Bullet graphs provide an effective way to dashboard target vs. actual performance data, the bread and butter of corporate analytics.
Howmuchever effective they are, the sad truth is there is no one easy way to do them in excel. I have prepared a short tutorial that can make you a dashboard ninja without writing extensive formulas or installing unknown add-ins. So get out your shinobigatana and join me in a fresh excel sheet arena.
Before we create our first bullet graph, let us spend a few moments understanding these graphs. Stephen Few proposed bullet graphs as way to provide crisp view of “target vs. actual performance” numbers. Shown below is a sample bullet graph and how you would read it.
Read up more on this at PTS blog and on a Gauge chart that actually works.
Let us create your first bullet graph
Click here to download bullet-graph template excel sheet so that you can see while reading
Our technique of involves conditional formatting and simple formulas applied to a cell grid. Just follow these 4 easy steps:
Step 1: Prepare your data for charting
Since we are going to plot bullet graphs on a cell grid, we first need to normalize our data. I have chosen to plot each bullet graph on 20 cells in a row as shown in the raw grid shown to the right:
Assuming we have fictitious sales data like this:
You can normalize YTD sales figures using a simple formula like this : ROUND(YTD-sales/target*20,0)
Now that we have our data steaming hot, lets brew the graphs
Step 2: Lets make the raw grid formatted based on data
Now we will take the raw 20 cell grid in each row and conditionally format these cells so that we have background of the bullet graph drawn on them.
For eg. If the normalized sales data for Bad range is 7 and for OK Range is 15 then,
We will highlight first 7 cells lighter shade of gray, next 8 cells gray and last 5 cells with darker shade of gray.
I have shown the conditional formatting applied to these cells below:
When we are done, a sample row looks like this:
We have our cell grids ready now, lets shoot some bullets. 🙂
Step 3: Plot bullets on our graph canvas
Our final step involves print a bullet symbol (either – or + or | ) in each cell depending on one of the following conditions:
1. If the cell position (1,2,3 … 20) is equal to Year ago value and cell position is less than YTD value print a + symbol
2. If the cell position is equal to Year ago value and cell position is more than YTD value print a | symbol
3. If the cell position is less than YTD value print a –
4. Else print a blank
See the formula below:
Download the excel template for bullet graphs to understand this formula better
Step 4: Show off your bullet graphs, awe your boss or colleagues, bask in your Ninja glory
Unfortunately, I cannot tell you how to do this. I can only teach you to be a Ninja, but you have to be one to charm people with your tactics. 🙂
Shown below is another variation you can try. Also, you can experiment with the symbols printed (instead of + – | you can try other ASCII characters, for more download the excel sheet containing bullet graph templates)
Also try: Partition charts, Incell Graphs and much more.
54 Responses
Hi Chandoo,
This is awesome *****
Found 6, just one remaining, and I think it should be in sheet2, as I found 1 in each sheet but didn’t found anything in sheet2 (till yet, I am keep looking).
Very cleaver and amazing work, enjoyed a lot…
Thanks Chandoo for this beautiful work.
Wish you have great time at Hyderabad.
Regards,
Khalid
go to AB201 on Sheet2, you will see Panda there !!!
Press F2 in Cell A1 and then read the actual text !!
In Sheet 2 go to Cell AB201. You will find one.
There is one on first sheet, if you press F5 (goto), the word PANDA can be seen there.
Oh I found the last one, (custom format hmm)
Truly Amazing and the beauty of this forum.
You are an Artist Chandoo.
Hi Chandoo,
Wow, you really have magical skills. I am in office and this sheet ate up an hour of my time….didn’t expect that.
I could find 5 of the 7 pandas. Didn’t know one could hide so much data in innocent looking excel sheets.
Thanks!
-Ranjith
yeah! found all 7 panda, time to go to china.
This was very fun and challenging, thanks for posting! I found all of them (well, Sheet1 was tricky, it seems you’re supposed to find the cell and type it in yourself?). Wasn’t sure if it was cool to post the answers here or not, though. Guess I’ll post SPOILER ALERTS so you can skip the rest of the message if you don’t want to see what I came up with.
SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!
My answers appear below.
Sheet1: type PANDA in cell PAN3489
Sheet2: cell AB201
Sheet3: cell J8 (Picture1)
Sheet4: cell H9
Sheet5: expand Chart1
Sheet6: formula = “=MID(ADDRESS(9,2^3*23*59,4),1,3)&BIN2HEX(11011010)”
Sheet7: named range (A1:I18)
Wookie – I would love to get a walkthrough of HOW you figured out sheet 1 and a bit of a formula walkthrough for Sheet 6.
