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All articles with 'thermometer charts' Tag

6 Best charts to show % progress against goal

Published on May 8, 2020 in Charts and Graphs, Learn Excel
6 Best charts to show % progress against goal

Back when I was working as a project lead, everyday my project manager would ask me the same question.

“Chandoo, whats the progress?”

He was so punctual about it, even on days when our coffee machine wasn’t working.

As you can see, tracking progress is an obsession we all have. At this very moment, if you pay close attention, you can hear mouse clicks of thousands of analysts and managers all over the world making project progress charts.

So today, lets talk about best charts to show % progress against a goal.

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Road Trip Planner Template [Excel Downloads]

Published on Feb 1, 2017 in Learn Excel
Road Trip Planner Template [Excel Downloads]

We recently went on a road trip around parts of New Zealand’s north island. We have been to Taupo, Rotorua, East Cape and Napier. It took us 2 weeks, we drove more than 2,000 km and spent almost NZ $3,000 on the trip. Of course, being a data nerd, I made a plan of the trip in Excel and that helped us budget for this.

After getting back to home, I thought it would be fun to polish the planner workbook and share it with you all so you too can plan a fabulous road trip. So here we go.

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Stacked Bar/Column Chart with Indicator Arrows – Advanced

Published on Sep 15, 2016 in Charts and Graphs, Excel Howtos, Huis, Posts by Hui
Stacked Bar/Column Chart with Indicator Arrows – Advanced

Lets take last weeks Stacked Bar/Column Chart and add some high-performance steroids.

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I won’t eat donut with a thread inside, but lets make one anyway!

Published on Feb 20, 2014 in Charts and Graphs
I won’t eat donut with a thread inside, but lets make one anyway!

Today lets take a stroll outside what Excel can do and make something fancy, fun and may be useful.

Nowadays, many newspapers, websites and magazines are featuring info-graphics. An info-graphic is a collection of shiny, colorful & data-full charts (or often pieces of text.) In many of these info-graphics, you can see threaded-donut charts. Not sure what that is..? It is not same as the blasphemy of spoiling a soft, sweet, supple donut with a piece of string. No one should be excused for an offense like that.

What I am talking about is shown above

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Thank you Sachin [a small tribute]

Lets talk about people who inspire us. People who show us that anything is possible. People who prove that commitment, hard work and perseverance are true ingredients of a genius.

I am talking about Sachin Tendulkar. Those of you who never heard his name, he is the most prolific cricketer in the world. He is the leading scorer in both tests (15,921 runs) and one day matches (18,426 runs). Read more about him here.

Tendulkar has been an inspiration for me (and millions of others around the world) since I was a kid. The amount of dedication & excellence he has shown constantly motivates me. It is a pity that the great man is retiring from test cricket. He is playing his last test match (200th, most by any person) as I am writing this.

So as a small tribute, I have decided do something for him. Of course, I have never been a cricketer in my life. Once in college I was reluctantly asked to be a stand-by player in a game with seniors. I did not get a chance to pad up though. That is the closest I have been to a cricketer. So I did what I do best. Create an Excel workbook celebrating Sachin’s test career.

Thank you Sachin – his test career in a dashboard

Here is a dashboard I made visualizing his test cricket statistics. It is dynamic, fun & awesome (just like Sachin).

(click on the image to enlarge)

Sachin Tendular 200 Tests - Visualized in an Excel Dashboard

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To-do List with Priorities using Excel

Published on Jan 7, 2013 in Excel Howtos, Templates
To-do List with Priorities using Excel

A while ago, we published a new year resolution template. This was a hit with our reader with thousands of you downloading it. During last week, Peppe, one of our readers from Italy, took this template and made it even more awesome.

The original template had tasks and completion check mark. As you finish each task, you can see the progress bar moving.

Peppe added priorities to this. With his new version, progress is measured based on how much priority we assigned that particular task. Pretty neat eh?!?

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Thermo-meter chart with Marker for Last Year Value

Published on Jun 11, 2012 in Charts and Graphs, Excel Howtos
Thermo-meter chart with Marker for Last Year Value

During a recent training program, one of the students asked,

Thermo-meter chart is very good to show how actual value compares with target (or budget). But how can we add another point for say Last Year value to the chart with out cluttering it.

Something like above.

Sounds interesting? Read on

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How to make a 5 Star Chart (Similar to Amazon)

How to make a 5 Star Chart (Similar to Amazon)

How to make a 5 Star Chart (Similar to Amazon)

Last week Chandoo presented Give more details by showing average and distribution

At the top of the post was a small screen capture from Amazon.com showing a 5 Star chart showing that Twilight had a 3.5 Star Rating (way over-rated if you ask me).

I received an email shortly afterwards from Rajiv, “How can I make one of those charts ? ” with the Stars Circled

It’s actually very simple and this post will show you how.

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New Features in Excel 2010 Conditional Formatting

Published on May 19, 2010 in Charts and Graphs, Learn Excel

Conditional formatting is one of favorite features in Excel. CF has helped me save the day at work more than a dozen occasions. I almost became project manager just because I knew how to make a gantt chart in excel using conditional formatting. I have written extensively about it.

So, I was naturally curious to explore what is new in Excel 2010’s Conditional Formatting. In this post, I will share some of the coolest improvements in CF.

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Annual Goals Tracker Sheet [awesome ways to use excel]

Published on Mar 1, 2010 in Charts and Graphs, excel apps
Annual Goals Tracker Sheet [awesome ways to use excel]

Marko, who is a long time PHD reader and an excel ninja sent this via email, I work at an insurance company in Slovenia. At the beginning of each year we have a conversation with our superiors to review our work in the past year and to set new goals (main activities) that we’re gonna […]

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A New Year Resolutions Template that Kicks Ass

Published on Jan 7, 2010 in Charts and Graphs, excel apps
A New Year Resolutions Template that Kicks Ass

Jennie, a sweet and ambitious lady set out to do 101 things in the next 1001 days. She took the inspiration from Day Zero Project. Not stopping there, she prepared a cute little excel sheet to keep track of all these new year resolutions and sent it to me.

I think this is a swell excel template if you want to keep track of your goals or new year resolutions or just manage a list.

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Best Charts to Compare Actual Values with Targets – What is your take?

Published on Dec 18, 2009 in Charts and Graphs, Featured
Best Charts to Compare Actual Values with Targets – What is your take?

Comparing values is one of the main reasons we make charts. Yesterday we have a post on using thermometer charts to quickly compare actual values with targets. Today we follow up the post with 10 charting ideas you can use to compare actual values with targets. Check out how bullet charts, thermometer charts, traffic lights, gauges, column charts, area charts can help you compare targets with actual performances. A review of best charting options when you need to compare.

Read the rest of the post to see the options and participate in poll.

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Make a Quick Thermometer Chart to Compare Targets and Actuals

Published on Dec 17, 2009 in Charts and Graphs
Make a Quick Thermometer Chart to Compare Targets and Actuals

Comparing values is one of the reasons why we make charts. So today I am going to teach you a handy little trick to make a thermometer like chart to compare targets with actuals. This type of chart is very useful when you have a bunch of sales targets and you want to measure how the performance has been.

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Project Management Dashboard / Project Status Report using Excel [Part 6 of 6]

Published on Oct 6, 2009 in Charts and Graphs, Featured, Learn Excel
Project Management Dashboard / Project Status Report using Excel [Part 6 of 6]

Project management dashboards, project status reports help stakeholders, project sponsors and team-members can understand project status very quickly. In the last installment of project management using excel, learn how to make project management dashboard using excel in this tutorial. Also download the excel project status dashboard template.

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