Jeff Weir, an alert reader of our blog points me this chart showcasing voice-over artist’s for various Simpson’s characters. I am a hard-core Simpon’s fan, so I naturally wasted 10 minutes looking at the chart. That is when I realize this chart is not only fun, it also teaches 5 valuable lessons on making better charts.
One fun chart
[view high res | original credit]
5 Rules for Making Better Charts
- Make it personal: I immediately looked up my favorite characters when I saw this chart. I am sure that is what many of you would do too. Charts / Slides that poke curiosity thru personal connections are memorable.
- Keep it simple: I am sure one of the new social media info-graphics wiz-bang would have made a whole poster out of this little data, but not this chart maker. Whoever made this chart chose a simple medium (bar chart) to show the characters and voice-over artists. And it works. Whenever you are tempted to use a complex chart, think for a minute if a simpler, familiar alternative is available and use it. KISS always works.
- Sort it: The chart is sorted by number of characters by artist. Sorting makes it easy to compare and view. You should always consider sorting your data in meaningful order.
- Use colors that connect: This chart uses bright yellow color, almost the same as the skin color of Simpson’s characters. It connects well with the audience. You should try to use colors that evoke emotional responses from your audience, whenever possible.(tip: using color in charts)
- Make it easy to compare: One comparison you can immediately draw is that male artists (Hank, Harry, Dan etc.) do so much more voice over work than female artists (Nancy, Yeardley, Julie etc.). You can tell this because the photos of artists are also available next to their names. Remember, your audience are looking for patterns, hidden messages in your charts. So make your charts with that in mind.
Question: What rules do you recommend for making better charts?
Go ahead and tell us what rules do you think we should follow to make awesome charts using comments.
Bonus Question: Who is your favorite non-Simpson Simpson’s character?
I don’t think about charting and formulas too much when weekend is around the corner, and neither should you. So go ahead and indulge in harmless banter. Tell me which non-Simpson Simpson’s character is your favorite?
For me Ned Flanders does it. I think his dialogues are very cleverly written. What about you?
13 Responses to “Convert fractional Excel time to hours & minutes [Quick tip]”
Hi Purna..
Again a great tip.. Its a great way to convert Fractional Time..
By the way.. Excel has two great and rarely used formula..
=DOLLARFR(7.8,60) and =DOLLARDE(7.48,60)
basically US Account person uses those to convert some currency denomination.. and we can use it to convert Year(i.e 3.11 Year = 3 year 11 month) and Week(6.5 week = 6 week 5 days), in the same manner...
This doesn't work for me. When applying the custom format of [h]:mm to 7.8 I get 187:12
Any ideas why?
@Jason
7.8 in Excel talk means 7.8 days
=7.8*24
=187.2 Hrs
=187 Hrs 12 Mins
If you follow Chandoo's instructions you will see that he divides the 7.8 by 24 to get it to a fraction of a day
Simple, assuming the fractional time is in cell A1,
Use below steps to convert it to hours & minutes:
1. In the target cell, write =A1/24
2. Select the target cell and press CTRL+1 to format it (you can also right click and select format cells)
3. Select Custom from “Number” tab and enter the code [h]:mm
4. Done!
Hi, sorry to point this out but Column C Header is misspelt 'Hours Palyed'
good one
So how do I go the other way and get hours and minutes to fractional time?
If you have 7.5 in cell A1,
- Use int(A1) to get the hours.
- Use mod(A1,1)*60 to get minutes.
If you have 7:30 (formatted as time) in A1
- Use hours(a1) to get hours
- Use minutes(a1) to get minutes.
I had the same issue. You can solve it by changing the format as described above:
Right click cell > Format Cells > (In Number tab) > Custom > Then enter the code [h]:mm
([hh]:mm and [hhh]:mm are nice too if you want to show leading zeros)
Thanks guys, these are the tips I'm looking for.
...dividing the number of minutes elapsed by the percent change is my task - "int" is the key this time
It doesnt work for greater than 24 hours
It returns 1:30 for 25.5 hours. It should have returned 25:30
Ideally I would right function as
=QUOTIENT(A1,1)&":"&MOD(A1,1)*60
Sorry, replied to wrong comment....
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I had the same issue. You can solve it by changing the format as described above:
Right click cell > Format Cells > (In Number tab) > Custom > Then enter the code [h]:mm
([hh]:mm and [hhh]:mm are nice too if you want to show leading zeros)
Clever use of MOD here to extract the decimal part of a number. Divide a number containing a decimal by 1 and return the remainder. Humm. Very clever.
Thanks very much, extremely useful !