A while back I developed a solution to a Chandoo.org Forum question, where the user wanted a 4 level doughnut chart where each doughnut was made up of 12 segments and each segment was to be colored based on a value within a range.
You can read the original post here: http://forum.chandoo.org/threads/hourly-goals-chart.30621/
This post will examine the techniques I used for the solution.
Data
Download the sample file: Download Hourly Goals Chart File
The first thing to note is that there are 4 column of data, one for each measure of Safety, Quality, Delivery and Cost.
Secondly is that each measurement has 12 values representing the times from 4:30 am to 3:30 pm.
We need to setup a Doughnut Chart with 4 layers of 12 segments each
The easiest way to do this is to replicate the data area, but fill it with the same value in all cells,
I choose 1, but as long as all values are the same value, it can be any value
Add a Doughnut Chart
Select the Range A16:E28
Goto the Insert, Chart and select the Pie/Doughnut menu
We have a bit of work to do yet to get the charts format correct
First select the chart then select the Chart’s Legend and press Delete
Next with the chart still selected, Right Click on any Doughnut and select Format Data Series
Set the Doughnut Hole Size to 25%
Do not change the angle of the first slice
Right click on the Outer Doughnut and select Add Data Labels, Data Labels
Right Click on any Data Label and Select Format Data Labels
Tick Value From Cells, Select a range A17:A28
Untick Value
Untick Leader Lines
Now manually click and drag each data label outwards to its final location
Finally set the Border Color for the doughnuts
Right Click on each Doughnut in turn
Set the Doughnut’s Border Line to a Grey Color and a 2 Pt line size
We can now add a text box for the Doughnut Labels
With the chart selected, goto the Insert, Text Box menu
Drag a Text Box inside the chart
Right click on the Text Box and edit Text and type in the value Cost
Now repeat this for the other 3 Doughnuts
Connect the Doughnut Segments to the Data Area
We now have a basic Doughnut chart with all the facilities we require.
Unfortunately, Excel doesn’t have a built-in Conditional Formatting option for charts.
So we will need to develop a system using some simple VBA.
Understand the Doughnut Chart
To write a piece of code we will need to loop through each segment of each doughnut and reference it back to the source data area
Then use some code to set the fill color
then repeat for each segment
To do this we need to understand which doughnut is which column of data and which segment in the doughnut is which time period
First select the inner Doughnut, Note that when you select it, Excel highlights the Safety Series as well as showing the Series Number in the Formula Bar
Repeat with the outer Series and you will see that Doughnut 4 is connected to the Cost Data and is series 4.
To determine which segment is which goto cell E17 and change the value from 1 to 2
So we understand that the series go from Value 1 to 4, Inner to Outer Doughnuts and that the segments go from value 1 to 12 clockwise, starting to the right of 12 O’Clock.
Finally select the Chart and make note of it’s name.
The Charts Name is shown in the Name Dialog above cell A1
Now for some VBA
Lets start by first manually recording a macro in VBA and we will then edit and add to the macro to get our final result
Start the macro Recorder by Pressing the Macro Button in the lower left corner of the Excel Window
Note the Macro Name, which is most likely Macro1 and press Ok
Now everything that you do is being recorded by the Visual Basic Editor (VBE)
Select the Outer Doughnut, then select Segment one, then Right Click on Segment one, Format Data Point
Select the Fill & Line menu
Set the Fill to a Solid Fill and Select a Color Red
You can now stop macro recording by pressing the Macro button again
Lets look at our code
To change to VBA press the Alt+F11 button
You should have a screen similar to this:
Take note of the above.
We can see that we have a Macro1 subroutine, located in Module 1 of our Excel file.
If you can’t see a Properties or Immediate window, don’t worry.
Looking at the VBA Code we can see
- That the chart is called Chart 1
- We selected Doughnut 4, the outer doughnut
- We selected the first segment in Doughnut 4
- We set the Fill Color of Segment 1 to Red = RGB(255, 0, 0)
So this little bit of code will form the basis of our macro
What we need to do next is to place that within 2 loops, one loop for the Doughnut and one loop for the Segment
So lets do that:
You can see above that we have initialised two variables Doughnut and Segment as Integers
We have setup two loops, one for the Doughnut which will loop from 1 to 4 and a second loop for the Segment, which will loop from 1 to 12.
We can now use these variables within the code to reference each Doughnut / Segment as relevent
The next thing is to add lines to lookup the value of the measure in the original data table.
