How to cook a delicious dynamic chart that will have your boss drool

Dynamic charts are like my favorite food, Mangoes. They tempt, tease and taste awesomely. In this post, we are going to learn how to create a dynamic chart using check boxes and formulas. Are you ready for some excel chart cooking?

What our mouth-watering chart will look like when its done:

Ingredients:

Some data, Few check-boxes, IF formula and a dash of espresso

Instructions for preparation:

1. First get your data. Make sure its clean and arranged neatly, like below, in the range B4:E11.
   
2. Since our data has 3 series (sales, profits and number of customers), we will take 3 check boxes and place them somewhere on our worksheet.
   Insert check boxes from developer ribbon / forms tool bar (tip: show developer ribbon in excel 2007)
   
3. Now, we want the check boxes to tell whether to show or hide a particular series of data in the chart. So, link each check box to one cell, say C13, D13 and E13.
   
4. We will use IF formula to roast our data based on what the check boxes say. So, create a similar table and load it with IF formulas like this:
   =IF(C$13,C4,NA())
   
5. Finally, make a chart with the data in this new table you created.
6. Put everything together and neatly arrange with your favorite colors and labels.
7. Serve hot and see your boss drool.

Download the prepared chart:

You can download FREE dynamic chart template and serve it instantly.

More recipes on dynamic charts:

• Select & show one chart from many
• Make a chart that grows as you add data
• Dynamically group related events in a chart
• More Dynamic Charts

Do you use dynamic charts?

I like dynamic charts a lot. They provide a wealth of information in a compact form. I use them whenever possible, especially in dashboards and analytical outputs.

What about you? Do you use dynamic charts often? What techniques do you use when implementing dynamic charts? Share your experience and tips using comments.