{"id":4221,"date":"2018-09-27T16:05:49","date_gmt":"2018-09-27T21:05:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisa.rushworth.us\/?p=4221"},"modified":"2019-01-02T16:52:49","modified_gmt":"2019-01-02T21:52:49","slug":"did-you-know-you-can-use-mini-charts-to-visualize-excel-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/?p=4221","title":{"rendered":"Did you know \u2026 you can use mini-charts to visualize Excel data?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Using charts and images, data visualization, clearly and\nefficiently communicates data. But when you\u2019re trying to visualize statistics\nfor several items, your chart can be anything <em>but<\/em> clear and hardly efficient to read. In this example, I\u2019ve\ncreated a line chart depicting the monthly score for eight different people.\nWhile you can pick out obvious high or low performance, there\u2019s not a whole lot\nof information being communicated here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"935\" height=\"531\" src=\"http:\/\/lisa.rushworth.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines01.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4222\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines01.png 935w, https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines01-300x170.png 300w, https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines01-768x436.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 935px) 100vw, 935px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Did you know Excel can create mini-charts, known as \u201csparklines\u201d\nto visualize individual statistics <em>and<\/em>\ncompare statistics across items? Select the data that you want to compare. From\nthe Insert ribbon bar, look for the \u201cSparklines\u201d section. I am going to use a \u201cline\u201d\nstyle sparkline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"428\" src=\"http:\/\/lisa.rushworth.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines02-1024x428.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4223\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines02-1024x428.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines02-300x126.png 300w, https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines02-768x321.png 768w, https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines02.png 1673w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The data range will be selected. Enter the range where you\nwant the mini-charts to display \u2013 this can be the row under your data or the\ncolumn next to your data, or it can be some completely different location. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"383\" height=\"239\" src=\"http:\/\/lisa.rushworth.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines03.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines03.png 383w, https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines03-300x187.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 383px) 100vw, 383px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>By default, the y-axis range for each mini-chart depends on the values of the data contained <em>in<\/em> the chart. This makes comparing the charts a little difficult \u2013 the scale is different. In the example below, scores in the 30&#8217;s don&#8217;t <em>look<\/em> different than scores in the 80&#8217;s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"765\" height=\"388\" src=\"http:\/\/lisa.rushworth.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines04.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines04.png 765w, https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines04-300x152.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 765px) 100vw, 765px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Click on one of the mini-charts, and a \u201cDesign\u201d tab will appear on the ribbon bar. Select it. Under \u201cAxis\u201d, change the minimum and maximum values to \u201cSame for All Sparklines\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"449\" src=\"http:\/\/lisa.rushworth.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines05-1024x449.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4226\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines05-1024x449.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines05-300x132.png 300w, https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines05-768x337.png 768w, https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines05.png 1470w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Now you can see how individual performance varied as well as\ncompare individuals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"772\" height=\"102\" src=\"http:\/\/lisa.rushworth.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines06.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4227\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines06.png 772w, https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines06-300x40.png 300w, https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines06-768x101.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 772px) 100vw, 772px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Blank values will show up as broken lines in the\nmini-charts. If you do not want to display a gap, return to the \u201cDesign\u201d ribbon\nbar and select \u201cEdit data\u201d. Select \u201cHidden &amp; Empty Cells\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"804\" height=\"604\" src=\"http:\/\/lisa.rushworth.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines07.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4228\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines07.png 804w, https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines07-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines07-768x577.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 804px) 100vw, 804px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Select what you want instead of gaps \u2013 you can treat null\nvalues as zero or have a line drawn between the values on either side of the\nmissing value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"344\" height=\"187\" src=\"http:\/\/lisa.rushworth.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines08.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4229\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines08.png 344w, https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Sparklines08-300x163.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 344px) 100vw, 344px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Using charts and images, data visualization, clearly and efficiently communicates data. But when you\u2019re trying to visualize statistics for several items, your chart can be anything but clear and hardly efficient to read. In this example, I\u2019ve created a line chart depicting the monthly score for eight different people. While you can pick out obvious &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[677],"tags":[675,709,691,729,731],"class_list":["post-4221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-office-365","tag-did-you-know","tag-microsoft-excel","tag-microsoft-office","tag-microsoft-office-365","tag-ms-excel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4221"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4233,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4221\/revisions\/4233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rushworth.us\/lisa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}