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Custom Excel Charts is one of the popular visualization tools among professionals and small business owners.
The easy-to-use visualization tool was developed by Microsoft for:
Excel comes with calculation capabilities, pivot tables, charts, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications.
Besides, it forms part of the Microsoft Office suite.
The spreadsheet tool has the basic features you’ll find in all apps, including Google Sheets. It’s made up of cells arranged in numbered rows and letter-named columns.
Also, the application has an extensive library of functions to answer statistical, engineering, and financial queries. Excel can display data as graphs, maps, charts, and tables.
However, it lacks custom charts for specialized exercises, such as survey visualization.
You don’t have to discard your Excel in favor of other expensive data visualization instruments. You can supercharge it with a particular add-in to access ready-made custom charts and graphs.
Before diving right into the how-to guide, we’ll address the following question: what is a custom chart?
Definition: A Custom chart is a visual illustration you can use as a backdrop for your data stories.
The first step to creating compelling custom Excel charts is understanding how our perception works.
Contrary to what you may have learned, perceiving an image is complex and cannot be explained using a video camera analogy.
In his book, The Functional Art, Alberto Cairo, argues that illusion plays a significant role in how we see the world. For instance, if you’re looking at a screen, it seems like everything is within a 180-degree angle.
Charts and graphs reinforce Cairo’s argument by morphing large and bulky data organized in tables into emotionally appealing visual content.
Some of the custom charts you’ve got to try include:
In the coming section, we’ll address the importance of charts for data analysis in Excel.
A chart can help you bring hidden insights to light in an easier-to-interpret way than blocks of text by visually showing the causal relationships, patterns, and trends, including through techniques like Waterfall analysis.
Besides, it’s a much better approach than displaying lists or tables of numbers that force your audience to process data to determine hidden trends, patterns, and relationships.
Technology has made it easier for you to separate noise from signals in your data. In many cases, it has automated the generation of chord diagrams and other charts and graphs for your data stories.
For instance, a Bar Chart that shows how costs vary between two similar factories can help management quickly uncover the underlying problem and deal with it.
One of the significant merits of using custom Excel Charts, such as Circular Chart in Excel, is that they present data insights in a visually interesting way to the audience. A table may have exactly as much information as a graph, but it is more monotonous and time-consuming for your audience.
Conversely, a chart provides a straightforward way for you to craft compelling data stories.
Let’s dive into the list of custom Excel charts you’ve got to try this year.
A Stacked Waterfall Chart is a visualization that displays the cumulative impact of sequential positive and negative values using stacked bars. Each step is represented by a stacked bar, where the height of the bar indicates the total cumulative value at that point.
Here is cash flow data for a certain business. Let’s create a Chart of this data:
| Stacks | Bridges | Amount |
| Sales | Mobiles | 20025 |
| Sales | Tablets | 9746 |
| Sales | PCs | 7095 |
| Services | Mobiles | 3959 |
| Services | Tablets | 6650 |
| Services | PCs | 9077 |
| Total Revenue | Mobiles | 23984 |
| Total Revenue | Tablets | 16396 |
| Total Revenue | PCs | 16172 |
| Marketing | Mobiles | -4630 |
| Marketing | Tablets | -2360 |
| Marketing | PCs | -2650 |
| Transportation Cost | Mobiles | -2150 |
| Transportation Cost | Tablets | -935 |
| Transportation Cost | PCs | -965 |
| Salaries | Mobiles | -3360 |
| Salaries | Tablets | -2340 |
| Salaries | PCs | -1130 |
| Wages | Mobiles | -3510 |
| Wages | Tablets | -2390 |
| Wages | PCs | -930 |
| Operating Cost | Mobiles | -640 |
| Operating Cost | Tablets | -3700 |
| Operating Cost | PCs | -1240 |
| Taxes | Mobiles | -4180 |
| Taxes | Tablets | -1800 |
| Taxes | PCs | -5460 |
| Net Income | Mobiles | 5514 |
| Net Income | Tablets | 2871 |
| Net Income | PCs | 3797 |
A Radar Chart is a two-dimensional visualization design you can use to visualize two or more key data points. You can compare the performance of key metrics using the chart. A Radar Chart is also called a Radar Graph.
Check out the table below. Can you provide key insights into the table below?
| Flavors | Quarters | Sales |
| Strawberry | Q1 | 336 |
| Strawberry | Q2 | 562 |
| Strawberry | Q3 | 629 |
| Strawberry | Q4 | 138 |
| Vanilla | Q1 | 912 |
| Vanilla | Q2 | 578 |
| Vanilla | Q3 | 297 |
| Vanilla | Q4 | 194 |
| Mango | Q1 | 203 |
| Mango | Q2 | 916 |
| Mango | Q3 | 400 |
| Mango | Q4 | 196 |
Note the difference after visualizing the data table above.
