Charts and Dashboards: Thermometer Chart Part 2

Welcome back to our Charts and Dashboards blog series. This week, I finish creating a Thermometer chart.

The results have come in for last year's sales for three of my imaginary salespeople.

I would like to be able to see at a glance how well they are doing against their targets. There are several ways I could do this, but I have chosen to create a Thermometer chart for each salesperson.

Last time, I added two new rows.

I then started creating a chart for Mary.

To make it look more authentic, I can add an oval from the ‘Insert Shape’ area on the Insert tab:

I add this to the bottom of my chart:

I can use the ‘Format Shape’ pane to set Line to ‘No line’.

Mary’s chart is done! I move it underneath Mary’s data, and copy the chart for John. I need to change John’s chart to point at his data, so I choose ‘Select Data’.

I can then choose the data for John:

Unfortunately, Excel has tried to help by making sure I can see the % Max series! To undo this, I right-click on the bar and go back to the ‘Format Data Series’ pane:

I check I am in the right Data Series, and then reset the Fill and Border to ‘No fill’ and ‘Solid line’.

That’s much better! Now I repeat the process for Newbie:

Now it’s easy to see how everyone is doing: Newbie needs to catch up!

That’s it for this week. Come back next week for more Charts and Dashboards tips.