In Line Charts vs. XY Charts I described the difference between these two Excel chart types. There is no difference in the ways you can format the series, so perhaps the names of the chart types are confusing. The differences are in the ways their respective X axes treat the X data. I discussed the [...]

Nathan Yau of FlowingData asks Can You Improve this Mediocre Statistical Graphic?

So what’s wrong with this chart?

In A Gauge Chart That Works?, Clint describes his efforts to come up with a dial-type chart that isn’t as terrible as most. He comments that Stephen Few’s Bullet Graphs are unfamiliar to most people, which is true, ans they’ve only been around for three or four years. Bullet graphs and most gauge-type charts are [...]

Come to Atlantic City, New Jersey, on September 24-26, 2008 for the Microsoft Excel User Conference (to be held at the Trump Taj Mahal).
The conference will feature working sessions and classes designed to expand a user’s working knowledge of the dominant spreadsheet software. These sessions will be led by respected leaders in the Microsoft [...]

A reader named Julie has a regular chart that is linked to a pivot table. When the pivot table is pivoted or updated, it may have different numbers of rows and columns, and the chart must be updated manually. Julie asked whether a procedure could be developed to update the chart automatically.
I’ve done this in [...]

XL Cubed (parent company of BonaVista Systems, maker of the MicroCharts add-in for Excel) has shown some very effective dashboard report examples in a couple of recent posts.
In 2008 Excel Dashboard Competition Winners the winners of the 2008 Excel Dashboard Competition are announced:
1. Wade Stokes – International Bank Dashboard
Displaying many disparate Banking Key Performance Indicators, [...]

In Chart Rules, As Simple as Possible, But Not Any Simpler!, More Information per Pixel! (the blog of XLCubed, the BonaVista Systems - MicroCharts parent company) has posted some comprehensive chart type selection guidelines, to follow up the recent brouhaha over pie and bar charts. It’s not inappropriate to repurpose a quotation from Einstein, because [...]

There has been a lot of discussion about pie charts and bar charts lately. I and many other know-it-alls have clearly stated that pie charts are the red-headed stepchildren in the family of chart types. In Peltier Loves Pie I provided some guidelines to follow if you still insist on using pie charts.
In this post [...]

Cynthia makes a mean cranberry-apple pie, and also a black bottom pie featuring a chocolate cookie crust, layers of chocolate and eggnog flavored pudding, and whipped cream. So you could accurately say that Peltier Loves Pie. But not pie charts.
There has been a lot of discussion about pie charts and bar charts lately. See for [...]

In The three laws of great graphs, Seth Godin gave these three laws for great graphs:
1. One Story
2. No Bar Charts
3. Motion

In Bar graphs vs. Pie charts, Seth further explains his comments about bar charts:
[T]he purpose of a chart or graph is to make one point, vividly.

I commented on Seth’s three laws in [...]