We can use our variables to assist us with this:
I have added a new variable declaration myVal and declared it an Integer as it is only storing the values from, 0 to 3.
Then we retrieve the value from the data area by using a Range(“”).Offset(Row,Column) combination.
We know that the segment loops from 1 to 12 and this is the Row Offset in each Doughnut.
The Doughnut loops from 1 to 4 and this is the Column Offset from the cell A1
Next we need to allow for each fill color remembering that the data area has a legend
We could loop from a value of 0 to 3 and check the new variable myVal against each value and set the color.
But VBA has a Select Case function which is ideally suited to this task
A also took the opportunity to streamline the Chart selection process in the previous step
That allowed the use of the With Object construct, allowing the Select case to use the myVal to apply different colors to the fill property of each segment
At this stage we can run the code, by simply pressing F5 in VBA
We can change the code to allow it to update automatically when Data range changes
To do this we need to shift the code to a Sheet1 Code Module associated with Worksheet Sheet 1
Note above that the code is now located in a Private Sub Worksheet_Change event. This means that the code runs whenever worksheet1 chnages.
The next line If Intersect(ActiveCell, Range(“B2:E13”)) Is Nothing Or Target.Count > 1 Then Exit Sub
Checks whether the cell that changed was not part of our Data Area or that multiple cells were selected.
If either are are true the macro ends
Then finally I removed the MyVal calculation and made it part of the Select Case function.
because we aren’t using myVal I removed the Dim myVal statement
We can now also remove Module 1, right click on it and Remove Module.
Save the file and return to Excel with Alt+F11
You can now change any cells in the data area and the macro updates the chart accordingly
Can we tidy up the layout of the worksheet?
Although we now have a fully functional model, we are stuck with an ugly worksheet layout because our template of 1’s is being used to support the framework of the 4 Doughnuts in the chart.
What if there was another way to achieve that?
Well there is.
Firstly, we could simply shift the range A18:ER30 well away from the Chart and data area or even move it to another worksheet.
This will work, but risks a person adding data, rows or columns and messing up the layout
But there is a better way
I am going to add 4 Named Formula to the worksheet, one for each Doughnut
Goto the Formula, Name Manager Tab and add 4 Names as listed below:
_Safety =1+(ROW(OFFSET(Sheet1!$A$1,,,12,1))-1)*0
_Cost =_Safety
_Delivery =_Safety
_Quality =_Safety
The 4 Names now contain an array of 12 x 1 each with a value 1.
We can use that to link the Doughnuts to instead of the Physical Range
Right click on the chart and Select Data
Select each Doughnut in term and Edit
Change the Series Name to Row 1 and insert the Names into the Series values dialog.
Note that the formula must include the Worksheet name =Sheet1!_Safety etc
Repeat this for the 4 Series
You can now select the framework range: A18:E30 and press Delete
The chart remains intact and is now supported by the Named Formula
Change some values in the Data range at the top and the Chart updates as it should.
You can download the final version of the file here: Download Completed File
Final Thoughts
The technique applied to the doughnut chart above can fairly easily be modified to any chart type or in fact any other shapes.
Let me know what you think in the comments below:
ps: This has been one of my hardest posts to write, simply because Microsoft has misspelt Doughnut. In my native Australian English it is Donut.














































49 Responses to “Interactive Pivot Table Calendar & Chart in Excel!”
Excellent post again from awesome chandoo.org
This is one of the post to evident, without using macros we can create excellent charts using available excel options.
Slicer is one of the useful option in excel 2010 .. excited to see more options in excel 2013.
Regards,
Saran
http://www.lostinexcel.blogspot.com
Nice one chandoo............... great work done.....
Cool article. Only downside was that I didn't see at first that I needed 2010. Guess I still have to wait awhile before getting to try this out myself.
I consider myself an Excel expert, but you constantly amaze me with posts like this. Fantastic calendar!
Good post, like this little trick!!
How to not show the value in the cell
format the cell to custom with the below
;;;
Could you add lists of holidays to be transferred to the calendar days?
Two lists would be needed: 1) for the holidays that stay fixed (eg, CHristmas), and 2) for the holidays that move around (eg, Thanksgiving).
Such lists would be prepared externally, and the program would transfer their information to the appropriate days.
