Charts and Dashboards: Thermometer Chart Part 2
5 November 2021
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.
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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.
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I then started creating a chart for Mary.
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To make it look more authentic, I can add an oval from the ‘Insert Shape’ area on the Insert tab:
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I add this to the bottom of my chart:
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I can use the ‘Format Shape’ pane to set Line to ‘No line’.
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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’.
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I can then choose the data for John:
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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:
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I check I am in the right Data Series, and then reset the Fill and Border to ‘No fill’ and ‘Solid line’.
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That’s much better! Now I repeat the process for Newbie:
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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.