If you’re building large models, then you may want to use volatile functions – including OFFSET(), INDIRECT(), and TODAY() – with caution, because unless you know what you are doing, they *might* slow Excel down to the point that data entry is sluggish, if not downright tedious.
In fact, you *might* want to consider getting out of the habit of using these functions at all if there are alternatives, and you might want to replace volatile functions in your existing models with non-volatile alternatives…I have reduced recalculation time in large models from minutes to milliseconds by doing just that!
So what the heck does volatile actually mean? And why should you care? Let’s find out, shall we?
How does Excel update all those cells?
Let’s take a look at how Excel ensures that each cell has the right number in it when you make a change somewhere. But first, a disclaimer: Note that this is an introductory article, and so is necessarily simplistic. If you want to know more about the specifics of this complicated subject, check out the links to Excel MVP Charles Williams’ excellent site at the bottom of this article. Okay, disclaimer ends…
A large Excel model might have several hundred thousand cells with formulas in it. Maybe even several million. Most of these formulas will reference other cells, and many of those cells will have formulas in them that reference other cells in turn, and so on. If a formula in a Cell A2 refers directly to Cell A1, then A2 said to be directly dependent on A1. Obviously if A1 changes, we need those changes to flow through to A2. And when recalculating the entire workbook, we need A2 to be recalculated AFTER A1 has been recalculated. That’s called a dependency chain.
Large models can have a number of very long dependency chains comprising of hundreds of thousands of cells that run across worksheets or even between workbooks. To keep track of how all these cells interrelate – and to ensure that a change in any specific cell’s value correctly flows through to any other cells that may depend on it – Excel builds and maintains what is known as a ‘dependency tree’. Think of this as a big flow-chart or circuit diagram showing how all the cells in one of these giant formulas interconnect. Excel maintains this dependency tree every time you make a change to a formula in a cell, by looking at the argument list of each separate function within that formula. And this dependency tree is saved along with the file itself.
Smart Recalculation
Thanks to this dependency tree, when you change the value in one cell, Excel can work out what other cells might be affected. And so Excel can smartly recalculate just those particular cells. Meaning it doesn’t have to blindly recalculate the whole workbook just because one fairly insignificant part of it might have changed.
So let’s say you change the value of a cell somewhere that has only one other cell pointing at it (and no further cells depend on that other cell). Thanks to smart recalculation, Excel only recalculates the value of the cell you just changed, and the value of that ONE dependent cell. It doesn’t have to recalculate the entire workbook.
Likewise, if you change the value of a cell somewhere that has many, many cells downstream, then Excel of course has to recalculate all of the cells further down that particular chain. But it can safely ignore any cells further up that particular dependency chain. And it can ignore any cells elsewhere that aren’t in this particular dependency chain.
If a long-enough part of a dependency chain gets recalculated, then you might well see the word ‘calculating’ in the status bar while Excel works its way through all the relevant cells in that chain. But usually, this recalculation happens so fast that the word ‘calculating’ flicks on and off so quickly that you don’t notice it.
Not-so-smart recalculation thanks to volatility
Now here’s the important bit: a particular class of formulas called volatile formulas get automatically recalculated any time you enter data anywhere in any open workbook – even if the thing you just changed had nothing to do with those volatile functions. And then this triggers Excel to then recalculate all directly dependent cells downstream from those volatile formulas too. Yikes!
This mean that if you’ve opened a very large spreadsheet model with volatile functions in it – and if those volatile functions have a large number of formulas downstream (or a smaller amount of resource intensive formulas) – then if you are say trying to add items to a shopping list that you’ve started in another workbook it could take minutes for you to add each item to that shopping list, because every time you add an item, it triggers an avalanche of unnecessary and pointless recalculation in the large spreadsheet model.
The fact that each and every cell ‘downstream’ of any volatile formulas get recalculated is an important point to get your head around. Many people think that slow calculation times due to volatility is due to the time it takes to recalculate large amounts of volatile functions in a model. But often most of that delay is in fact due to the recalculation of all the cells ‘downstream’ from those volatile functions. In other words, even just one volatile formula with a very long calculation chain hanging off it could cause you grief. And if that calculation chain gets more and more complex, so does the effect of that one volatile formula.
