During a recent training program, one of the students asked,
Thermo-meter charts are very good to show how actual value compares with target (or budget). But how can we add another point for say Last Year value to the chart with out cluttering it.
Something like this:
Sounds interesting? Read on.
Step 1: Create a bar chart from your data
Assuming you have data like this,
Select and create a bar chart from it. We need 3 bars (in different colors). If needed, use the Switch Rows / Columns button from Chart > Design ribbon. Once done, you should have something like this:
Step 2: Add Error bar to Last year series
Select the last year series & Add % error bar. Now, select the error bar and press CTRL+1 to format it.
- Set error percentage to 1% (for smaller chart sizes, you need 2 or 3%)
- Remove error bar caps.
- Go to line style and set begin style as a dot
At this stage, your chart should look like this:
Step 3: Overlap series & Remove fill colors
This is easy. Select any series and press CTRL+1 to format it. Set series overlap to 100%.
Then select last year series and set its fill color to none.
Select Target series & set fill color to none.
Set outline to the same color as actual series and make line thickness as 1 pt.
Step 4: Clean-up
Finally, remove legend, grid lines, axes and re-size the chart.
Congratulations! you have just made a custom thermo-meter chart.
Download thermo-meter chart template
Click here to download the workbook & play with it. Examine how the chart is made and see what additional customizations can be made.
Do you use Thermo-meter charts to compare actual with targets?
I think thermo-meter charts are the easiest way to compare actual with target. I use them often in my dashboards & reports.
What about you? what kind of charts do you use to compare actual with target (or budget) values? Please share your techniques and ideas using comments. Go!
Compare Actual with Target values? Check out these
Please see these articles to learn how to compare actual with target values.
- Best charts to compare actual vs. targets
- Budget vs. Actual charts – 14 variations
- Using form controls to interactively compare
- World education rankings – interactive comparison chart
14 Responses to “Group Smaller Slices in Pie Charts to Improve Readability”
I think the virtue of pie charts is precisely that they are difficult to decode. In many contexts, you have to release information but you don't want the relationship between values to jump at your reader. That's when pie charts are most useful.
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Chandoo,
millions of ants cannot be mistaken.....There should be a reason why everybody continues using Pie charts, despite what gurus like you or Jon and others say.
one reason could be because we are just used to, so that's what we need to change, the "comfort zone"...
i absolutely agree, since I've been "converted", I just find out that bar charts are clearer, and nicer to the view...
Regards,
Martin
[...] says we can Group Smaller Slices in Pie Charts to Improve Readability. Such a pie has too many labels to fit into a tight space, so you need ro move the labels around [...]
Chandoo -
You ask "Can I use an alternative to pie chart?"
I answer in You Say “Pie”, I Say “Bar”.
This visualization was created because it was easy to print before computers. In this day and age, it should not exist.
I think the 100% Bar Chart is just as useless/unreadable as Pies - we should rename them something like Mama's Strudel Charts - how big a slice would you like, Dear?
My money's with Jon on this topic.
The primary function of any pie chart with more than 2 or 3 data points is to obfuscate. But maybe that is the main purpose, as @Jerome suggests...
@Jerome.. Good point. Also sometimes, there is just no relationship at all.
@Martin... Organized religion is finding it tough to get converts even after 2000+ years of struggle. Jon, Stephen, countless others (and me) are a small army, it would take atleast 5000 more years before pie charts vanish... patience and good to have you here 🙂
@Jon .. very well done sir, very well done.
good points every one...
I've got to throw my vote into Jon's camp (which is also Stephen Few's camp) -- bars just tend to work better. One observation about when we say "what people are used to." There are two distinct groups here (depending on the situation, a person can fall in either one): the person who *creates* the chart and the person who *consumes* the chart. Granted, the consumers are "used to" pie charts. But, it's not like a bar chart is something they would struggle to understand or that would require explanation (like sparklines and bullet graphs). Chart consumers are "used to" consuming whatever is put in front of them. Chart creators, on the other hand, may be "used to" creating pie charts, but that isn't an excuse for them to continue to do so -- many people are used to driving without a seatbelt, leaving lights on in their house needlessly, and forwarding not-all-that-funny anecdotes via email. That doesn't mean the practice shouldn't be discouraged!
[...] example that Chandoo used recently is counting uses of words. Clearly, there are other meanings of “bar” (take bar mitzvah or bar none, for [...]
[…] Grouping smaller slices in pie chart […]
Good article. Is it possible to do that with line charts?
Hi,
Is this available in excel 2013?