Hierarchically displaying data works magic, especially when creating data stories.
Why?
Our brains can easily recognize ranked order with almost no cognitive effort.
There’s a chart that is best-suited in displaying insights into data in a ranked order. And the chart is called a Treemap in Excel. The visualization design is amazingly easy to read and interpret, even for non-technical audiences (and readers).
Excel is the go-to visualization tool, especially among professionals and business owners. And this is because its parent company (Microsoft) has a solid reputation in other segments, such as operating systems. Besides, the application has been there for years, making it familiar to many.
However, Excel generates very basic Treemap Diagrams, which need extra effort and time in editing.
There’s an add-in you can easily install in your Excel to access ready-made and visually stunning Treemap in Excel, plus many more advanced visualization designs.
In this blog, you’ll learn the following:
Before diving right into the heart of the blog, let’s go through the definition of the visualization design.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
Treemap is a visualization design you can use to display insights using nested rectangles. Each data point is represented by a rectangle, whose area is proportional to its value.
You can use the chart to represent several dimensions of your data, such as groups and subgroups that contribute to the whole.
Check out the advantages of a Treemap Chart below.
A Treemap visualization is a rectangular graph that uses a series of nested rectangles to display subcategories of a variable that contributes to the whole.
There are two key components that make a Treemap in Excel stand out from other charts, namely, the efficient use of space and color to display insights into data variables.
The strategic use of color makes them an exceptional tool to visualize a significant volume of information in a wide variety of business applications.
Take a look at the table below.
Can you provide reliable insights into the table (below)?
Food Items | Category of Items | No. of Orders |
Salads | Classic Greek Salad. | 80 |
Salads | Pad Thai Salad | 70 |
Salads | Green Goddess Salad. | 100 |
Salads | Fruity Pasta Salad. | 50 |
Salads | Bulgur Wheat Salad. | 40 |
Salads | New Potato Salad. | 35 |
Salads | Garlicky Tomato Salad. | 45 |
Salads | Apple and Sprout Salad. | 45 |
Chicken Dishes | Greek Chicken with beans | 50 |
Chicken Dishes | Cooked Italian Chicken | 35 |
Chicken Dishes | Chicken Stroganoff | 70 |
Chicken Dishes | Chicken Rice | 60 |
Chicken Dishes | Thai Chicken Thighs | 85 |
Chicken Dishes | Cajun Chicken Lasagna | 30 |
Chicken Dishes | Chicken Stew | 90 |
Chicken Dishes | Smoky Spanish Chicken | 50 |
Mutton Dishes | Kabab Chenjeh | 45 |
Mutton Dishes | Mutton Rara | 30 |
Mutton Dishes | Dande Kabab | 50 |
Mutton Dishes | Quzi | 25 |
Mutton Dishes | Roast Lamb with Mint | 40 |
Mutton Dishes | Chanfana | 70 |
Mutton Dishes | Baranina | 20 |
Mutton Dishes | Mutton Satay | 50 |
Now, take a look at the Treemap Chart below.
As you can see, it’s now easy to tell a story of the data above.
For instance, Chicken dishes and salad are the customers’ favorite meals. Besides, customers like chicken stew, Chanfana, and green goddess salad more than other meals.
Keep reading because, in the next section, we’ll cover the situations when to use Treemap Chart.
Use Treemaps to uncover the ranked order of variables in your data.
The chart uses a series of rectangles to show the magnitude of key data points. The most giant rectangle represents the largest value. Conversely, the smaller rectangles depict the metrics with lower values.
You can use a combination of high contrast colors to create a differentiation of the ranked variables (by magnitude or size).
Use Treemap to compare the subcategories that contribute to the whole. In other words, it should be your go-to chart if your goal is to show part-to-whole relationships among the data points.
Treemaps are best known for using their vast space to display insights in a clear and easy-to-interpret manner. You can comfortably use the visualization design to visualize complex and bulky data without worrying about clutter.
Treemaps are not ideal if your goal is to display part-to-whole insights at the micro-level because of possible distortion of the sizes of rectangles.
Treemaps are highly preferred when in softcopy or interactive in nature. As we said, this chart is best-suited for visualizing bulky data, which sometimes makes them massive in size.
Most data analysts prefer to use the Treemap visualization because they can easily achieve the following goals:
Seasoned analysts regard Treemap in Excel as an alternative to traditional pie charts, often used to visualize “Part to Whole” relationships.
Keep reading because in the coming sections, we’ll cover how to create a Treemap Chart in Excel?
Excel has inbuilt charts you can use to extract answers from your data.
