How to Remove a Speed Bump From Your Excel Charts
Because managers need QUICK insight, we should remove as many speed bumps as possible from our reports and analyses.
The following figure with two Excel...
This Excel Analytical Charting Strategy Reveals an Economic Warning
With normal charts, you find data and then you plot it. But with analytical charts, you transform your data in various ways to discover...
Simple Transformations Can Reveal Hidden Patterns in Your Data
Excel users have at least two significant advantages over business professionals who rely on other analytical and reporting tools.
First advantage: We Excel users can...
Excel Bar Charts with Economic Indicators
The Excel figure below shows three indicators of the US economy. Two show economic improvements and one doesn't.
The Excel Perspective
Using column charts rather than...
Dashboard-Like Excel Charts of International Consumer Confidence
The following Excel figure displays its charts in a dashboard-like format. At least, it's in a format that dashboards should use!
When you use simple...
Add Low-Overwhelm Context to Your Line Charts
The data you display in charts often takes on new meaning when you display it in the context of other data.
One way to add...
Chart of the New Economic Index that Tracks GDP Weekly
In April 2020, the Federal Reserve Economic Database (FRED) added a measure that will be followed closely during the Covid-19 economic devastation and recovery....
Professional Quality Excel Chart Labels, Legends, and Colors
The following Excel chart shows that Excel really CAN generate professional-quality chart figures.
Here are some general strategies to consider…
1. Set up your data-plumbing correctly....
Three Simple Tricks to Improve Analytical Charting in Excel
For years, my Excel charts of trends used a simple idea: To gain insights about periodic data, just chart it.
What else was there to...
An Excel Chart of a Major U.S. Supply Chain Problem
October 23, 2021
A shortage of truckers now appears to be the greatest problem with the United States' supply chain.
In fact, President Biden said in...
Latest Articles
Getting Radical with Excel
It's time to think about Excel in a radical new way—when we use it to work with business or economic data.
It's time, in fact,...
How Fast Is Too Fast?
(Originally published in Inc Magazine.)
What typically tops the list of worries of the chief executive officers of fast growing companies? Financing that growth, according...
How to Smooth Data by Using the TREND Function
Years ago, I read that Prof. William S. Cleveland had suggested that data could be smoothed by calculating a centered trendline through adjacent data—a...
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