Building Customized Charts & Dashboards in Excel

Introduction

Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool for data processing and business analytics. It can help you organize and visualize data, allowing you to make informed decisions based on trends and patterns in the data. One way to quickly analyze your data is to build customized charts and dashboards in Excel.

What is Excel?

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet software used to manipulate and visualize data. It can be used to store and analyze large amounts of data, make calculations, create charts and graphs, and more. It can quickly organize, filter, and visualize data to help you make informed decisions.

Benefits of using Excel

• Organize and maintain data in an easily modified format
• Accessible by multiple users to coordinate schedules, projects and other details
• Create charts and graphs to portray data visually
• Access built-in functions (count, sum, average, etc.) for more complex data analysis

Overview of Customized Charts & Dashboards in Excel

Excel offers several features to help you quickly analyze your data with customized charts and dashboards. You can create a variety of charts such as bar graphs, line graphs, pie charts, and scatter plots. With the use of a PivotTable, you can also create interactive dashboards, giving you the ability to quickly and easily filter and summarize the data.

Pre-requisites for Building Charts & Dashboards in Excel

Creating customized charts and dashboards in Microsoft Excel can be a daunting task. But with the right set of skills and a few helpful tools, you can construct visual representations of data that stand out from the rest. In this chapter, we will explore the pre-requisites necessary to build impressive charts and dashboards in Excel.

Skills and Tools Required

Creating effective visuals in Excel requires a mixture of design acumen and data knowledge. Knowing where to place data points relative to each other and understanding how to communicate complex concepts with graphical objects are invaluable when creating visuals. Fortunately, data storytelling tutorials and exercises are available to help hone these skills.

In addition to raw skills, there are a few helpful tools that can make constructing charts and dashboards much easier. Microsoft Excel includes many basic functions and features that can be utilized to design eye-catching visuals. Third-party tools such as Tableau and Qlikview can also bolster a user's design prowess. Fortunately, many of these tools come with tutorials and guides that can be very helpful in learning their finer points.

Computer Software Requirements

In addition to the set of skills, tools, and knowledge outlined in the previous section, there are a few computer software requirements for building chart and dashboard visuals in Excel. Most major computer operating systems such as Microsoft Windows 8, Mac OS X, and Linux support Microsoft Excel. With the help of programs such as Open Office and Libre Office, Excel is compatible with all major operating systems. Additionally, both Open Office and Libre Office are free downloads.

Excel Online, available through most major web browsers, allows users to create charts and dashboards in a cloud-based environment. Users can collaborate with each other in real-time while constructing visual presentations. Excel Online also includes on-demand basic and advanced tutorials that can be of great help when first starting out.

Tutorials & Guides Available

When first starting out, tutorials and guides can be a great resource for learning the finer points of Excel. Microsoft's Excel 2016 for Mac tutorial offers users step-by-step instructions on creating visuals from scratch. The tutorial includes lessons on formatting information, labeling charts and adding text boxes among other topics.

In addition to tutorials, online guides are available for more advanced customization options. Power Query is a Microsoft query tool that allows users to load data from multiple sources such as other Excel documents or text files. The “Power Query 101” guide from Microsoft provides detailed information on using Power Query for chart and dashboard creation.

Getting Started with Your First Chart or Dashboard

Customizing statistical charts and dashboards in Microsoft Excel is an incredibly useful tool to provide visual representation of data that can supplement reports, presentations and analytics. Before starting, let's take a closer look at the many options available, guidelines to successful customization and what it takes to create your own chart or dashboard.

Choosing a Template Layout

As a first step, it's important to choose a template layout that is compatible with your data. It's typically good practice to analyze the data you need to represent, before selecting a layout type. Consider the following points:

• What type of data are you needing to present: quantitative or qualitative?
• Are you presenting individual pieces of data or trends?
• Is there a certain hierarchy or structure to the data?
• How much info do you need the chart to show?

Some popular Excel chart and dashboard templates include pie chart, bar chart, waterfall chart and radar chart. Knowing what type of data you're dealing with can help you select the most appropriate layout type.

Choosing the Right Chart Type

While the template layout can provide a framework for how the chart will ultimately look like, the chart type can largely influence how the resultant data is represented. Excel offers many different types of charts, such as line and scatter charts, bubble graph, column and area charts, among many more. Depending on the data set and the requirements, choose the chart type that will effectively communicate the magnitude of the data points and any correlation between them.

Gather Data & Create the Chart

Once the layout and type of chart have been established, begin to gather the data needed, structure it in a way that's needed and then create the chart. It's essential that the data being used is accurate and verifiable before finalizing the chart. Excel also offers third-party data visualization tools, such as 'Data Explorer' and 'Power Map', that can further enhance the resulting representation.

With the right framework and data, creating a customized chart or dashboard in Excel is a straightforward process that yields a useful visual representation of data.

