Ever wanted to make a cool, snazzy interactive chart in Excel? Something like this:
In this tutorial, learn all about making your very first interactive chart.
Click here to download the workbook with chart template and all the formulas. Refer to it while reading the article.
Interactive chart in Excel – Tutorial
There are several ways to make an interactive chart in Excel. You can use data validation, form controls, slicers, timelines, VBA or hyperlinks. In this tutorial, learn how to make an interactive chart with data validation and slicers. For other techniques, refer to resources section of this post.
Interactive chart with Data Validation
Let’s say you are the product manager at Billette consumer care. You are looking at historical order quantity data for various products. Your data looks like below:
Making one chart with all of this is going to be very busy and hard to read. You want to make a dynamic or interactive chart so your boss can choose which product she wants to analyze and understand the order trend.
Step 1: Make a list of all choices
Select all the product names and go to Namebox (top left corner) and type a name like products.- Alternatively, you can also list the product names in a separate range and give that a name.
Let’s say we have the products in the products name.
Step 2: Set up selection mechanism
- Decide which cell will have the user selection. Let’s say this is Q5. Select the cell and go to Data > Data Validation.
- Change validation criteria to Allow > List.
- Type products in the Source. Click ok.
Now, we have way to select product in the cell Q5.
Related: Excel basics – How to setup in-cell drop downs in Excel.
Step 3: Find out which product is selected
If we want the name of the product selected, we can simply use =Q5. For the rest of calculations, we need the number of the product (ie what is the position of the selected product in products). For this, we can use MATCH formula, like below.
Type this MATCH formula in an empty cell like I3.
=MATCH(Q5, products, 0)
This will return a number, matching the product user has picked.
Step 4: Calculating order quantity to show in the chart
Now, assume we have the number of product selected in cell I3. Given this, we can calculate picked product’s quantity using a simple INDEX formula:
=INDEX(data1[@[Soap]:[Deodorant]],$I$3)
If your data is in a normal range, rather than a table, use a formula like this:
=INDEX(C6:H6,$I$3)
Fill down the formula.
Now that we have calculated product quantity values for selected product, if you change I3, you will see values for the relevant product.
Step 5: Create the chart
Now that all the background work is done, let’s insert a chart.
Simply select picked product column and insert a column or line chart. We get this:
First, let’s add axis labels. Right click on the chart and go to select data. Edit horizontal / category labels and select the month column.
Now, remove chart title and chart border (set it to no line). We end up with something like this:
Step 6: Bring everything together
Are you ready for the chart? We are almost done. We just need to bring everything together and our first interactive chart will be kicking and beating.
- Position the chart under cell Q5 (the data validation selection cell)
- Go to Insert > Shapes > Rounded Rectangle and draw a nice big rectangle around the chart and Q5.
- Remove fill color from the shape and adjust the line.
- Now, when you pick a new product from Q5, your chart will update.
Interactive chart with Pivot Table and Slicer
If you are too shy to INDEX + MATCH on weekdays, you can try the Pivot Table approach. This works very well and let’s you make equally amazing interactive charts. See below quick demo.
Keep in mind that your data needs to get fit. Rearrange so it looks like this. If you need help, read: Unpivot data quickly with Power Query.
Step 1: Insert a pivot from your data
Select your data (month, product and quantity columns) and insert a pivot table.
- Add Month to row labels area. In newer versions of Excel, this will create date hierarchy – Year, Quarter and Month. If so, drop Quarter.
- Add Quantity to values area.
- Right click on Product and add it as a slicer.
Related: Introduction to Excel Pivot Tables
Step 2: Insert a pivot chart
Select any cell inside the pivot and go to Analyze ribbon > Pivot chart. Select either a line or column chart.
We get this:
In newer versions of Excel, you can insert a pivot chart directly from data. But I find the pivot table first approach better as you can adjust items you want before charting.
Step 3: Format the pivot chart
- Select the pivot chart and go to Analyze ribbon and turn off Field Buttons.
- Replace chart title with “Total Order Quantity in last 13 months” or something like that.
- Set chart border to No line.
- Position the slicer adjacent to the chart.
- Draw a rounded rectangle around the thing
- Our interactive chart is ready for play.
Optional makeup hints:
If you want more bang for your chart,
- Add a sub-title describing the trend. Refer to download example file for inspiration. Read: Give descriptive titles to your charts
- Set limits on the vertical axis. By default Excel will change Y axis limits whenever your pick a product. This can create some distortion of the numbers and confuse your users if they want to compare products. You can format the axis and set limits. Select the axis, press CTRL+1 and set minimum to 0 and maximum to highest possible value (rounded of course). For our example, this could be 2000. This way, only bar heights change, not the axis.
