Variable width column charts and histograms in Excel

In Excel, the standard column chart will display all columns with the same width at regular intervals.  However, in some circumstances, it would be better for the width of each column to be different.  For example, where each column represents different ranges of data.  This same principle of column width also applies to histograms. Excel Read More

Creating custom Map Charts using shapes and VBA

Whenever I see promotional images for expensive BI Dashboard software, they always show the same thing – a map with countries or regions highlighted in different colors.  It sends the subtle message that maps are the pinnacle of Business Intelligence (whether they are or not is a different matter altogether).  Until Excel 2016, these Map Read More

The fastest way to create Bullet Charts

My first experience of Bullet Charts came from reading Information Dashboard Design by Stephen Few in 2007.  This was the year I started to get serious with dashboards. Initially, to create Bullet Charts I used the 3 stacked bar/column charts approach.  Later, I moved to using the two-axis stacked column where possible, but in general, Read More