Enhancing & Customizing Your Chart or Dashboard

When it comes to customizing your chart or dashboard in Excel, there are several points to consider in order to have an aesthetically pleasing and legible end product. With a few simple steps, you can add a layer of professionalism and clarity for the people who are looking at your work.

Proper Layout & Legibility Considerations

Where possible, it’s best to take advantage of any layout features that Excel provides. For example, a chart should always be squared off by itself - rather than having a lot of space around it. Similarly, labels should be placed in an organized and consistent manner, as it will make your chart easier to read and comprehend at a glance.

Adding Descriptive Text & Labels

Including useful text and labels can help further describe the chart or dashboard to any readers. Common pieces of information to include are heading titles, axis & value labels, and column names. Having this information available makes it easier to interpret the data and can provide a better understanding of the context.

Chart Color & Visual Enhancements

Adding color to your chart can help differentiate between data points, visually group related sections together, and provide an overall pleasant outlook. Many themes and stylesheets are already preloaded in Excel, but if those don’t suit your data, you can always manually adjust the color palette. Furthermore, various visual enhancements such as shadows and 3D effects can be used to add a point of interest and help distinguish graphs.

Creating Dashboards for Reporting

The raw data has been collected, collated, and sorted into understandable charts and reports. But charts and reports alone only offer a static snapshot of the data. To gain real insight and to make better decisions, data needs to be put into context and communicated in fast-paced and effective manner. Dashboards provide an ideal platform to connect all the relevant data sources, consolidate them into one dashboard, and use interactive visualization to create an engaging experience.

Adding Multiple Charts & Graphs into a Dashboard

In Excel, the ability to add multiple charts and graphs into a dashboard is easy and straightforward. Begin by clicking on the Insert tab on the ribbon and select the type of chart or graph that you want to add. You can customize these charts or graphs as desired and add them to your dashboard. You can also see an overview of all the charts and graphs that you have added by clicking on the Data tab.

Adding Tables for Reports & Tables

In addition to charts and graphs, you can also add tables and reports to your dashboard. To add a table, click on the Table tab on the ribbon, select the data that you want to include, and click OK to add the table to your dashboard. You can customize these tables with a variety of design options such as color, fonts, borders, and shading.

Using Excel Filtering & Sorting Tools

To take your dashboard to the next level, you can make use of Excel's filtering and sorting tools. These tools allow you to fine-tune the data in your dashboard and make better-informed decisions. For example, you can quickly filter the data based on a specific criterion and sort the information based on different parameters. This will help you spot trends, outliers, and other important pieces of data quickly and accurately.

• Filtering data based on a specific criterion
• Sorting data based on different parameters

Tips & Best Practices

Making the most customizing of charts and dashboards in Excel requires paying attention to the important details that come into play when you are visualizing data. Here are some tips and best practices to use when you are creating custom charts and dashboards in Excel.

Use Layering to Space Out Tables & Graphs

Layering your tables and graphs is one of the best ways to ensure that your chart or dashboard is easy to read and understand. When you layer your chart components, you create a visual hierarchy that allows you to see the connections between the data points without making the chart overcrowded and difficult to interpret. In Excel, there are several ways to layer your components including adding a blank space between them, overlaying one component on top of another, and adding characters or arrows between related components.

Group & Format Graphs & Tables Together

Grouping graphs and tables together is another important best practice for customizing charts and dashboards in Excel. This allows you to create one uniform design that is easy to read and understand. Grouping also allows you to make changes to the overall design of the chart quickly and easily since you don't have to manually update individual components. You can also use formatting to create a custom look that matches your project's style.

Make Use of Conditional Formating

Conditional formatting can be a powerful tool when you are building custom charts and dashboards in Excel. It allows you to highlight key data points that are critical to understanding your data or to draw attention to negative changes or trends. Conditional formatting can also be used to color code different data points or to automate certain formatting tasks that you manually do each time.

Conclusion

Excel provides a variety of useful tools that enable the user to build customized charts and dashboards. By utilizing Excel's graphical and charting options, the user can create functional and visually appealing data visualizations. These visualizations can then be adapted and embedded into dashboards, giving users access to vital information at a glance.

Takeaway Points

• Excel's numerous options allow users to create customized charts and dashboards.
• Users can utilize the range of Excel charts to create an effective and informative data visualization.
• Excel dashboards are great tools for providing users with key information.
• Creating effective graphs and dashboards takes practice but is vital for businesses.

Resources & Links for Further Learning

• GCF Learn Free - Excel 2016
• Microsoft - Guide to Graph Types
• Smartsheet - The Ultimate Guide to Building Useful Excel Dashboards

Summary of Benefits & Uses

Charts and dashboards created in Excel benefit businesses in that they can be used to present complex data in a clear and visually appealing way and can be used as tools for communicating key information. For example, dashboards can provide up-to-date, real-time data or summarise data from a variety of sources so that decisions can be made quickly and effectively.