25 Advanced Excel Chart Tips and Tricks

25 Advanced Excel Chart Tips and Tricks

These 25 tips and tricks will help you take your skills in creating Excel charts/graphs to the next level. The techniques apply to all modern versions of Excel (Excel 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel 365 that is part of Office 365). These tips donโ€™t require VBA, plug-ins, or add-ins so you can apply them right away. Here are the Excel charting tips and tricks in this video (with the time code for that tip in the video):

Introduction screen (0:00)
A shortcut key to access the format pane (0:04)
Select any data series or point if you canโ€™t click on it (1:39)
Quickly filter the series and/or categories shown on a chart (3:04)
Three ways to make gridlines less prominent so the data is the focus (5:35)
Two-level category labels to make a crowded axis clearer (7:23)
Use a data label on a single point to replace the legend in a line graph (9:10)
Use colored text in the chart title to replace the legend in a column graph (12:01)
Use a cell as the chart or axis title to make updating easier (13:36)
Create custom formatted data labels that include text and symbols (16:10)
Use custom number formatting to add indicators to data labels (19:43)
Add the % change above a pair of related columns (22:57)
Add explanations on a column or line chart without using a text box (27:55)
How to hide data points or data labels you donโ€™t want the viewer to see (31:20)
Automatically label the minimum and maximum values on a line graph (34:04)
Add a rolling average line to a column chart and have it update automatically (36:56)
Add the change % from a previous period to the end of the bars in a bar chart (40:54)
Add direction indicators for the change % at the end of bars in a bar chart (44:50)
Create a column of text for explanations on the right side of a bar chart (49:52)
Break a line graph into actual and estimated segments (54:05)
Keep a line continuous when there is missing data (55:59)
Compare actual to both last year and budget using dotted lines on a column chart (57:46)
Visually show how segments add to a total (1:02:33)
Show a range of possible values around an expected line on a line graph (1:05:14)
Create a column chart where the colors are set by the values (1:07:25)
The best way to copy a chart so it can be used for another region, department, or time period (1:12:28)

These tips and tricks are just a small part of what I share in my customized workshops for business professionals where I show them how to create clear visual messages of financial data. Learn more about my customized workshops and get inspired by examples of effective visuals at www.FinancialViz.com.

In the video I am using Excel 365 on Windows 10, and most modern versions of Excel will look very similar. If you like the video, please subscribe to the channel and add a comment below.

If you want to learn what you should do to create presentation-ready Excel charts that are easy to update and re-use, sign up for my free mini-course at https://thinkoutsidetheslide.teachable.com/courses/presentation-ready-excel-charts-that-are-easy-to-update-and-re-use/.

If you want quickly learn expert-level Excel techniques to create presentation-ready charts that are easy to update and re-use without programming, add-ins, or web tools, check out my Excel Chart Skills 501 course at https://thinkoutsidetheslide.teachable.com/p/excel-chart-skills-501/.

You can access the entire playlist of Excel Chart Tips videos at www.ExcelChartTips.com.

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