Chart / Graph Help

[Justinian]

I have a big presentation and my client loves to see images of how his money is being spent. That being said, he is a big fan of charts and graphs because there are so many numbers, it causes migraines to read them. What I do is break out vacation pay, straight labor, burdened labor, sick pay, headcounts, and hours worked on a weekly basis across seven different employee categories. I want to use something really clever and innovative - not just a boring scatter or stacked column - to really blow off his socks. No one has ever presented to him in this fashion and if I can set the bar high from the start, it will reflect very well upon me and my company.

Any idea? Template?

 

[Jed Shields]

You could try using drop down lists to populate a single graph, with the drop down list containing your 7 different areas. I also use a dynamic time scale, so that you you select the month and year, or week number on the furthest right of the chart, that way you can go back and forth with the data history but only see a window of x weeks at a time.

Both are easy to set up, you simply need to link your chart to a small data set that looks up against one that contains everything based on what you select.

Check this video I made a while ago for some other useful ideas...

KPI Dashboard Advanced options - YouTube

 

[Justinian]

Awesome. The video looks great! Thank you!

 

[Jed Shields]

No problem. Half the battle is knowing what can be done :D

 

[Justinian]

Are there also any add-ins for charts?

 

[PaddyD]

Places to go for chart inspiration:

AJP Excel Information

Chart Utilities and Tutorials for Microsoft Excel by Peltier Technical Services

 

[Justinian]

Thank you.

 

[Jed Shields]

I find this one invaluable, haven't really looked into anything else yet...

The XY Chart Labeler Add-in

 

[Justinian]

Does this just add labels?

 

[Jed Shields]

Yes, but it allows you to link a series data labels to a cell reference in one hit. Normally you'd have to go into each label and type the cell reference in the formula bar. Very laborious with a lot of data. I use a single data label to reference any one of many series that you are charting by linking it to a number of option buttons. ie click on option button 1 to change the data label value to series 1 values, click on option button 2 for series 2 values etc. It can be very useful if there's a lot of potential data labels floating about and you want to declutter the chart. Pretty easy to set up as well...