The Overlapping Bar Chart (OBC) is one of the best-suited charts for displaying the comparison insights and composition of key variables in your data.
The visualization design is one of the easiest to read and interpret charts due to its minimalist design (as you shall see later).
Excel, one of the popular tools for visualizing data, does not natively support Overlapping Bar Charts. And this means you cannot display overlapping data using the tool.
It turns out there’s an add-in you can easily download and install in your Excel to access visually stunning and ready-made Overlapping Bar Charts. How to show overlapping data in Excel should never throw a curveball at you.
In this blog, you’ll learn:
Definition: An Overlapping Bar chart is best-suited in comparing two distinct variables. An Overlapping Bar Chart Excel is more valuable than the Stacked Bar Chart, especially if your goal is to display comparison insights.
The visualization design is similar to a standard Stacked Bar Chart. However, unlike a Stacked Diagram, its composite variables that contribute to the whole, start at the baseline.
Besides, the chart requires three data columns or rows from your data set—one for categories, one for the series in each category, and one for values.
The chart is more valuable than the Grouped Bar Chart because it uses color strategically to display comparison insights. More so, you can leverage the chart to display insights into current progress against the benchmark.
Keep reading because we’ll cover how to show overlapping data in the Excel spreadsheet in the next section.
Excel is one of the most used tools for visualizing data because it’s free and easy to use.
However, a ready-made Overlapping Bar Chart does not exist in the Excel’ chart library. But this does not mean you should ditch this freemium data visualization tool.
Did you know you can supercharge your Excel with add-ons to access visually stunning and ready-to-go Overlapping Bar Graphs?
Yes, you can increase the functionality of your tool and access ready-made Overlapping Bar Chart in Excel for your data stories.
The add-on we recommend you to use is ChartExpo.
So, what is ChartExpo?
We recommend this tool (ChartExpo) because it’s super easy to use.
You don’t need to take programming classes to extract insights from your data. ChartExpo is more of a ‘drag-and-drop tool,’ which means you’ll only need to scroll your mouse and fill in respective metrics and dimensions in your data.
More so, this Overlapping Bar Chart generator comes with a 7-day free trial period.
ChartExpo empowers you to visualize diverse data types, such as sales and marketing data, annual reports, etc.
More so, the tool produces charts that are incredibly easy to read and interpret. And it allows you to save charts and graphs in the world’s most recognized formats, namely PNG and JPG.
How to show overlapping data in Excel should never throw a curveball at you. Keep reading to discover more.
This section will use Overlapping Bar Chart to display insights into the tabular data below.
| Countries | Public Spending | Private Spending |
| Switzerland | 5038 | 2881 |
| USA | 4860 | 5032 |
| Canada | 3341 | 1412 |
| Australia | 3190 | 1518 |
| Israel | 1702 | 1120 |
To install the ChartExpo add-in into your Excel, click this link.
As we said, how to show overlapping data in Excel should never stress or even consume your precious time, Use ChartExpo.
In the following video, you will learn How to Create an Overlapping Bar Chart in Excel.
An Overlapping Bar chart is best-suited in comparing two distinct variables. An Overlapping Bar Chart Google Sheets is more useful than the Stacked Bar Chart, especially if your goal is to display comparison insights.
The visualization design is similar to a standard Stacked Bar Chart.
No, Excel does not natively support Overlapping Bar Chart. However, you can supercharge the spreadsheet application by downloading and installing third-party apps, such as ChartExpo add-in.
The tool is straightforward to use and generates visually stunning and ready-made Overlapping Bar Graphs.
The Overlapping Bar Chart (OBC) is one of the best-suited charts for displaying the comparison and composition of key variables in your data.
The visualization design is one of the easiest to read and interpret graphs due to its minimalist design.
Excel, one of the popular tools for visualizing data, does not natively support Overlapping Bar Charts. And this means you cannot display overlapping data using the tool.
How to show overlapping data in Excel should never throw a curveball at you.
We recommend you try ChartExpo because it’s one of the most trusted add-ins. Besides, it has a super-friendly user interface for everyone, irrespective of their computer skills.
Create a simple, ready-made, and easy-to-interpret Overlapping Bar Chart today without breaking a sweat.
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