Vanilla was the best-performing ice cream flavor in Q3. On the other hand, the mango flavor performed well in Q2.
A Sunburst Chart shares a resemblance with a Pie Graph. The chart is best suited for visualizing hierarchical data. Each hierarchy is depicted by a ring in the chart.
Check out the table below. Can you provide key insights into the table below?
| Pet Shelter | Pet Category | Pet Type | No. of Adoption |
| Pet Shelter | Fish | Catfish | 50 |
| Pet Shelter | Fish | Molly | 33 |
| Pet Shelter | Fish | Betta | 25 |
| Pet Shelter | Mammal | Dogs | 90 |
| Pet Shelter | Mammal | Cats | 60 |
| Pet Shelter | Mammal | Mice | 30 |
| Pet Shelter | Birds | Lovebirds | 33 |
Note the difference after visualizing the data table above.
The mammals category accounts for a huge chunk of animals in the pet shelter, followed by fish and birds.
In the mammals category, dogs account for the largest population, closely followed by cats.
A Likert Scale Chart is a one-dimensional visualization design you can leverage to visualize the respondents’ attitudes and opinions.
This psychometric scale comes in handy if your goal is to understand the views and perspectives of your brand.
Check out the table below. Can you provide key insights into the table below?
| Questions | Scale | Responses |
| How do you rate our cleaning staff’s behavior? | 1 | 324 |
| How do you rate our cleaning staff’s behavior? | 2 | 176 |
| How do you rate our cleaning staff’s behavior? | 3 | 230 |
| How do you rate our cleaning services? | 1 | 138 |
| How do you rate our cleaning services? | 2 | 186 |
| How do you rate our cleaning services? | 3 | 176 |
| Will you recommend our services in your circle? | 1 | 0 |
| Will you recommend our services in your circle? | 2 | 138 |
| Will you recommend our services in your circle? | 3 | 186 |
Note the difference after visualizing the data table above.
A Pyramid Chart (aka Funnel Chart) is a visualization design that displays the sales pipeline.
The graph is named after its shape, which starts with a broad head and ends with a narrow one. The number of prospects at each stage is depicted by the width.
Let’s say you have the sales pipeline data below for a store.
| Stages | Total Intake |
| Initial contact | 100000 |
| Lead qualification | 69000 |
| Product demo | 45000 |
| Proposal | 23000 |
| Evaluation | 11000 |
| Closing | 6000 |
Note the difference after visualizing the data table above.
In the ensuing section, we’ll take you through customized charts in Excel.
Excel is one of the most used visualization instruments. However, the spreadsheet application lacks ready-made custom Excel Charts, such as Funnel charts, tornado charts, and Radar Charts.
We’re not advising you to do away with Excel in favor of other expensive tools.
This is because there’s an amazingly affordable visualization tool that comes as an add-in you can easily install in Excel to access insightful and ready-to-go custom Excel charts. The tool is called ChartExpo.
So, what is ChartExpo?
ChartExpo is an add-in you can easily install in your Excel without needing tutorials.
With many ready-to-go and insightful charts, graphs, and maps, ChartExpo turns your complex, raw data into easy-to-interpret and visually appealing custom charts that tell data stories in real time.
More benefits
This section will use a Sentiment Trend Chart to visualize the survey data below.
You don’t want to miss this if your goal is to take your data storytelling to the next level.
| Weeks | Rolex | Omega |
| Week-1 | 1,005 | 1087 |
| Week-2 | 667 | 620 |
| Week-3 | 1,421 | 1145 |
| Week-4 | 1091 | 1061 |
| Week-5 | 1408 | 1142 |
| Week-6 | 968 | 742 |
A chart can help you bring hidden insights to light in an easier-to-interpret way by visually showing the causal relationships, patterns, and trends.
Besides, it’s a much better approach than displaying lists or tables of numbers that force your audience to process data to determine trends and relationships.
Colors make critical elements stand out.
Besides, they can help you to highlight the most important insights in your data stories.
By using contrasting colors, you can help viewers see the big picture, especially if you’re comparing key data points. Gray color can help you hide less important elements in your charts.
Excel is one of the popular tools of visualization among professionals and small business owners.
The easy-to-use visualization tool was developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.
The tool comes with calculation capabilities, pivot tables, charts, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications. And it forms part of the Microsoft Office suite.
Excel has the basic features you’ll find in all spreadsheet apps, including Google Sheets. It’s made up of cells arranged in numbered rows and letter-named columns.
Also, the application has an extensive library of functions to answer statistical, engineering, and financial queries. Excel can display data as graphs, maps, charts, and tables.
However, it lacks custom charts for specialized exercises, such as survey data storytelling.
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