In the 29th session of Chandoo.org podcast, let’s impress the boss with Excel charts.

What is in this session?
Many Excel charts live a short life. They spawn in an ambitious analyst’s spreadsheet. They go to boss with literally flying colors. The boss frowns, they disappear in to recycle bin.
Don’t curse your Excel charts with short life span.
Here is a 6 step road map to help you create awesome Excel charts, everytime.
That is our topic for this podcast session.
In this podcast, you will learn
- Quick announcements about 50 ways & Einstein
- 6 step road map for charting success
- ONE: Dig your data
- TWO: Validate insights
- THREE: Pick charts that go well
- FOUR: Add title & message
- FIVE: Remove clutter
- SIX: Prompt action
- A real life example with road map in action
- Resources for creating awesome charts
Listen to this session
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
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Click here to download the MP3 file.
Links & Resources mentioned in this podcast
50 ways to analyze data course:
- Join the waiting list
- Course launching on 11th of Feb
Book recommendation
- Albert Einstein – his life & universe by Walter Isaacson
Chart creation process & tips:
- Selecting right chart for your data
- Tips for creating awesome column charts
- Best charts to depict % progress
- Never use simple numbers in your dashboards
- More charting principles & chart examples
Additional resources for charting:
- Dashboard contest entries & winners – 2014, 2012, 2011, 2010
- NY Times visualization lab
- Charting tutorials & best practices from Jon Peltier
- Advanced Excel chart examples from Roberto et al
Transcript of this session:
Download this podcast transcript [PDF].
How do you impress your boss with charts?
My personal favorites are interactive charts & dashboard displays.
What about you? How do you impress your boss with Excel charts? What techniques & process you follow? Please share your thoughts and tips in comments.
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5 Responses to “Preparing Profit / Loss Pivot Reports [Part 2 of 6]”
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I am not getting sound from the videos. I have checked all the settings and spent several hours searching the Internet to no avail.
Has anyone else had this problem?
Is there anyway to get the Grand Total to be broken out in the same fashion as the items above it? For instance, if you have in column 1, widget a, widget b, and have their sales by month in column 2, I'd like to see the grand total also be by month, for widget a & b combined.
I can't get anything other than a single line for the grand total, rather than the same format as the data above.
Widget A Month Sales
Jan 100
Feb 200
Widget B
Jan 150
Feb 250
Grand total - here I would also like to have Jan, Feb.
Jan 250
Feb 450