Basically, I don’t know how I could have found that particular cell input message on Sheet 1.
And I have no clue about the BIN2HEX part of the formula…before your hint I was able to get the output to read AN9DA. The change to MID and the addition of that ‘,1’ changed it to PANDA…
Hi Rachel,
To get to the cell in sheet 1 you can press: ctrl G. Then special and then data validation: all. This is also the way to find panda in sheet 7 😉
I agree, this was a fun way to test your ability to navigate through the functionality of Excel! And since you already posted the SPOILER ALERT warning, I should be safe posting a reply to your comment with some solutions of my own… 🙂
I found all the same solutions you did with a few minor changes:
Sheet1: If you notice, cell PAN3489 has Custom formatting. You don’t have to type “PANDA”, just the number 1.
Sheet6: The MID function works as you described, but you can also simply change the RIGHT function to the LEFT function without having to add in the start and end positions for MID.
Sheet7: Yes, the range name for these cells is called PANDA, but you don’t see the actual word in the sheet unless you change the Zoom setting to 39% or less (hence the clue “Z” 39%).
Thanks again for a great post, Chandoo!!
I must admit sheet 7 defeated me, but I have some corrections
Sheet 1 – you type =LEFT(ADDRESS(ROW(),COLUMN(),2),3)&DEC2HEX(ROW())
in PAN3489 to get “PANDA1”. As it is the first panda. I think panda1 is appropriate, but maybe
=LEFT(ADDRESS(ROW(),COLUMN(),2),3)&LEFT(DEC2HEX(ROW()),2)
is better, because it leaves you with “PANDA”
Sheet 6 – I corrected to
=LEFT(ADDRESS(9,2^3*23*59,4),3)&BIN2HEX(11011010)
Picky I know, but who uses mid when a right or a left will do?
I know; that was weird. I did try using a LEFT formula, but I kept getting the $ prefix from the cell address. So I tried a couple of variations using MID and it gave me the result I needed. This is actually the first time I’ve ever tried using a MID formula starting at the first character, but I wasn’t trying to spend a lot of time on it, so I went with what worked.
Sheet1: Type 1 in PAN3489
Sheet6: =LEFT(ADDRESS(9,2^3*23*59,4),3)&BIN2HEX(11011010)
Slight change…
For sheet 1 goto PAN3489 and type in 1. The word PANDA appears.
Love it!
Sheet 6 was my favorite. How many people still know what binary, hex and octal are? :o)
—–Spoilers———
Alternate Solutions
1) Type “1” (not the quotes) in PAN3489 and Excel will turn “1” into “PANDA”
6) The formula Wookie lists also works with LEFT in place of MID
Lot of fun. Solve time ~20 mins.
@ Rob
How this 1 turns to PANDA .. means How this is done by excel any formula or something in VBA
Also how to reach cell PAN3489 .. there are no clues given on sheet 1
You reach PAN3489 by pressing Ctrl + End to bring you to the last used cell in Sheet 1
@ Navdeep I found PAN3489 by going to “Formulas” and then “Name Manager” and saw there was a field called “Clue1” listed in the Name Manger that references 3489. Finding PAN as the column index was just a bit of a lucky guess through trial and error. Then a note in cell PAN3489 when you navigate there says to try “typing something.” I tried scrolling through the Format Cells menu to see if the text typed in the cell needed to be formatted a certain way, and noticed that “1= Panda” was listed in the custom text menu and tried it. A bit brute force, but I think the desired text entry.
Clever!
The Data Validation one took me a bit. Had to resort to brute force.
Thanks for the fun!
Awesome! Found 7 pandas in 20 minutes)))
Sheets 1 and 6 were the best!
Thanks!
Sheet 1: The answer is not type in Panda. Type 1. There’s a special formatting that replaces 1 with Panda.
Sheet 6: Just replace right with left, don’t worry about changing the numbers.
Sheet 7: I found the named range, but don’t know what the Z 39% means. Thoughts?
when you changed the zoom level to 39% or below, you will see the name of namedrange (if any)
WOW! I’ve just found the secret eighth PANDA!
Truly awesome!!!
Am I the first one who figured that out, guys?
Btw, thanks for the puzzle!