Here’s how that looks visually:
In fact, it’s not just entering data that will trigger a volatile function to recalculate, but also these things (among others):
- Deleting or inserting a row or column.
- Performing certain Autofilter actions.
- Double-clicking a row or column divider (in Automatic calculation mode).
- Adding, editing, or deleting a defined name.
- Renaming a worksheet.
- Changing the position of a worksheet in relation to other worksheets.
- Hiding or unhiding rows (but not columns)
So almost anything can set off that domino effect. Which reminds me of this:
(And what the heck…if you enjoyed that, then click this link too. But hurry back…this post is getting cold).
So which functions are Volatile?
These ones:
- NOW()
- TODAY()
- RAND() and RANDBETWEEN()
- OFFSET()
- INDIRECT()
- INFO() (depending on its arguments)
- CELL() (depending on its arguments)
If you’re an intermediate Excel user, then chances are that you already use some of these regularly. For instance:
- OFFSET() is usually the function of choice to anyone who wants to create dynamic ranges
- Many large models make use of the INDIRECT() function to construct cell or range references “on the fly” in response to some choice that a user makes
- Many large models make use of the TODAY() function to check if a date entered by a user occurs in the past, present, or future.
When does this matter?
Most of the spreadsheets you use these functions in are so small that you probably don’t even notice any extra volatility-related recalculation. So no harm done. However, if you’ve ever had that a large spreadsheet that seems particularly sluggish when you’re trying to enter new data – or that seems to impact the performance of other open workbooks – then chances are you know exactly what I mean.
I’ve seen frustrated-looking users waiting for as long as one to two minutes for particularly large models to recalculate after each and every change they make to it, even if those changes are relatively insignificant, such as changing the spelling of a column header.
Often spreadsheets like this get so sluggish that users switch Excel’s calculation setting to Manual, just so they can make changes in a timely fashion, and then switch it on again when they’re done in order to have the model calculate the correct answer. This is dangerous…I’d never set calculation to manual if I could help it. There’s just too much chance that someone someday will use output of such a model without remembering to set calculation to Auto. What’s worse, when you open two workbooks, one saved in manual mode and one saved in automatic mode, they will both have the calculation mode of the first workbook opened. I have seen many cases in my career where analysts have done just that…opened a workbook with calc set to manual, opened a whole bunch of others where calc was set to auto, and then done an entire day’s work without realizing that calculation was subsequently turned off for all of them. Doh!
Here’s a slide from my Excel Efficiency presentation that warns users not to do this:
Previously you might have thought that you had no choice but to switch calculation to Manual, because you might have thought that this sluggishness is an unavoidable consequence of the size and complexity of your spreadsheet. But now you know that it *might* be caused by use of volatile functions, and that volatile functions might not be suitable for some occasions…particularly if you’re building large models that utilize these functions at key points within your model. Replace those Volatile functions with some non-Volatile alternatives, and you’ll likely find that your model stops being a slow dog, and starts being a much faster greyhound. To the point that you can switch calculation back to Automatic again.
What are the alternatives to Volatile functions?
While volatile functions like OFFSET() and INDIRECT() are incredibly useful, you can usually achieve the same thing by using other non-volatile formulas such as INDEX or CHOOSE, as well as through leveraging off the dynamic references that Excel Tables allow.
And instead of the TODAY() function, you can use VBA to populate today’s date as a hard-coded value in big models, as you’ll see in the download file below. Check out the Alternative Functions tab of that file to see some examples of common use of volatile functions, as well as some non-volatile alternatives.
If you’re struggling to find a non-volatile replacement for an existing volatile formula, then you can always post a question on the Chandoo Forum asking for some advice on non-volatile alternatives.
Am I being over-zealous here?
As we’ve seen, too much reliance on volatile functions *might* trigger large parts of a model to be recalculated needlessly. But it’s worth remembering that this is only going to be noticeable in particularly big spreadsheets. So perhaps I’m being a little overzealous here. So if you know what you’re doing, then maybe you don’t want to dismiss volatile functions outright. After all, you can always assess your options on a case by case basis: try them out, test, test, test, test again, and then make a balanced decision.