- Adjust gap width. Excel would pick some ridiculous value like 219%. Adjust this to 100% or something like that for less white space on the chart. To do this, click on the columns, press CTRL+1 and from Series options adjust the gap width.
Create your first interactive chart in Excel – Video tutorial
Check out below video tutorial to understand all these steps in detail. Make sure you practice by downloading the example workbook. Watch it below or on our YouTube channel.
Download Excel Interactive Chart workbook
Please click here to download interactive chart workbook. Play with charts and examine formulas to learn more.
Want more interactive charts?
Check out below examples to see what else is possible.
- Target vs. Actual – Biker on a hill chart
- Then vs. Now chart in Excel
- How tax burden has changed over time – Interactive chart in Excel
What is your favorite way to make interactive / dynamic charts in Excel?
I used to make charts with formulas all the time. But now a days, I prefer making them with pivot table + slicer route if possible. This reduces the amount of formula work needed and still gives awesome results.
What about you? What is your favorite technique for creating interactive charts? Please share in the comments section.
28 Responses to “2010 Calendar – Excel Template [Downloads]”
[...] Download and print the calendars today. You can add notes to individual dates or complete … [...] Uni Ego / Free 2010 Calendar – Download and Print Year 2010 Calendar today [...]
Any chance on a 2016 calendar?
Afternoon,
I have one similar calander that I added conditional formatting to so that I could highlight any planned factory holidays. I think i "borrowed" the formula from another calander so I won't post it here.
I also added week numbers to it using the formula =WEEKNUM(MAX(C6:I6)) Where C6:I6 is the range of dates in that give week. It works fine on most of the months but return strange values on other months (Week 6 in October?) I can't see any logic behind why it does this.
Any suggestions for an alternative formula to give the week numbers?
Regards,
William
Hi Chandoo,
I've added a new feature on your spreadsheet.
This control can be useful for all the sheets where you need to check dates.
Cheers
http://cid-69a78592a23a8438.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/2010-calendar%5E_Miguel.xls
Hi Chandoo,
Nice calendar.
Till now whichever calendar I saw in Excel, it contained only the outline sheet.
Good to see monthly views and the mini view too.
Liked the mini view much. 🙂
-Nimesh
@William: This weeknum may be because the input dates to max are not properly formatting as excel dates.
Good tip on the conditional formatting and holidays btw...
@Migueal: Now that is super awesome. This is the reason why I love to blog. Readers will always one up me with such cool alternatives. Thank you for sharing this with us.
@Nimesh: You are welcome 🙂
is it possible to get the Notes section on the outline page to display the notes added to the month page for a specific date?
So if you add thing for January 2nd, and then select January 2nd those notes appear on the outline page
@Shish... You can do that using some formula magic. I would not recommend pushing excel to that as outlook / google calendar / icalc etc. do exactly that much more elegantly.
[...] Perpetual Excel Calendar – Free Downloadable Template [...]
Happy christmas to all of you!
This is really awesome. The nicest calender I've seen for Excel. I also like Miguels version of the sheet.
Just one "feature" is missing to me. As I live in Germany - where weeks start on Monday - I'd like to change this. Could someone please give me a hint how to do this?
Thanks in advance
Jörg
Hi Chandoo, I’ve added some new features on your spreadsheet with your permission.
Check it here:
http://cid-6b219f16da7128e3.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/Calendar%5E_Pedro.xlsm
Miguel, this calendar is translated to Spanish language.
Jörg, this new approach allows us to start weeks on Monday.
Also it's possible to start weeks on Sunday if you enable Excel macros and push the arrows.
Best Regards,
Pedro.
@Pedro.. superb stuff.. thanks for sharing the file with all of us.
Hi Chandoo, for dates before March 1, 1900 our calendars are wrong.
In Microsoft Excel, DATE, EOMONTH, WEEKDAY functions return an incorrect result between Monday, January 1, 1900 and Wednesday, February 28, 1900.
See this page: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/214326/en-us/
Microsoft Excel incorrectly assumes that the year 1900 is a leap year in all Excel versions.
That's the reason why our calendar versions only work from March, 1, 1900 until December, 31, 9999.
Your comments are welcome.
Pedro.
