Make Beautiful Excel Charts Like The Economist (file included)

Leila Gharani
14 Mar 202419:06

Summary

TLDRThe video script offers a step-by-step guide on recreating visually appealing charts akin to those found in The Economist, using Excel. It covers the creation of a 100% stacked bar chart, a dumbbell chart, and a color-coded frequency table, all of which can be dynamically updated with Excel's features. The tutorial also highlights the use of Think-Cell, an add-in that streamlines the process of creating and updating charts in PowerPoint, promising significant time savings and ease of use for business presentations.

Takeaways

  • 📊 **Replicating The Economist-Style Charts in Excel:** The video provides a step-by-step guide on how to create charts similar to those published in The Economist within Excel, focusing on a dynamic and professional design.
  • 🚀 **Sponsor Acknowledgment:** Think-Cell is acknowledged as the sponsor of the video, offering a solution to reduce time spent on PowerPoint presentations and being trusted by 90% of Fortune 500 companies.
  • 🔄 **Dynamic Data Representation:** The tutorial emphasizes the importance of setting up charts in a dynamic way, allowing for easy updates and changes to reflect in the chart automatically.
  • 📈 **Customizing Bar Charts:** A bar chart is customized by placing category titles on top and adjusting colors, labels, and axis to mirror a design style seen in The Economist.
  • 🔗 **Linked Data and Titles:** The video demonstrates how to link chart titles to specific cells, ensuring that any changes in the titles are automatically reflected in the chart.
  • 📊 **Creating Dumbbell Charts:** A method for creating dumbbell charts, also known as connected dot plots, is explained, which is useful for showing changes or comparisons between two periods.
  • 🎯 **Scatter Plot Utilization:** The video uses a scatter plot to create a dumbbell chart, transforming non-numeric category labels into numeric positions to fit the requirements of a scatter plot.
  • 🔴 **Error Bars for Connection:** Error bars are used to create connecting lines in the dumbbell chart, with customization for positive and negative changes.
  • 🌈 **Color-Coded Data Visualization:** A non-traditional chart resembling a heat map is recreated, using color-coded cells to represent different categories of data, such as complaint frequencies.
  • 🔧 **Excel Table Functionality:** The script highlights the use of Excel tables to ensure dynamic data visualizations update automatically when new data is added.
  • 🖼️ **Incorporating Shapes and Icons:** The video shows how to insert custom shapes and icons into Excel cells to represent categories in a visually appealing and easily understandable manner.
  • 🔄 **Transposing Data for Visuals:** The UNIQUE and TRANSPOSE functions are used to organize data in a specific layout for creating visually appealing and informative charts.

Q & A

  • What is the main topic of the video?

    -The main topic of the video is how to create charts in Excel that resemble those found in The Economist, with a focus on replicating three specific types of charts.

  • Which company is sponsoring the video?

    -Think-Cell is the company sponsoring the video.

  • What is unique about the first chart featured in the video?

    -The first chart is unique because it is a bar chart where the titles for each category are on top instead of on the side, which makes it more compact and easier to understand.

  • How does the video adapt the first chart for a corporate context?

    -The video adapts the first chart for a corporate context by using it to compare the number of parts sourced from China and the United States by a manufacturing company.

  • What is a dumbbell chart or connected dot plot used for?

    -A dumbbell chart or connected dot plot is used to emphasize change or compare values between two different periods.

  • How does the video create a dynamic visual for the second chart?

    -The video creates a dynamic visual for the second chart by using a scatter plot with error bars to represent the change between two periods, and then adding labels and formatting to improve clarity.

  • What is the main benefit of using Think-Cell for PowerPoint presentations?

    -The main benefit of using Think-Cell for PowerPoint presentations is that it can significantly reduce the time spent on creating and updating slides, allowing for auto-updating charts and easy management of slide elements.

  • How does the third visual in the video differ from a traditional heat map?

    -The third visual in the video differs from a traditional heat map because it uses color-coded cells based on categories rather than a gradient of colors to represent data.

  • What method does the video suggest for creating a dynamic visual for the third chart?

    -The video suggests using an Excel table with XLOOKUP functions and inserting shapes as illustrations to create a dynamic visual for the third chart.