Found them all – very inventive. Had to think outside the “box”. Great fun!
It was truly a artists work
chandoo you are grate
all sheets are deigned different from each other
@Wookiee: you have a good for others by posting the answers, Thank you too
it is fun and great invent
Guys I Got 8 PANDA in the workbook… 🙂
[Look Chandoo has against played great trick by reserving one more ester egg, but we are also fan of none other than Chandoo, who can get hold of hidden 8th (untold) ester egg]
Here is the full list:
1) Sheet1: Type 1 in Cell PAN3489
2) Sheet2: Goto Cell AB201
3) Sheet3: Check the picture located above cell J8
4) Sheet4: Goto Cell H8
5) Sheet5: Cells, viz., A4, A10, A16, A21, A29 have all alphabets of PANDA
6) Sheet5: Resize the chart to see PANDA
7) Sheet6: Correct the formula as LEFT(ADDRESS(9,2^3*23*59,4),3)&BIN2HEX(11011010)
8) Sheet7: Range A1:I18 is named as PANDA
1) Sheet1: Type 1 in Cell PAN3489
2) Sheet2: Goto Cell AB201
3) Sheet3: Check the picture in the cell J8
4) Sheet4: Goto Cell H9
5) Sheet5: Resize the chart to see PANDA
6) Sheet6: Correct the formula as LEFT(ADDRESS(9,2^3*23*59,4),3)&BIN2HEX(11011010)
7) Sheet7: Range A1:I18 is named as PANDA
Actually, for sheet7, if you set the zoom to 39% or less, you will see the word PANDA. Yet another PANDA! 🙂
Hi,
i want to know how to manage bill wise manage vendor invoice and payment in excel please suggest.
Thanks,
Ram
Hi Chandoo!
You rock with these amazing skills!
Sheet 1: ??
Sheet 2: ??
Sheet 3: Cell J8
Sheet 4: Cell H9
Sheet 5: A4, A10, A16, A21, A29
Sheet 6: B2
Sheet 7: ???
Sheet1 F5
Sheet2 AB201
Sheet3 Picture1
Sheet4 H9
Sheet5 Chart
Sheet7 Zoom to 30%
I love this time of year and look forward to Chandoo’s egg hunts. Whilst I got all the pandas, I do not understand how sheet 7 works; Where is the source data and why does it only work when zoomed out to 39% or more?
@Leon-K
When you change the zoom level to be less than 40% Excel shows the Ranges which have Names applied to them
Ha ha, that’s fantastic. Thanks Hui. @Chandoo, thanks for yet another method to decrypt worksheets in order to re-build or explain them better to clients.
These were fantastic and kept me intrigued until I could finish them. (Had to look here for help with Sheet1!) Definitely learning a lot about some new formulas. Awesome, Chandoo!
Ok, just saw the notes on the Zoom 39% on Sheet 7. Can someone explain what’s happening here and why PANDA shows up at that level?
@Bryan
When you change the zoom level to be less than 40% Excel shows the Ranges which have Names applied to them
Wow, great exercise.
Tried and solved 5 out of seven and other two solved incorrectly (1 & 6).
Thanks 🙂
Hi Chandoo,
Gr8 …had fun in searching it. I got 5 out of 7.
You are brilliant.
Found all except in sheet6 as not able to understand formula.
thanks
Raja Aurongzeb
Hi,
I am not able to find 1st Panda, which is on Sheet1. Rest all I have found.
Wonderful Chandooji… you are brilliant.
Wow.. Awesome set of puzzles Chandoo!!
Am now trying to figure out how sheet 7 was prepared.. 39% Zoom setting logic.. Can someone help me with a hint?
Thanks!
Looks like this is an XL feature.. Zooming out the worksheets below 40% level, by default displays all named ranges (more than 2 cells)! Had not come across this till date..
Great works! Was having FUN in finding the pandas. Thanks.
btw, I used one basic function (Find, CTRL+F) to find 2 pandas. Simply Find “Panda” within “Workbook”… To my surprise, seems no one mentioned that in the process.
On other other hand, Selection and Visibility Pane is a handy tool to see if there is “extra” shapes for locating pandas hidden in chart/picture.
Had fun doing this, Found 5 and the rest I saw clues on here 🙂
I really enjoyed when finding the pandas.And also I am so surprised.Very Nice thought and Excellent.
This was fun! Thanks!
Nice and fun post. Thanks, Chandoo!