Wow! This is something amazing. I am going to do some practicals with this and show a sales trend on this. As we have our sales plans weekly basis, this should impress by boss when put in dashboard. Cool.
And thanks1
Chandoo you have a knack of getting on to these great looking very creative ideas!
One thing with calendars I have seen before is not catering for able to enter notes or appointments or project milestones. But with this one it's easy enough to add the extra lines as you have done for the chart concept and link to this other type of info.
For 2003 we could replace slicers with a validation style dropdown couldn't we?
Chandoo, you are awesome;) i was using calender to show my reports, but i had made all months and then underneith date shows the value, man its really awesome . i am going to use this format for my reports.. only draw back for me is i am using 2007. hence no slicer.. may be have to modify with out slicer.
Why not use =weeknum() for the weeknum column?
Great tricks! I love trying to reproduce the charts myself to get the hang of 'em. This one was great.
My only issue is getting the VBA in the year object to refresh the data. I used the VBA provided at the link, and, I can see it in the Macros tab, but, when I click the spinner the data does not update. Any tips?
Thx!
3G
^^Ignore this! NOT ENOUGH COFFEE YET.
I forgot about the "Assign Macro" option
:-s
Just started at chandoo - this is great!
I opted to use the formula =IF(F6>F5,G5,G5+1) for my weeknum - worked for me (I didn't get all the way through the example, since I'm running Excel 2007 - so don't know if that'll affect anything later in the example). I'm open to comments on this alternative approach.
Thanks for creating this website!
VC (Excel student).
Very cool - but now I'm even more excited for the new time controls for Excel 2013!
Great calendar...
I wonder whether we can make a school calendar (Class, subjects, teachers) using this calendar, assuming the weekly plan is duplicated across the year.
I would love to be a part of creating a class schedule...I'm attempting to help a friend (gratis) to do just that - can you point me in the right direction or provide a sample of sorts?
[...] Wow – what do you think of the interactive calendar chart demo above? To achieve this impressive effect you must have Excel 2010 because it utilises slicers, which is a feature introduced in Excel 2010. Find out how this treasure was created on Chandoo’s page. [...]
Hello Chandoo,
Great works! I learn a lot from this website. Here is the problem I met when I follow your tutorial: once I run and save this cool pivot calendar chart , the size of excel file will increase every time. Could you let me know how to figure it out? Thank you for your time in advance.
An excel chart-fan from China.
I already figured it out.
wow, love the calendar, i'm a newbie, found this site and it's amazing.
Got it mostly figured out, but could do with help with your named range 'tblchosen'
I can build the pivots, link the calendars together but can't see how to use index(tblchosen...) to pull through the productivity figures
appreciate any help
thanks
Great. Miss the Today button. Will try and figure a way to add this to the file.
I want to start the week on Monday, not Sunday (MTWTFSS). Re-arranging the calendar tab works however, any month where the 1st is a Sunday starts on the second and totally omits Sun 1. I have been tinkerign for a while, but can't seem to figure this out.
Changing F2 on the 'Calcs' tab to 2 so that the week starts on Monday works.
Cutting & pasting Sunday on the 'Pivot Calendar' tab and moving all cells up 1 row works.
However, using April 2013 for example, you lose the 1st off of the pivot calendar so that the month starts on 2 April. What should happen is the first row should only show Sun 1 April and then the next row starts Mon 2 April. Still can't fugure out where the problem lies.
"Further Enhancements:
Adjust week start to Monday: Likewise, you can modify your formulas to adjust weekstart to Monday or any other day you fancy."
I have tinkered with this previously with no success, does anyone know which formulas require tinkering, I have only succeeded in breaking this in an effort start a week on a Monday.
[...] Interactivo Artículo original var dd_offset_from_content = 50; var dd_top_offset_from_content = 0; Tags: 2013, calendario, [...]
Completely off topic, but how do you create those animated pictures in your tutorials? It is not a movie (like the Youtube movie), so what software do you use to create such high quality "animated" pictires? Thanks
Jeroen
the animated pics are called Animated Gifs
they are made using Camtasia
Refer: http://chandoo.org/wp/about/what-we-use/
This is fairly easy to do just using calendar formulas, which would be quicker, and doesn't need VBA? Am I missing something?
[...] on how to generate an interactive calendar using pivot tables. Please check out Chandoo’s Interactive Pivot Table Calendar & Chart in Excel before reading this, as I want to go through how I used his method to adapt a calendar which was [...]