@Pedro.. Thanks for pointing that out. wow... This reminds me of the Joel Spolsky's first BillG review - http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/06/16.html (read it, I am sure you would love it.) when Bill out of blue asks about date time implementations for VBA (which Joel is the program manager for...)
Thanks for sharing the URL too... Here is a specially made, chocolate sprinkled, extra fluffy donut for you 🙂
Hi Chandoo, thanks a lot for the donut but I prefer it without chocolate!
Always it's good to know a little history of Excel.
The Joel Spolsky’s last BillG Excel review was about the "Hall of Tortured Souls"
(See this Excel 95 Easter Egg here: http://www.eeggs.com/items/719.html)
Do not miss the humor!
@Chandoo.. I just return with a new calendar version.
http://cid-6b219f16da7128e3.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/calendar-pedrowave.xltx
It helped me to practice conditional formatting, formulas to show check boxes, data validation drop down list, find out Thanksgiving Day's date for any year, how to find dates of public holidays using Excel, all reading your wonderful posts!
Perpetual Calendar Spanish version starting weeks on Monday:
http://cid-6b219f16da7128e3.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/calendario-pedrowave.xltx
Main characteristics:
- Not macros.
- Select a year from 1900 to 9999 with a dropdown listbox.
- All date fields with the real date format.
- Easy language change of day of the week and month names because are also dates.
- Hide Saturdays and/or Sundays.
- Week starting on Sunday or Monday.
- Week and month numbers.
- Hyperlink between sheets.
- Consistent colors to Holidays, Diary and Events dates.
- Easy change of Holidays by country.
- Include 80 World Days and you can add more.
- A diary with my birthday and 50 more programable appointments.
- Check box to hide individual dates or all.
- Holidays, diary and events text are showed on each month's sheet.
- Ranges defined with Name Manager variables.
I'll appreciate if you make me some suggestions to improve this calendar.
Pedro.
Please, I need help!
I like all calendar from Pedro, thank you for them. Let me show my problem:
I have 2 excel cells (for example AE12 and AE13) which mean the starting and the ending date of my duty. I need a macro to insert sheets with label YEAR. MONTH (for example 2010. August or similar) with the proper datas between the two dates. Is it possible?
Thank you for reading me and sorry about my terribel english! 🙂
Hello Pedro,
Thanks so much for the modified calendar template. I love the extra functionality you added. Is there any way you could upload an unlocked version? I wanted to change some of the comments and data validation so I could use it for one of my applications.
As for feedback on potential improvements, with all the additions you made the file runs pretty slow. I'm sure this has to do with all the interconnectivity between the various tabs, but if there is a way to use less memory via more efficient formulas or something else I think this would make it easier to use. I have a brand new computer and with it running alone the response was pretty slow. One of the changes I'm making is changing the order of the months to match my company's fiscal year, so maybe something to automate a change like that could be useful.
Cheers,
Peter
Peter, my calendars are unlocked but you need Excel 2007 and 2010 versions to open them.
Now I return with a new Programmable Task Calendar:
http://cid-6b219f16da7128e3.office.live.com/view.aspx/.Public/Calendario%20de%20Tareas.xlsx
Wath an introductory video here:
http://pedrowave.blogspot.com/2010/10/programmable-task-calendar.html
This new calendar allows to select the start month to match the school and fiscal year.
This is great stuff Chandoo and company
Wanted to know if someone had built something similar
I need to store one Excel Sheet on this calendar that has all the holidays
US Holidays appear in RED
UK Holidays appear in Blue
Meetings appear in Green
Submissions appear in Orange
Is there a way I can store the list in a separate worksheet and all the calendars get updated with this?
Thanks
[...] Calendars: Year 2010 Excel Calendar | Year 2009 Excel [...]
please tell me "how to convert Rs.10000/- in to words through excel formula
[...] is all! http://chandoo.org/wp/2009/12/11/2010-calendar-excel-template-downloads/ See more Templates at http://www.vertex42.com/ Share this:Like this:LikeBe the first to like this [...]
Greetings,
Thanks for this wonderful excel vacation tracker. I notice that the tracker only has three months November, December and January 2015, however, I would like to add the other ten months for 2014. Can you please instruct me on how I can add the other months?
Thanking you in advance.
Hi Chandoo,
Calendar: can this be printed as single sheet 8.5x11 inch per month
kanu
@Kanu
Yes,
You can resize it to fit
WOW! I just searching some of like this, that help me.
Thank you for sharing.