However, if you know of an alternative formula combination that does exactly the same thing as a volatile formula, then I’d suggest that you get into the habit of using that instead whenever you can. That way you won’t inadvertently have issues when it really matters. And I’d suggest that if you don’t have much experience of functions and performance, then perhaps it’s safest to simply err on the side of caution and steer clear of volatile functions altogether.
So not only do I see little down side to avoiding volatile formulas, but I see a significant upside: I’ve seen plenty of large models built by the likes of the big 4 accounting/consulting firms that make heavy use of volatile functions, and that consequently have recalculation times so long that they are effectively unusable. Stripping out the volatile formulas from these models has resulted in delays from data entry falling from upwards of two minutes to well under a second. Not to mention that users can now work on other files while these models are open, without fear of triggering an avalanche of unnecessary and pointless recalculation. Had these model builders known to avoid volatile functions, they would have saved users a lot of grief.
Excel MVP and Recalculation Expert Charles Williams says:
The better use you make of smart recalculation in Excel, the less processing has to be done every time that Excel recalculates, so avoid volatile functions like INDIRECT and OFFSET where you can, unless they are significantly more efficient than the alternatives. (Well-designed use of OFFSET is often fast.)
In fact, on Charles’ website he goes so far as to say avoid volatile functions wherever possible.
With all that in mind, I’ve made a personal choice to steer clear of volatile functions where I can. Your mileage may differ. Regardless, the subject of volatility is definitely something that intermediate users should be made aware of. What they do with that awareness is up to them. But forewarned is forearmed.
Fancy a demonstration?
Sometimes it’s most helpful to see something with your own eyes. So download this file, open it, and enable macros: Volatility-demo-using-TODAY-20140230
You’ll see it has a dropdown in it, where you can choose to either populate a cell with the volatile TODAY function or with a hard-coded date:
Downstream of that drop-down output cell are 20,000 formulas spread across two columns:
If you choose the Use Volatile TODAY() Function option from the dropdown, then whenever you enter data in that 3rd ‘Completely independent cells’ column then you should notice a significant delay. Change that dropdown to ‘Use Hard-Coded Date’ and you should experience significantly less delay, if any.
You’ll also see a blue button you can click, that will time how long the delay is under each option:
On my system, there’s about a 1 second delay when using the TODAY() option, and almost no delay when using the hard-coded date. (Note that you have to click the blue button twice after you change that dropdown to get the ‘proper’ reading. The first reading will be artificially high.)
Why are some functions volatile?
The reason for some of these functions being volatile this is fairly obvious. For example:
- NOW() should always return the time as at the last calculation, so needs to be refreshed any time new data is put into the workbook, in case one of your formulas does something specific based on the time of day.
- TODAY() similarly must be refreshed to ensure than the day hasn’t changed since the last time something was entered into the workbook (which will be the case, if someone works past midnight, or if they come in in the morning and make a change to a file that they had left open the previous night.)
But the reasons for others being volatile – such as OFFSET and INDIRECT, which are often used by modellers to create dynamic named ranges – are less clear. First, let’s look at what OFFSET and INDIRECT actually do:
- Offset Returns a reference to a cell or a multi-cell range that is a given number of rows and columns from a given reference. So OFFSET($A$1,1,2,5,3) says “Go one cell down from $A$1 (which takes us to $A$2), then two cells across (which takes us to $C$2) and then return a block of cells 5 down from $C$2 and 3 across from $C$2 (which gives us the range $C$2:$D$6)
- Indirect Returns the reference specified by a text string. References are immediately evaluated to display their contents. So Indirect(“$A1”) tells Excel “Go look in cell $A$1, and tell me what’s in it”.
So why would that mean they need to be volatile? Because Excel constructs dependency trees based on cell references.
- INDIRECT() has an argument that is constructed out of text – e.g. INDIRECT( “$A1”). This might look like a cell reference, but it is not. In fact, the argument of an INDIRECT function might equally look something like this: INDIRECT(“$B”&$C$9-2).
- OFFSET() takes numerical arguments, which point to a cell reference, but are still just numbers.
- In order for these to form part of Excel’s dependency tree, the Excel dependency tree algorithm would have to first evaluate text like INDIRECT( “$A1”) or the numerical arguments like OFFSET($A$1,1,2,5,3) in order to determine what the associated cell reference actually is, before adding it to the dependency tree. Maybe the Excel obviously made the call that rather than introduce this extra step where these two functions are concerned, they may as well just make both functions fully volatile.
