out how you created your pie of pie of pie chart re water use. how can i create the same thing using my data
I am very interested to see if someone has used these dashboards as shared workbooks to give multiple users (5-10) access to update the dashboards concurrently. Lots of our clients use spreadsheets very inefficiently with no concurrent update of data made possible due to their reliance on old school "you-add-your-data-and-I-will-add-mine when-you-are-done" approach with no account for version control etc. I don't want to use VBA because once you step out of the team they keep phoning you to make the slightest changes to the code. I want to keep it as simple as possible and was hoping their would be people out there who have used these dashboards in a smart collaborative manner.
The option of saving the chart templates is not available in Excel 2010 as i m currently using the Office 2010. Pls guide how to get the oprion of Chart Type > User Defined
I downloaded the excel template, but with I copy the chart to workbook, how do I copy the data put. its not working for me please advise.
I have the latest version of Excel. Method 1 and 2 do not work! I cannot edit any of the templates. Can someone Help me please???
Hi Chandoo,
How to convert pie chart into bar diagram. It is like converting earth to flat map but do know the process.
Help will be appreciable.
Will people that don't have these templates see them the same way when they open the spreadsheet on their computer?
@Julie
All versions of Excel after 2003 render colors and lines slightly differently to versions before 2007
But yes you will mostly see the same on your PC
Hi!
I am looking for a "Variance Matrix" Graph for differences in Quality scores. Basically, we score quality from 1 - 5 and then an auditor will score the same call 1 - 5. I want a graph that has 1 - 5 vertically and then 1 - 5 horizontal at the top, then put counts in the middle for how many calls match up in each box EG, If I scored it a 1 and then they scores it a 3 it would show up at 1 vertically(my score) and 3 along vertically (Auditors score) is this possible on excel?
Hi Sir,
I want to create a Graph any type. I have data in below format:
Company Name Emp Name Number
ABC Aditya 555
ABC Mukesh 777
ABC JHA 999
XYZ Aditya 666
XYZ Mukesh 444
XYZ JHA 888
Please guide me to plot this graph on above data but I want Company Name, Emp Name, Max of No, Min of No and Avg of No.
Waiting for your response...
@Aditya
Can you please pose the question at the Chandoo.org Forums
http://forum.chandoo.org
Add a sample file to simplify the task
Thumbs up for the templates...you rock man!
Thanks so much.
[…] Free High Quality Chart Templates […]
this is one what m i looking for