  • How does the video ensure that the created visuals in Excel are dynamic?

    -The video ensures that the visuals are dynamic by using Excel tables and functions like XLOOKUP, which automatically update when new data is added.

  • What additional resource is mentioned for learning about creating business charts in Excel?

    -The video mentions a new Business Charts course where viewers can learn to create charts that resemble those from McKinsey in Excel.

Outlines

00:00

📊 Replicating The Economist-Style Charts in Excel

This paragraph introduces the goal of replicating visually appealing charts from The Economist in Excel. It highlights the specific bar chart that will be recreated, emphasizing its unique design features such as the titles on top and the varied numerical scales. The paragraph then transitions into a practical example, showing how to create a similar chart in a corporate context by using a 100% stacked bar chart and adjusting its formatting to match the style of The Economist's chart.

05:04

📈 Creating a Dumbbell Chart for Employee Engagement Scores

The second paragraph focuses on creating a dumbbell chart, also known as a connected dot plot, which is useful for showing changes or comparisons between two periods. The example given involves plotting employee engagement scores for different departments over two years. The process involves using a scatter plot, translating non-numeric category labels into numbers, and adding connecting lines as error bars to visualize the change. The paragraph also discusses adjusting the chart's aesthetics and adding labels for clarity.

10:11

🚀 Enhancing PowerPoint Presentations with Think-Cell

This paragraph discusses the challenges of creating and presenting charts in PowerPoint and introduces Think-Cell as a solution. Think-Cell is an add-in that integrates Excel spreadsheets with PowerPoint, allowing for auto-updating charts and easy management of slide elements. The sponsor's offer of a free 30-day trial is highlighted, encouraging viewers to improve their presentations with this tool. The paragraph then transitions back to the main topic by introducing the next visual to be replicated in Excel.

15:14

🎨 Crafting a Dynamic Visual for IT Help Desk Complaints

The final paragraph describes the process of creating a dynamic visual representation for the frequency of IT help desk complaints across departments and years. The approach involves using an Excel table to ensure the visual updates automatically with new data. The paragraph details the steps of creating shapes in PowerPoint, saving them as pictures, and inserting them into Excel cells. It then explains how to use the XLOOKUP function to associate the correct shape with each complaint frequency and how to construct the final visual with a title and legend. The paragraph concludes by demonstrating the dynamic nature of the visual, which updates automatically when new data is added.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡Excel Charts

Excel Charts refer to the visual representations of data within Microsoft Excel, a widely used spreadsheet application. In the video, the focus is on creating sophisticated charts similar to those found in The Economist, which require careful design and formatting to effectively communicate complex information.

💡The Economist

The Economist is a globally recognized publication known for its in-depth analysis and sophisticated data visualization. In the context of the video, it serves as an inspiration for the style and quality of the Excel charts being created, with the goal of achieving a similar level of professional presentation.

💡Stacked Bar Chart

A stacked bar chart is a type of bar chart that displays multiple data series as stacked layers within a single bar, allowing for the comparison of multiple variables across different categories. In the video, the stacked bar chart is used to compare the number of ships, aircraft, and helicopters between China and the United States, with a unique design choice of placing titles on top of the bars.

💡Dumbbell Chart

A dumbbell chart, or connected dot plot, is a visualization tool that emphasizes changes or comparisons between two different periods or conditions. It typically consists of dots connected by lines to show the relationship between data points over time. In the video, a dumbbell chart is used to represent changes in men's life expectancy at the average age of retirement between the 1970s and 2020.

💡Color-Coded Frequency Table

A color-coded frequency table is a data visualization technique that uses color to represent different categories or levels of frequency within a dataset. This method allows for quick and easy identification of patterns or trends, as colors can be associated with specific ranges of data. In the video, such a table is used to represent the estimated frequency of temperatures exceeding 50 centigrade across different countries.

💡Think-Cell

Think-Cell is an add-in for Microsoft PowerPoint that enhances the functionality of presentations by allowing users to create auto-updating charts and manage slide elements efficiently. It is particularly useful for business presentations, as it can significantly reduce the time spent on creating and updating slides, and is trusted by many Fortune 500 companies.