But given that you can set up INDEX() do much the same thing as OFFSET(), why doesn’t INDEX need to be volatile too? I imagine it’s because INDEX uses range arguments, whereas OFFSET uses numerical arguments. So Excel can extract these range arguments directly from an INDEX() function when building/amending the calculation dependency tree.
Note that INDEX() is what’s called semi-volatile, meaning it gets recalculated when the workbook opens.
And also note that any formulas used in conditional formatting effectively become what Charles Williams calls super-volatile: they are evaluated each time the cell that contains them is repainted on the screen (which happens say if you use the scroll bar to move the ‘view’ up/down or left/right), even in Manual calculation mode. But because no other formulas are ‘downstream’ from conditional formats, then only the conditional format formulas themselves get recalculated. So if you’ve got simple conditional formatting rules, you won’t notice any delay.
More info:
I’ll talk about alternatives to using volatile functions in a series of upcoming posts. But meanwhile…if you’re not feeling too sluggish…then check out these great links from Excel MVP Charles Williams.
- Excel 2010 Performance: Improving Calculation Performance
- Smart Recalculation
- Volatile Excel Functions
- Excel Dependencies
- Evaluation Circumstances
- Writing efficient VBA UDFs Part 10 – Volatile Functions and Function Arguments
Pretty much everything I’ve covered in this post came from Charles’ writings, so I’d like to acknowledge the work he has done in explaining this complex subject to countless Excel users over the years. Charles also sells a great add-in called FastExcel for profiling Excel calculation performance and memory useage – so be sure to check that out if you want to get serious about diagnosing volatility issues with your own Excel models.
You may also be interested in Jan Karel Pieterse’s RefTreeAnalyser utility, which among other things allows for easy Auditing of formula dependents and precedents, helps you trace errors, and will let you time your workbook calculation for each worksheet to find bottlenecks as well as check columns for formula inconsistencies. Jan Karel has a free demo version with limited functionality, if you’d like to take it for a spin.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments
This has been a particularly taxing post to write. So if you found this article helpful, please let me know below in the comments. If you’re not following something I said, or can think of a better way to say it, then let me know that too.
About the Author.
Jeff Weir – a local of Galactic North up there in Windy Wellington, New Zealand – is more volatile than INDIRECT and more random than RAND. In fact, his state of mind can be pretty much summed up by this:
=NOT(EVEN(PROPER(OR(RIGHT(TODAY())))))
That’s right, pure #VALUE!
Find out more at http://www.heavydutydecisions.co.nz
115 Responses to “73 Free Designer Quality Excel Chart Templates – Grab now and become a charting superman”
There's nothing worse than the default MS chart formats. Thank you for working to rid the world of these eyesores.
Man, you sure do have a fetish for Excel.
What about line charts? These are great but not feeling the love for the lines. -C
[...] 73 Free Designer Quality Excel Chart Templates - Grab now and become a charting superman Plantillas para gráficos de excel (tags: charts excel grafico) [...]
Hi...These templates aint working
Message Received: Drawing conversion failed.
@Monte Bel - thank you for visiting PHD and commenting 🙂 Hope you liked the templates
@ Kapil : thanks 🙂
@Cristobal: Thanks for visiting PHD, btw, the line charts are there, just load the template and convert the chart type from bar chart to line chart, the colors would adjust automatically (they should 😛 ), let me know if this doesn't work.
Really cool templates, many thanks, I downloaded them for future use. Bye
[...] Download 73 beautiful excel chart templates | Art of excel charting | Become a conditional formatting [...]
[...] ...http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/notebook/2008/03/24/080324gonb_GOAT_notebook_schjeldahl73 Free Designer Quality Excel Chart Templates - Grab now and become a charting superman add to del.icio.us add to Stumble How many times you created a chart in Microsoft excel and [...]
Excellent prepared
Vuélvete un Superman de las Gráficas en Excel (Inglés)...
Si eres un Ingeniero sin la menor idea de como combinar colores y hacer mas atractivas tus gráficas, aquí podrás encontrar unas plantillas para que puedas volver tus gráficas en Excel mas atractivas y dejes con el ojo cuadrado a tu Jefazo. NOTA: Los co...