Great tip shared by you... howevr would appreciate if you could mention in your tricks about excel version. The example above would work only in excel 2010 and above I believe. Please help me if there is any way we can use the tip in excel 2007 as well..
Many Thanks,
Regards,
FK
Hi, I'm going to give this a shot, but one small question before I do. Can a linked cell be updated based on the date that is selected from the calendar? The calendar is really cool and this would make is especially good to use (and easy and fast).
Regards,
swissfish.
This post is awesome, and using your instructions, I was able to get this to work with a pivot table that pulls directly from a Project Server database. It was a bit complicated to get the day to sum correctly, but I managed to finagle it. I hope you don't mind if I link back to you when I post my instructions.
Thanks for giving me a starting point for this!
[...] http://chandoo.org/wp/2012/09/12/interactive-pivot-calendar/ [...]
This is great, and pretty much everything I was looking for.
However, I already have a large spreadsheet, and I want to include your worksheets in it. I copied all the worksheets and the Module 1, but I can't get it to work. What else do I need to transfer / update please?
Hello there, is it possible to use this pivot to produce a calendar style chart, with returns multiple data per date, which on the calendar then, when clicked links to the data to provide more background information? What do you think? I'd love if I could pivot when i need. thanks, m
Hi, did you ever figure out how to do this? I would love to find a way...
This is amazing and will work well for my calendar project! My question is, how can I expand the calendar to fit a standard sheet of paper?
Wow - this is so creative. I'm taking the basic idea and building a reservation calendar.
Question: How do you get the month and year slicers on a different page than the pivot tables? I'd like to have my final calendar on a separate page from the pivot.
[…] http://chandoo.org/wp/2012/09/12/interactive-pivot-calendar/ […]
This is perfect...is there a way to add notes/tasks to the individual days?
Excel will not let me insert blank rows between lines in the pivot table. I am use Excel 2013 - is there a pivot table tools command that must be used?
I can create the pivot table calender with a year spinner & month slicer but I do not see how to display the the attendance information that I have in the original data table.
Thank you for the wonderful post and I am sorry for my lack of understanding...
Excellent!
Please show me how to add an alternative calendar to this calendar, Chinese or lunar calendar (and by lunar I don't mean phases of the moon), like what they still use in Asia
Thanks
Christopher
[…] Wow – what do you think of the interactive calendar chart demo above? To achieve this impressive effect you must have Excel 2010 because it utilises slicers, which is a feature introduced in Excel 2010. Find out how this treasure was created on Chandoo’s page. […]
Hello my name is Maurice, excuse me for my further request, but believe me, without your help priprio not know how to solve this problem.
So: always using a chart positioned on an excel sheet I wanted to match each square (series) to a single cell, to create a perpetual calendar.
Now everything works fine; except that for a fact, and it is this: In the calendar as you well know some numbers may not be apparent until certain conditions, which I solved by writing this "= O code (AA5 = DATE ( $ H $ 1; MONTH ($ AD $ 12) +1; 1)) and the game and done.
Now I would like to achieve the same thing using the Chart; How can I do to make this happen! let me also just a practical example so that I can understand all the rest then I'll do; Thanks Greetings from A.Maurizio
Link Program : Link: https://app.box.com/s/lhqva3eji0xcf2nmk8lxyki88tt1mi5t
Great info, thanks for sharing
Hi,
I love your calendar however I am modifying it for use in displaying employee performance metrics on a day by day basis.
I see where tblChosen and tblDates are named ranges however I cannot find them anywhere.
Are they assigned to specific cells because I cannot tell.
I see both of them in the Name Manager, which tells me what they refer to but does not give a value or cell location.
@Mike
With the Names in the Name Manager
Simply select the name
Then click in the Refers To: box at the Bottom
Excel will take you to where the Named Range is referring to
[…] Wow – what do you think of the interactive calendar chart demo above? To achieve this impressive effect you must have Excel 2010 because it utilises slicers, which is a feature introduced in Excel 2010. Find out how this treasure was created on Chandoo’s page. […]
Hi, Chandoo
This Pivot Calendar is an excellent idea. I’ve done one for myself using your guidelines. I just need something I’m not being able to do. I need that when I open the file the default date is set to today’s date. I know how to do it with conditional formatting. But I think I’ll need some vba coding for this. Can you please help me with this. Thanks in advance