However, you’ll never find ready-to-use and visually stunning Treemaps for your analysis. The most viable option is to supercharge the usability of Excel with third-party add-ins to access ready-made Treemaps.
We suggest you install ChartExpo add-in into your Excel for the reasons listed below.
ChartExpo does not require coding or programming skills, unlike other data visualization-based add-ins. More so, it has an ultra-friendly UI for everyone to use.
This tool comes pre-loaded with a lot advanced charts to offset the missing ones in Excel. Use ChartExpo to produce Treemaps that are incredibly easy to read and understand.
How to make a Treemap Chart in Excel should never be time-consuming. Use ChartExpo to overcome this. You’ll learn more about this cutting-edge tool in the next section.
ChartExpo comes as an add-in for Excel.
Essentially, it turns your Excel into a reliable data visualization companion capable of delivering hidden insights into your data, irrespective of the size or complexity.
The premium Treemap in Excel maker comes with a 7-day free trial period.
The key benefit of ChartExpo is that it produces charts that are easy to read and interpret. More so, it allows you to save charts in the world’s most recognized formats, namely PNG and JPG.
ChartExpo is cloud-hosted, which makes it extremely light. You have a 100% guarantee that your computer or Excel won’t be slowed down.
Treemap chart in Excel is very easy to create if you are using ChartExpo add-in as it lets you create any chart in its list in few clicks. Let’s learn how to create a treemap chart in excel with the help of an example.
In this example, we’ll use Treemap in Excel to display insights into the tabular data below:
Food Items | Category of Items | No. of Orders |
Salads | Classic Greek Salad. | 80 |
Salads | Pad Thai Salad | 70 |
Salads | Green Goddess Salad. | 100 |
Salads | Fruity Pasta Salad. | 50 |
Salads | Bulgur Wheat Salad. | 40 |
Salads | New Potato Salad. | 35 |
Salads | Garlicky Tomato Salad. | 45 |
Salads | Apple and Sprout Salad. | 45 |
Chicken Dishes | Greek Chicken with beans | 50 |
Chicken Dishes | Cooked Italian Chicken | 35 |
Chicken Dishes | Chicken Stroganoff | 70 |
Chicken Dishes | Chicken Rice | 60 |
Chicken Dishes | Thai Chicken Thighs | 85 |
Chicken Dishes | Cajun Chicken Lasagna | 30 |
Chicken Dishes | Chicken Stew | 90 |
Chicken Dishes | Smoky Spanish Chicken | 50 |
Mutton Dishes | Kabab Chenjeh | 45 |
Mutton Dishes | Mutton Rara | 30 |
Mutton Dishes | Dande Kabab | 50 |
Mutton Dishes | Quzi | 25 |
Mutton Dishes | Roast Lamb with Mint | 40 |
Mutton Dishes | Chanfana | 70 |
Mutton Dishes | Baranina | 20 |
Mutton Dishes | Mutton Satay | 50 |
To install ChartExpo into your Excel, click this link.
To add a title to your Treemap, follow the simple steps below:
Analyzing spreadsheet tables is really a time-consuming affair. Besides, you’re unlikely to get reliable insights for decision-making purposes.
The key role of charts and graphs is to save you time. Besides, they can help you to display insights in a way that your audience can easily decode.
Treemap is a visualization design you can use to display insights using nested rectangles. Each data point is represented by a rectangle whose area is proportional to its value.
Treemaps are good for visualizing several dimensions of your data, such as groups and subgroups, that contribute to the whole.
Displaying data in a hierarchical manner is one of the expert-recommended ways of presenting your findings.
Why?
It’s proven that our brains can easily recognize ranked order with almost no cognitive effort.
Well, there’s a chart that is best-suited in displaying insights into data in a ranked order called a Treemap Chart. Besides, the graph is amazingly easy to read and interpret.
How to create a Treemap Chart in Excel (step by step) should never throw a curveball at you. Besides, Excel should not be your go-to Treemap in Excel generator if your goal is to access ready-to-use and visually stunning charts.
Why?
Excel spreadsheet application produces pretty basic Treemaps. And this means you have to spend more time customizing your charts.
We recommend you install a third-party application called ChartExpo to access ready-made and advanced charts. ChartExpo is an application you can easily download and install in your Excel spreadsheet.
Its extensive library has ready-made and visually stunning Treemaps, plus over many more advanced visualization designs. You don’t need coding skills to visualize your data using the Sunburst Visualization generator.
Sign up for a 7-day free trial today to access ready-to-use and easy-to-interpret Treemaps for your data stories.