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Vota este post en teknear.com...
Hi, your chart templates are great. I did n't understand how to create 1*1 pixel in paint brush with the colour of my choice.
@DRN ... thanks, you can create the color of your choice in mspaint by,
1. go to start > all programs > accessories > paint and click on it
2. double click on any of the color buttons at the bottom
3. select "Define custom colors >>"
4. enter RGB values for your color choice
5. click on "Add to custom colors"
6. click OK
7. select paint bucket tool (tool tip says "fill with color")
8. click on the image area
9. go to menu > image > image attributes (or press ctrl+E)
10. enter 1 as width and height
11. save as bmp or jpg or gif
cool, now you have a 1*1 pixel in color of your choice.
Let me know if this helps you... 🙂 welcome to PHD...
Thanks a lot...I got it 🙂
[...] read: Learn how to create project plans / gantt charts using conditional formatting Create art grade excel charts with these 73 designer templates Other uber cool excel tricks to make your colleagues zealous and your boss happy Tags: charting, [...]
Chandoo, You are a Freaking Genius, you saved me atleast 2 days of work.
Thanks Man for this, great to see some value been added to the Internet.
Please do post some more sample, this will be really helpful to alot of us.
@Dhondu ... welcome to PHD, thanks alot for your comments.. 🙂
thank you!!!
you made my day..too much helpful
[...] Read: Become a conditional formatting rock star - learn these 5 cool tips 73 free excellent excel chart templates, save time, look smart! Tags: excel, howto, ideas, learn, microsoft, technology, tips, tricks Yo! rock star, mind [...]
Dear Chandoo,
Really you are great yar! I learned most of the Conditional Formatting by your tips. If you have any other tips and tricks in excell please send me a link.
Thank You
With regards.
Is it possible to display charts simply by selecting the data, and is it possible to change the chart by selecting another data.
Please reply.
Dear Excel Master,
Hi Chandoo I have changed your name ...You are really great..I have download all cool templates for future use.
If you have any other tips and tricks in excel please send me a link.
Have nice Weekend Bue.
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Thank you so much sir, Really cool templates, I downloaded them for mu day to day use. KEEP IT UP!
@Sadiq Ali: Hi sorry, I didnt notice your question till now "Is it possible to display charts simply by selecting the data, and is it possible to change the chart by selecting another data."
well, its not possible to plot charts dynamically by selecting data unless you are willing to write some VBA. There are other techniques to make charts look dynamic, I will write about one such technique sometime soon.. keep watching this blog 🙂
@Nikhil - welcome to PHD blog, thanks for your comments. Sure, just subscribe to our mailing list or blog content feed to get fresh hot excel tips everyday.
@Shanker - Welcome to PHD blog. Thanks for your comments. Keep visiting this place to enjoy more tips 🙂
[...] on charts: 73 beautiful excel chart templates - download free Categories : Excel Tips | visualization Tagged with: bad charts | charting | Excel Tips [...]
Hi Chandoo!
I've been reading through a lot of the site for hours and I got a question man, I've encountered recently some excel documents a co-worker downloaded which is sort of a quiz, basically a game quiz, it has an image of a movie and you had to guess the name in a box then, a box below gave you a correct with green bgcolor or wrong in red bgcolor. My question is what kind of formula or way, can I get to use this so I can do some quiz test for some students? it's a very ingenius way to pop the brain a bit with excel. I appreciate the time you put into this site, keep up the work.
hi chandoo,
is my second time typing it seems my explorer sucks, I'll make it short this time, I received an email with an excel document that does a quiz where they showed you an image of a movie and you had to answer which movie is it from, almost case sensitive capitals don't matter, so i would like to know what is the formula or whatever it is so i can apply it on educative ways for classes. thanks for the time you put into this site.
@istreva ... thankfully your first comment made to my server before crashing your browser. Welcome to PHD and thanks for the comments 🙂
You can create a quiz in excel by using protected cells and conditional formatting. I will write a tutorial on this may be in the next 2 weeks. Basically the way to do this is to have the answers in a range that is protected so that no one can view it, and then use conditional formatting on cell(s) to change color to red / green based the answer entered by quiz taker.
