29 comments My friend Paresh writes excellent commentary on charts on his blog. Last week he gave a home work, asking his readers to shown below. I found this quite interesting. Small multiples, also called as, are a powerful way to depict multidimensional data and bring out insights. They are easy to read too.
So, today, let us learn how to create such charts using Excel. Step 1: Arrange your data Almost any chart or visualization worth its salt must begin with proper arrangement of data. Since I could not get the data for the unemployment chart, I made up a few numbers for a fictional Confectionery Company. The data is shown below. So, we have the data for years 2007 thru 2010, for the regions – South, West & North and for the product lines – Chocolates & Biscuits Step 2: Select Products for one region & make an area chart This is simple. Just select data for chocolates & biscuits for one region and make an area chart.
Bar charts can be horizontal or vertical; in Excel, the vertical version is referred to as column chart. Here are some examples using fabricated data. In this section, we’ll provide steps and images to create a bar chart in Excel 2011 for Mac. Any differences in Microsoft-supported versions (2010. Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS.It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications.
You should have something like this: Step 3: Resize the area chart & format it Now, we need to make this area chart closer to what we want. Select the bottom area series and fill it with white color. Now resize the chart so that we can fit 3 of them in the area you got. Step 4: Add same data to the chart Now, select the same region data, press CTRL+C to copy it. Select the chart and paste it by pressing CTRL+V. See below demo to understand how to do this. We are doing this because we want to have lines with markers on our chart.
But the area chart lines cannot show markers. So we are going to add the same data one more time, but this time format it to be shown as a line. Step 5: Select the new series and format them as line charts Select each of the new area series and format as line chart with markers.
You should have something like this at the end. Step 6: Format the chart This is where you unleash the creativity. In order to match the look of NYTimes chart, here is what you can do. Set the fill color between lines to something dull. Format 2 lines in distinct colors. Format gridlines & axis lines to something dull.
Set axis maximum to 25 (as all charts in small-multiples should have same axis settings). Set axis major unit to 5. Step 7: Repeat this for other regions Now, just copy and paste this chart a couple of times.
Just adjust the data source so that we have new charts. Note: Learn how you can. You just made a small multiples chart that looks awesome. Download Small Multiples Example Workbook and play with it. You can see the steps for making one of the charts in the workbook as well. Do you use Small Multiples or Panel Charts? I really love to use small multiples or panel charts whenever I am analyzing data or presenting results of the same.
![Line Line](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125466263/661063417.png)
They offer excellent value per pixel. That said, they take some time to construct. Also, you must tweak axis settings and plot area to get the perfect result. That is why I prefer the in-cell variation of these charts. They are quick to setup and easy to wow (for more on these techniques, see below).
What about you? Do you use Small Multiples or Panel charts? How do you find them? Please share using comments.
Interested to learn more? Read these As you can guess, small multiples is one of my favorite ways to explore and present data. So we have written quite a few articles explaining this technique. Read these to learn more.
I find the shaded portion of the graph is a great way to show a range of values for a subject. If you treat the two lines as the upper and lower values (or best and worst case for example), the shaded region can describe the range available which works well for estimating future trends as is can represent the uncertainty of the calculations without pinpointing specific values. I found this post useful as I've been doing this in excel without knowing what it was called. I'm looking at stacking up various situations against each other with semi transparent shaded areas so the overlap can be observed.
I think treating the areas as wide line graphs is better visually than using error bars. Really love these charts. I've been trying to recreate with my data, but am running into some problems. Specifically, what happens if the lines cross over each other? The difference between the top & bottom reverses?
For example, I have two series: 2 4 5 1 3 7 In the 3rd column, the top & bottom series flips. I'd like to chart the 'middle shading' in two colors: green when the top bottom, and red when bottom top. I think it can be accomplished with the transparent stacked charts, but I'm not having much luck.
Any suggestions are much appreciated.