fbpx
Search
Close this search box.

Make info-graphics with shape fill technique [Charting Tip]

Share

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
make info-graphics in excel with shape fill technique

This is a quick, fun and elegant way to make info-graphics in Excel. Learn how to use shape fill technique for charts in MS Excel to create engaging output. You will learn how to make something like this:

sample info-graphic in Excel - sales of houses by month

How to create such info-graphic charts in Excel?

The process for creating these charts is very simple. I made 8 minute video explaining the process for making info-graphic charts in Excel. Watch it below or read on for step-by-step tutorial.

Step-by-Step tutorial – Making such charts:

Step 1: Setup your data

Let’s say you have the data as shown above. To create the house styled chart, simply add 3 columns. We can keep a constant value for Base and Top series and calculate floors by =Value-Base-Top formula.

Step 2: Create regular column chart

This is simple. Just select the three columns we just calculated and insert a stacked column chart. You will get this:

Step 3: Fill it up with shapes

Now go ahead and import (or draw) shapes for top, floors and bottom part of the house.

Once you have three images / shapes, select each image, press CTRL+C to copy it and select the corresponding chart element and press CTRL+V to fill it up.

You will get this:

Step 4: Stack the shape fill

Whenever you apply shape fill to charts, Excel will automatically stretch the image. But we need to stack it. Select the chart series and go to format options (Ctrl+1).

Here, change the fill option from “Stretch” to “Stack and Scale with” and specify a number that suits your images. For the house example, we can use 100 (as each floor would be same height as the bottom or top floors).

Step 5: There is no step 5. You are done!

That is it. Our chart is ready. Slap an interesting title and caption you are good to go.

info-graphic-in-excel-howto

More examples:

Here are two more examples of this technique.

Download sample info-graphics in Excel workbook

Please click here to download sample workbook with info-graphic style charts in Excel. You can examine all the steps, data, formulas and charts in the file. Feel free to customize or reuse the concept for your work.

More Excel Charting Tips

If you like this tip, you will love these ideas too.

Do you like shape-fill technique? Share your feedback

Do you like this technique? I love it, but in moderation. Such info-graphic style charts can engage your audience and present data creatively. That said, if you use wrong shapes or symbols, it can quickly become annoying.

What about you? Do you like this idea? Please share your feedback in comments.

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Share this tip with your colleagues

Excel and Power BI tips - Chandoo.org Newsletter

Get FREE Excel + Power BI Tips

Simple, fun and useful emails, once per week.

Learn & be awesome.

Welcome to Chandoo.org

Thank you so much for visiting. My aim is to make you awesome in Excel & Power BI. I do this by sharing videos, tips, examples and downloads on this website. There are more than 1,000 pages with all things Excel, Power BI, Dashboards & VBA here. Go ahead and spend few minutes to be AWESOME.

Read my storyFREE Excel tips book

Excel School made me great at work.
5/5

– Brenda

Excel formula list - 100+ examples and howto guide for you

From simple to complex, there is a formula for every occasion. Check out the list now.

Calendars, invoices, trackers and much more. All free, fun and fantastic.

Advanced Pivot Table tricks

Power Query, Data model, DAX, Filters, Slicers, Conditional formats and beautiful charts. It's all here.

Still on fence about Power BI? In this getting started guide, learn what is Power BI, how to get it and how to create your first report from scratch.

Weighted Average in Excel with Percentage Weights

Weighted Average in Excel [Formulas]

Learn how to calculate weighted averages in excel using formulas. In this article we will learn what a weighted average is and how to Excel’s SUMPRODUCT formula to calculate weighted average / weighted mean.

What is weighted average?

Wikipedia defines weighted average as, “The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean …, where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others.”

Calculating weighted averages in excel is not straight forward as there is no built-in formula. But we can use SUMPRODUCT formula to easily calculate them. Read on to find out how.

10 Responses to “Make info-graphics with shape fill technique [Charting Tip]”

  1. Santosh says:

    Very nice idea.Thanks lot.

  2. Gopakumar Nair says:

    Hi Chandoo,
    Your Charting and Power BI tips are excellent and helps a lot. Do you have a complete collection or book on this, if so please let me know how to buy.
    Thanks and keep it up, enjoy your posts!

    Regards
    Gopa

  3. Sonali says:

    Awesome idea... I used it for by budeting exercise

  4. Azaz says:

    Great...Thanks

  5. Nguy?n ??ng Minh says:

    Thank You Very Much!

  6. GS says:

    Thanks. I have always found Excel charts a little bland. This looks easy to understand and relatively simple to apply. Well done!

  7. ankit Gupta says:

    Hiii Chandooo ji,

    I want to learn macros coding on visual basic platform. Plz guide me for same.

    Thanks Regards,
    Ankit G

  8. Rafael says:

    Show.

  9. Sai says:

    Excellent , great change from mundane charts.
    Thanks for exploring and publishing these

  10. Prasanna says:

    I really liked it.

Leave a Reply