I think that would be awsome, I've been trying to figure that out but I'm not an excel guru, I studied some computer programing and done some javascript, so i thought there would be some "if" "then" involved, I think If you can point me in one direction with one sample I can manage to replicate the process and maybe even add on some more to it! Thanks man, 6 hours a day in the office can be very insighfull reading your site 🙂
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Hi
I just found this site and am happy to find other people interested in Excel as much as I am!. I have a problem because my IE can't find the link to download the charts. Are they still available??
Thanks
Joseph
@Joseph: Welcome to PHD and thanks for visiting us 🙂
You can download the files from http://cid-b663e096d6c08c74.skydrive.live.com/embedrow.aspx/Public/73%20Free%20Designer%20Quality%20Excel%20Chart%20Templates.zip it is a one zip file available for download from Live.com's skydrive. Let me know if you have access issues, I can upload the file to my own server and give you another link.
Thanks,
Hi Chandoo, this site is really useful for my report. Everyone might admire me as of my interesting presentation. nice day!
Thaopham: Awesome... I am happy you found this useful 🙂
I am still not able to download these templets.......ti shows access denied.....sorry for being too demanding but if you could mail to my id azmat1979@rediffmail.com it would be highly appreceiated
hi Chandoo... this is of great help and saves a lot of time...
Thanks
Fantastic! I don't use Excel much, but this is so cool, I had to download the templates 🙂
Thank you.
Great work!!! This is very useful!! Cheers - Deepak
[...] Earlier on pie charts: Why no one likes your pie & what to do about it? | In cell pie charts | 22 beautiful pie chart templates for excel [...]
perfect! thanks very much for your contribution.
Excellent charts!
Microsoft must buy your chart templates and use them in their next Office release.
May God bless you.
Hi Chandoo,
Thank you very much...I learned a lot conditional formatting &
Dashboard technique because of you.
If you can provide more dashborad examples clearly..then it will be
a great help.
Regards
Rajinikanth
thanks for your valuable chart templates. really they are very useful. keep up good job.
@Nick: Welcome to PHD and I am happy you liked these charts.
Hi Chandoo,
Its very good help for every one who wants to prepare the charts,
your templates are good and I utilised some of the templates with some modifications.
Great job!!!!!!thanks
@Rajinikanth: Welcome to PHD and thanks for your nice words. I am very happy you liked the templates and using them in your work.
good day, dear, This is very useful, thanks a lot,
keep is going,
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I want to create a chart where the bars in the chart mirror the color in the cells used to create it. For example, if something is Red at 12% and Green at 85%, I want the columns in the chart to be Red at 12% and Green at 85%. Whenever I try to create the chart it colors each bar the same. Is what I want to do possible?
SHannon - one way you could do this is to add a different series to the chart for each colour that you will be using, then format those series the specific colours you want. The series would need to reference different columns, which would only contain the data specific to each colour.
For instance, if your original data was in a column starting from A2, then in the cell B2 (which will be where the green series of the graph points to) you would have a formula like =if(A2 > .80, A1, na()) which means that only data that meets your cut-off point for being green (80% in this example) gets copied there. Anything else gets entered as the error #N/A, which Excel doesn't plot.
THis should do the trick.
Thanks for your work. It's what I ever wanted in Excel, otherwise a good program.
Little question - the edges of the pie charts are uneven - is some anti-aliasing possible?
Dear Sir
Actually an looking for your help.
I have a folder which contain word and excel working on .However it me personal file but have to dispute in where a lots of person to get access with it .is it possible to put it with an easy way as read only just they can view it only.Thanking in advance for your help
@Martin... Try using Excel 2007, it makes the edges of charts look more smoother. More on the charting differences between 2007 and 2003 here: http://peltiertech.com/WordPress/why-i-dont-like-excel-2007-charts/
@Krishun... You can use the protect sheet options to protect ranges or whole worksheets from editing. Learn more here: http://chandoo.org/wp/2009/11/03/make-better-excel-sheets/
Excellent!! I've been looking for some nice looking charts!
You are an angel!!!! I have struggled with a pie chart, but not anymore!!
