An Area Chart is one of the visualization designs experts use to display trends over time among related variables in your data.
The chart uses a combination of a line chart and color to display trends of key data points over time.
The Area Graph is amazingly easy to read and interpret. And it has a minimalist design, which plays a critical role in mitigating clutter.
Excel comes with pretty basic Area Charts. And this means you’ve got to spend extra time and effort editing your charts. We’re not recommending you do away with the data visualization application.
Download and install a particular add-in (which we’ll talk about later) access a ready-to-use Area Chart in Excel. Yes, you read that right.
In this blog, you’ll learn the following:
Before diving into the how-to guide, let’s address the following:
An Area Chart is a visualization design that uses a line graph and color combination to display trend and pattern insights into key data points in a specified period.
The chart shares similarities with the Line Graph. In both visualization designs, key data points are connected via lines. However, the chart uses color, unlike the Line Graphs.
The Area Chart in Excel is best-suited in displaying patterns and trends of key data points.
There are three types of Area Chart in Excel Let’s check them out.
This variant of Area Chart in Excel is best suited in displaying changes of key variables over time.
The variable depicted by the y-axis is the metric. On the other hand, the main dimension in the chart is time. For instance, the chart above displays the growth trend of units sold in the last 9 years.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
A Stacked Area Chart is a visualization design you can use to display trends and patterns of two or more variables in data. Besides, it shows relationships between variables over time.
Each line in the chart is shaded from its peak to a common baseline. The top line corresponds to the aggregate value when summing across all groups.
You can use the variant of Stacked Area Chart in Excel to:
You can use the Area Line Chart to plot two different data series.
This chart achieves the task (above) using a secondary Y-axis on the right-hand side. More so, you can use the Area Line Chart to display the relationship between two variables.
In other words, this chart is convenient in uncovering hidden insights into the relationship between two or more measures with different scales and measures.
Area Chart in Excel is ideal if your goal is to display patterns and trends. Check out the practical application of the visualization design below.
The Area Chart Google Sheets is ideal for displaying insights into the yearly sales data of a business.
One of the best charts to track performance in a specified time is the Area Chart. As we said, the chart is ideal for tracking trends and patterns in a specified period.
Area Charts are effective, especially when comparing two or more metrics in your data.
Keep reading because you’ll learn how to create Area Chart in Excel in the coming sections.
Excel does not natively support Area Charts. In other words, one of the options available to you is plotting the graph manually, which is incredibly time-intensive.
You don’t have to undergo all this.
Download and install a particular third-party add-in into your Excel to access ready-made Area Charts.
There are thousands of add-ins purposely designed for Excel. To simplify things, we tested over 60 data visualization-based add-ins.
We narrowed down our results based on the following factors:
The Excel add-in that met all our conditions is ChartExpo.
The tool comes with ready-made charts that need minimum editing.
Let’s take a closer look at ChartExpo.
ChartExpo is an Excel-based add-in with an ultra-friendly user interface to ensure that any professional can visualize data, irrespective of their coding or programming skills.
How to create Area Chart in Excel should never throw a curveball at you. Keep reading to discover more.
This section will teach you how to visualize data using Area Chart in ChartExpo.
Install the application into your Excel by clicking this link to get started.
We’ll use Area Chart in Excel to visualize the table below.
| Year | Units Sale |
| 2012 | 20730000 |
| 2013 | 39990000 |
| 2014 | 72290000 |
| 2015 | 125050000 |
| 2016 | 150260000 |
| 2017 | 169220000 |
| 2018 | 231220000 |
| 2019 | 211880000 |
| 2020 | 216760000 |
| 2021 | 217720000 |
You can also use ChartExpo Google Sheets add-in to create area chart in google sheets.
Check out the key components of an Area Chart in Excel.
The title guides the audience by providing additional information about the chart.
The legend helps the audience to decode the variables under the display. And this means you should always include a legend in all the axes of the Area Chart.
The y-axis is the vertical line in a Cartesian-based chart that represents the independent variables (metric).
The x-axis is the horizontal line of the Area Graph that represents the dimensional variable in your data.
An Area Chart is a visualization design that uses a line graph and color combination to display pattern and trend insights into key data points in a specified period.
The Area Chart in Excel is best-suited in displaying patterns and trends of key data points.
Area Charts are visualization designs that combine a line graph and color to display trends and patterns in data.
There’re 3 main types of area charts, namely:
All the graphs mentioned above use color to depict changes in variables.
An Area Chart is one of the visualization designs experts use to display trends over time among related variables in your data. The visualization design uses a combination of a line chart and color to display trends of key data points over time.
The Area Chart in Excel is amazingly easy to read and interpret. And it has a minimalist design, which plays a critical role in mitigating clutter.
Excel is one of the handy data visualization tools among business owners and professionals worldwide. But it comes with basic Area Charts. And this means you’ve got to spend extra time and effort editing your charts.
We’re not recommending you do away with the data visualization application.
So, what’s the solution?
We recommend you install third-party apps, such as ChartExpo, in Excel to access ready-to-use Area Charts.
ChartExpo is an add-in for Excel that’s loaded with insightful and ready-to-go Area Graphs, plus many charts. You don’t need programming or coding skills to visualize your data using the Area Chart in ChartExpo.
How to create Area Chart in Excel should never be a stressful affair.
Sign up for a 7-day free trial today to access ready-made Area Charts that are easy to interpret and visually appealing to your target audience.
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