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...
Find Future and Present Values from Scheduled Cash Flows in Excel
"I would like a Future Value command similar to the XIRR and XNPV functions, which allow compounding by using an interest rate and referencing...
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....
How to Fight Spreadsheet Hell with Three Excel Lookup Functions
(I wrote this long ago, and there's much to be added. It's high on my Update list. Charley)
Many Excel users build their reports like...
How to Reproduce Your Excel Work Across Many Categories, Part 2 of 3
As I explained in Part 1 of this series, Excel users often need to apply many instances of data to one model or forecast, list...
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 Your Rate of Change to Reveal Hidden Business Performance
What insights can you gain from the following Excel chart of Apple's quarterly revenues over the past 18 years?
I see three things. First, their...
How to Create Dynamic Chart Legends in Excel
When I saw a chart designed like the ones below in the Wall Street Journal, I knew I had to create one just like...
Excel and the Rule of 72
I recently learned that my son—who's an avid amateur investor—had never heard of the Rule of 72.
The rule of 72, I texted him, says...
The Two Functions You MUST Know to Return Values from Excel Tables
“Export to Excel is the 3rd most common button in BI apps…after OK and Cancel.”
—Rob Collie, one of the founding engineers behind PowerPivot at...