Thanks,
Wise Writers and Speakers
Hi Chandoo
When I try to download it does nt come as a normal zip folder and it asks which program to use? I tried excel and doesn't work! any ideas 🙁
@Catherine... sometimes live.com adds an underscore "_" at the beginning and end of the file name. just select the file, press "F2" and remove the "_" from end. This should make the file work with winzip (or expand all option).
its great..
thank you
Thats Gr8:-)
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Hi Chandoo,
I found these templates, and like the idea of using them. However, I must be missing something because when I follow the directions, the result I get is not what I expected. When I choose the range $N$9:$S$13 and select the user defined chart, I get a really strange result.
I found that I had to select only the data values ($O$10:$S$13), then when the used designed chart appears, manually re-enter the X Axis series ($N$10:$N$13), and the each references for each of the years ($O$9 etc.).
Any idea what I am doing wrong?
Regards David
Thank you! This looks great. The defaults look horrible. You've done a great job with these templates!
Great Work;
It is very useful in a real life and time saving as well.
Thank you
Saved me a lot of time and grief and gave me a much better quality of output than I would ever have achieved on my own
Much appreciated
Hi Chandoo - Have read your interview in msn. You are simply great and can stand as one of the roll model to the youngsters especially who scream by comparing themselves with others promortion or hike.
Best part is that you have realised what is your passion.
HEARY CONGRATS.
Rgds,
Gopinath
[...] Free Excel Chart Templates [...]
Do you have a simple Excell Add-On that gives Dashboard gauge results? My physicians need something easy to ready and the Gauge formot seems to be easy. Thanks
Dear Chandoo,
I just came across your site and I must say thank you very much for all the helpful tips. Saves all of us days of working so many things out ourselves!! I have a problem. I download the chart templates file from the link you gave but when I tried to open the Zip file using WinRar, I get an error message "The archive is either in unknown format or damaged". I have used WinRar to open other zip files without any problems. Is there any way I can re-download and open in WinRar? Are the templates still available? Thanks very much
Hi Chandoo,
Pls ignore earlier request (not the comments though!) as I managed to download and extract. Thank you once again
UnniK
[...] 73 Free Designer Quality Excel Chart Templates – Grab now and become a charting superman | Poi... (tags: excel graphs charts templates) [...]
Hi Chandoo
I do not know how to put curved text in the doughnut shape which aligns well with the lines.
Any one any idea?
Vinod
Chandoo....you rock!!! Thanks a tonne, man!
Hi Chandoo,
Cant download the templates as the link is not available anymore. can you please provide an updated link?
Many thanks
@Ahmet
The download links take you to a Sky Drive page
Just select the file from there
There are several online tools available that can help you create comprehensively designed flowcharts and graphs within few mins. These could be flash animated charts that could go in to a ppt slide.. Read more here.. http://askwiki.blogspot.com/2011/09/best-of-online-graphs-and-charts.html
By learning Microsoft Excel Online it helps me to work more effectively and more precise with the help of examples files were we can download and learn in more advanced terms in MS Excel. I appreciate the work of this online training programme to higher extent because it help lot of people who is willing and interested to work in Excel like me. I Love MS Excel to the higher extent. And I request you to please upload more example files so that the people like me can be benifited from Excel training.
Thank you.
N.Vishwanath.
I appreciate for all your help to make us learn Microsoft Excel in a more advanced terms. I request you to please update more exercise files, so that the people like me who are interested can be benifitted from learning MS Excel. I Like MS Excel to the higher extent.
i cash teachung
This looks great! I would really like to take a look at these. Is there another, more direct link to download the templates? The Sky Drive link doesn't work for me.
Nice templates! Thanks!
Biju
http://www.lenvica.com
Wonderfully creative and comprehensive. Bubble charts play an increasingly important role in my work. Any idea why Pie Charts can have leader lines to show the Label, but I cannot do that [easily or at all?] for bubble charts. As you know, bubbles can overlap or completely cover each other, so use of leaders can make them understandable. Thanks for any recommendations
Hi, I have a question regarding templates. Basically I have a series of data, theyre like 10 numbers. I calculated the summary statistics for it already and now I want to create a bell curve and have that bell curve automated where if I put in any number, it will plot it on my bell curve and I can see if its an outlier or how many standard deviations its away from the mean. Thanks
PS: Im using Excel 2007 and already have the Data Analysis Took Pak added.
Chandoo,
I have tried few times but can't use these charts. When I use the 1st method - nothing happes when I change the data??
more clear
Chandoo,
I want to build a 3-D charts for Item 1, 2, 3 and their sales for 2011 and 2012. Do you have a template for that?
