10 Tips for Building Excel Dashboard Charts Easily

Introduction

Excel Dashboard Charts are powerful tools used to present data in an easy to understand and visually impactful manner. By leveraging these charts to visualize data, you can transform complex data into simple, straightforward visuals that make it easier to convey key points and insights.

Benefits of using Excel Dashboard Charts include improved data clarity, better risk management and analysis, enhanced decision making, and faster reporting processes.

2. Begin with Clear Goals

Having a clear plan and well-defined goals is essential when building an interactive dashboard in Microsoft Excel. Without properly defined goals, it’s impossible to know what the dashboard is designed to do, so it’s important to begin with a purpose for the dashboard. This will help guide the design and development of the dashboard.

a. Start with a Purpose

Before creating the dashboard, take a step back and outline what you’re hoping to accomplish with the dashboard. What is the purpose for the dashboard? What’s the main goal and objective? Operate from a bird’s-eye view and define how the dashboard should look, feel, and function. Knowing the purpose of the dashboard from the start is essential for creating an effective dashboard or chart.

b. Establish Relevant Filters

The next step is to identify what filters should be included in the dashboard. Depending on the type of data you’re working with, you may need to include date filters and other types of filters to help narrow down the data and make it easier to visualize. Filters are an important part of constructing a dashboard, as they allow users to narrow down the data to more closely examine specific areas and trends.

• Outline the purpose of the dashboard.
• Identify the relevant filters.
• Choose appropriate chart types.
• Use color and font size effectively.
• Test for accuracy and usability.

Utilize Variations of Data Displays

Dashboards provide an efficient way to visualize data into meaningful displays. Here are tips on how to maximize visuals when making an Excel dashboard chart.

Scatter Charts

A scatter chart is a great tool to display the relationship between two numerical variables. It is helpful to show data points as they move along a line and compare their changes over time.

To make a scatter chart in Excel, select your data and click the ‘Scatter Chart’ icon in the ‘Insert’ tab. It is important to choose the right type of visualization, whether it be scatter, line, or bubble chart.

Pie Charts

Pie charts provide a way to visualize data quickly and effectively. Most often used to show percentages and relative proportions from data set, pie charts help analyze large amounts of information and quickly show relationships between categories.

To make a pie chart in Excel, select your data, then click the ‘Pie Chart’ icon in the ‘Insert’ tab. Be sure to utilize coloring to strengthen data representation and point out key differences.

Column Charts

Another common visualization tool is the column chart. Column charts compare values between different categories and show changes over a set period of time. They are helpful for showing patterns, trends, and ranking data.

To make a column chart in Excel, select your data and click the ‘Column Chart’ icon in the ‘Insert’ tab. The chart will display different columns, representing the values of each interval. Different color-coding, labels, and animation can be used to further strengthen the data display.

Use Advanced Chart Features

Adding advanced chart features in Excel can help to display data in a more meaningful way. Advanced chart features allow you to demonstrate relationships between data points, trends, and patterns. By adding trendlines, dynamic charts, and other advanced features, you can get insight into your data in ways that would have otherwise been impossible.

Use Trendlines

Trendlines are great tools for Excel dashboards because they can quickly demonstrate how the data is trending over time. They can be used to show linear or exponential trends, as well as to extrapolate future values. To add a trendline, simply select the data series in your chart, click on “Add Trendline” in the Chart Tools menu, and select the type of trendline that you’d like to display.

Create Dynamic Charts

Dynamic charts allow you to easily update your chart as new data is added. By using dynamic charts, you can save time and ensure that your chart is always up-to-date. To create a dynamic chart, you will need to use some basic formulas and functions. First, select the data series that you want included in your chart. Then, use the OFFSET and COUNT functions to define the range that will be used for the chart. Finally, add the dynamic chart to your dashboard.

Using advanced chart features can greatly improve the value of your Excel dashboard charts. By adding trendlines and creating dynamic charts, you can quickly and easily display meaningful data on your dashboards. With a little practice and experimentation, you can master these features and take your dashboard charts to the next level.

5. Apply Colorful Design

Designing your Excel dashboard may be one of the most time consuming yet rewarding parts of creating a dashboard. Visual appeal can have a direct impact on how users interpret your data, so it's important to take the time to really make it stand out. In this section, you will learn some of the fundamentals for creating a visually aesthetic Excel dashboard.

a. Create Heatmaps

Heatmaps are an exquisitely simple and effective way to bring attention to specific details in your data. Heatmaps are graphs that color code data cells based on how they relate to one another. Using custom colors, you can create an eye-catching chart that quickly displays the meaning of your data.

b. Clear Chart Formatting

When creating charts, you can risk over-formatting them, which can make the data confusing or misleading. Before you finalize a chart, it's always best to minimize the formatting and get back to a clean look. This can be done by selecting the 'default' or 'auto-format' option in Excel, or by selectively unchecking the formatting options.

6. Automate Dashboard Updating

Unless you want to manually update your dashboards every time the underlying data changes, use the powerful tools in Excel to help automate the process. Once set up, automating dashboards brings not only convenience, but increased accuracy and speed, as well as saving you time in the long run. Here are some tips to assist you in automating your Excel dashboard.

a. Refresh Data with Data Connections

For your Excel dashboards to be up-to-date, the data behind them must be up-to-date. Most of the time, this means refreshing data from external sources such as text files, other spreadsheets, databases, and more. To do this, use the Data Connections feature in Excel. While setting up a data connection can be complicated, its usage is simple. After you’ve connected to a data source, you simply click the Refresh icon in the Connections pane to refresh the data. This can be done manually or set to refresh on an interval.

b. Automate Charts

In addition to refreshing data, you can also automate charts. When you create charts connecting to data, any changes made to the data will be reflected in the chart. You can either turn off chart updating which will stop the chart from reflecting data changes or you can let updates occur on an automatic or manual basis. To change chart update settings, go to the Tools menu, select Options and click the Chart tab.

By taking the time to automate your Excel dashboards, you will be able to save time and gain accuracy. Automate the process and watch your dashboards come to life!

Conclusion

These ten tips for building Excel dashboard charts easily are a great way to improve data visualization. They give you the tools and techniques to create the polished graphics you need to make informed decisions.

Summary of Tips

• Understand how to strategize the display of data.
• Organize charts into row and column formats.
• Choose the right chart type for the data.
• Add colors and figures to highlight key data points.
• Incorporate labels and legends for more effective storytelling.
• Use data newsfeeds to get the information you need.
• Sort and filter data to get the most out of it.
• Create interactive dashboards from color coded results.
• Link data sources for more flexibility.
• Share and export data for viewing and analysis.

Benefits of Using Excel Dashboard Charts

The tips mentioned above not only help you to quickly create easy-to-understand visualizations, they also let you leverage the powerful features of Microsoft Excel to manipulate data and gain insights. With the various graphics options and the ability to link data sources and export data, Excel dashboards provide the interactivity and flexibility needed to make informed decisions.