The PTS Blog has a constant stream of great articles on how to better utilize Excel and its charting capabilities. This is one I found quite useful today, how to make clustered, stacked column charts in Excel. Column charts are great, as are stacked column charts. But this shows you how to make stacked column charts with multiple stacked columns per point on the x axis.
Jul 08
Just because everyone has Excel doesn’t mean everyone knows how to use it correctly. Jorge Cameos brings us 10 Excel chart mistakes to avoid. Make sure to check out his site for all the details.
- Assuming that Excel can do it
- Assuming that Excel can’t do it
- Not having a go-to person
- Creating Excel islands
- Tons of useless workbooks sitting around
- Bypassing IT
- Not using VBA
- Excel is the only charting tool
- Forgetting the 3 R’s – reduce, reuse, recycle
- Not making things work together
May 20
When you make a stacked column chart in Excel, the columns are normally stacked in whatever order you put the series in. Check out this how-to guide for reorganizing the columns so the largest values are on the bottom of each column.
Apr 29
Google has brought its search and visualization power to some public data. Check out the Google Blog for more info. For example, if you search for “unemployment rate San Francisco” the first search result will be for this chart. The first data sets available are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census Bureau’s Population Division.
Apr 18
Thanks to PBS Kids and Sid the Science Kid for this great music video about charts.
Mar 14
Here’s a hack for excel that explains how to better chart related series on two axes without the confusion associated with the normal excel way of doing it.