Simon
@Simon
Setup your data like:
2011 2012Item A 17 20
Item B 15 13
Item C 12 16
2011 is above column with no. 17
2012 is above column with no. 20
Select the whole area including Items, Years and data
Goto Insert, Chart, select the 3D chart type you want to use
I think I need to clarify the data set a bit.
2011-01 2011-02 2011-03 2012-01 2012-02 2012-03Item A 17 20 23 34 32 32Item B 15 13 34 32 33 65Item C 12 16 34 32 44 99
I want the Items to stack in 1 bar per month, and show it in one list of bar for each year
Simon
@Simon,
Can you email file to me?
(Click on Hui above and look at bottom of the page for email address)
Hi Chandoo,
I like the look of the pseudo incell chart, how did you achieve such an effect? I've downloaded the templates, but there is no fill for any data series.
Thanks!
JY
i got to know abt chandoo.org recently, n since two days completely diggin out the site 😛 i just love working with excel n powerpoint n graphs etc.. this site is really "awesome". 😀
Do you have any cool templates for line graphs?
HI CHANDOO,
PLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW TO CREATE THAT SMALL BOX AS U HAVE CREATED IN A New Year Resolutions Template that Kicks Ass , IN WHICH WE HAVE TO TICK OR UNTICK.........
Does ANYONE know if its possible to make a CLOCK graph to depict overlapping work schedules for a crew at any particular job location? if so, where can I get it and/or how do I make it. Thanks for ANY feedback David.
update please...
Really cool templates, many thanks, I downloaded them for future use. Bye
Seeing the stuff in your website I feel astonished that how a man can be so brainy doing so many things single handed. Kudos to you.
Hi Chandoo excellent charts for free, but i ma trying to find out how you created your pie of pie of pie chart re water use. how can i create the same thing using my data
I am very interested to see if someone has used these dashboards as shared workbooks to give multiple users (5-10) access to update the dashboards concurrently. Lots of our clients use spreadsheets very inefficiently with no concurrent update of data made possible due to their reliance on old school "you-add-your-data-and-I-will-add-mine when-you-are-done" approach with no account for version control etc. I don't want to use VBA because once you step out of the team they keep phoning you to make the slightest changes to the code. I want to keep it as simple as possible and was hoping their would be people out there who have used these dashboards in a smart collaborative manner.
The option of saving the chart templates is not available in Excel 2010 as i m currently using the Office 2010. Pls guide how to get the oprion of Chart Type > User Defined
I downloaded the excel template, but with I copy the chart to workbook, how do I copy the data put. its not working for me please advise.
I have the latest version of Excel. Method 1 and 2 do not work! I cannot edit any of the templates. Can someone Help me please???
Hi Chandoo,
How to convert pie chart into bar diagram. It is like converting earth to flat map but do know the process.
Help will be appreciable.
Will people that don't have these templates see them the same way when they open the spreadsheet on their computer?
@Julie
All versions of Excel after 2003 render colors and lines slightly differently to versions before 2007
But yes you will mostly see the same on your PC
Hi!
I am looking for a "Variance Matrix" Graph for differences in Quality scores. Basically, we score quality from 1 - 5 and then an auditor will score the same call 1 - 5. I want a graph that has 1 - 5 vertically and then 1 - 5 horizontal at the top, then put counts in the middle for how many calls match up in each box EG, If I scored it a 1 and then they scores it a 3 it would show up at 1 vertically(my score) and 3 along vertically (Auditors score) is this possible on excel?
Hi Sir,
I want to create a Graph any type. I have data in below format:
Company Name Emp Name Number
ABC Aditya 555
ABC Mukesh 777
ABC JHA 999
XYZ Aditya 666
XYZ Mukesh 444
XYZ JHA 888
Please guide me to plot this graph on above data but I want Company Name, Emp Name, Max of No, Min of No and Avg of No.
Waiting for your response...
@Aditya
Can you please pose the question at the Chandoo.org Forums
http://forum.chandoo.org
Add a sample file to simplify the task
Thumbs up for the templates...you rock man!
Thanks so much.
[…] Free High Quality Chart Templates […]
this is one what m i looking for