💡Dynamic Data Visualization

Dynamic data visualization refers to the ability of a chart or table to automatically update and reflect changes in the underlying data. This is particularly useful in business contexts where data is frequently updated, ensuring that visualizations remain current and accurate. The video emphasizes the importance of creating dynamic visualizations in Excel that can adapt to new data without manual adjustments.

💡Data Labels

Data labels in Excel charts are textual representations of the data points, typically numbers, that provide additional information about the values depicted in the chart. They can be customized for appearance and positioning to enhance the clarity and understanding of the chart. In the video, data labels are added to the charts to clearly indicate the quantities or values they represent.

💡Conditional Formatting

Conditional formatting is a feature in Excel that allows cells to change their formatting based on predefined criteria, such as color-coding cells based on their values. This helps in highlighting trends, identifying outliers, and making data easier to understand at a glance. In the video, conditional formatting is used to create a visual representation of complaint frequencies across different departments and years.

💡XLOOKUP Function

The XLOOKUP function in Excel is a powerful lookup function that searches for a specified item within a range of cells and returns the corresponding value from another range. It offers more flexibility and simplicity compared to traditional lookup functions like VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP, as it can search in any direction and does not require a sorted lookup array.

💡Transposing Data

Transposing data in Excel involves converting rows into columns or vice versa. This is useful when the data's orientation needs to be changed to fit a specific format or to align with other data sets. In the video, transposing is used to reorganize the unique list of years from rows to columns for easier data comparison and visualization.

Highlights

The video tutorial focuses on replicating three distinct chart styles from The Economist in Excel, aiming to create visually appealing and dynamic data visualizations.

The first chart is a bar chart comparing the number of ships, aircraft, and helicopters between China and the United States, with a unique design feature where category titles are placed on top instead of the side.

The tutorial demonstrates how to create a dynamic chart in Excel by inserting a 100% stacked bar chart and adjusting its format to match the design of The Economist's chart.

The second chart, referred to as a dumbbell chart or connected dot plot, is used to emphasize change or compare values between two different periods, with an example of men's life expectancy at the average age of retirement.

The tutorial explains how to create a scatter plot in Excel to represent data for the dumbbell chart, including translating non-numeric category labels into numeric positions for the x and y axes.

The third visual is a color-coded table that is not a traditional heat map, but rather a representation of estimated frequencies of high temperatures exceeding 50 centigrade across different countries.

The tutorial provides a corporate context application of the color-coded table, visualizing the estimated frequency of complaints directed at an IT help desk across different departments and years.

The video introduces a method for creating a dynamic visual in Excel using an official Excel table, which allows for automatic updates when new data is added.

Think-Cell is highlighted as a valuable tool for creating auto-updating charts in PowerPoint, potentially reducing the time spent on slide creation by up to 70%.

The tutorial emphasizes the importance of dynamic data visualizations that can automatically update to reflect changes in data, improving efficiency and presentation quality.

The presenter shares a link to a template for replicating The Economist-style charts in Excel and mentions an upcoming Business Charts course for creating McKinsey-style charts.

The video provides detailed step-by-step instructions for formatting, inserting, and adjusting charts in Excel to achieve a professional and polished look.

The use of XLOOKUP function is showcased for dynamic data lookup and display in Excel, enhancing the functionality and interactivity of the created visuals.

The tutorial also covers how to manage and format chart elements, such as titles, data labels, and legends, to ensure clarity and effectiveness in data communication.

The presenter's approach to creating visuals involves adapting and applying design principles from high-profile publications like The Economist to corporate contexts, demonstrating practical applications of data visualization.

Transcripts

play00:00

So, did you ever want to create charts in Excel  that look like they're from The Economist? That's  

play00:05

something I've been hearing a lot when I chat  to people about creating Excel charts. So,  

play00:09

that's what we're going to do today. We're  going to be replicating these three charts  

play00:13

from The Economist in Excel, and we're going  to set everything up in a dynamic way. Now,  

play00:18

before we get started, a quick thanks goes  to Think-Cell for sponsoring today's video,  

play00:23

but more on them later. Let's get  started with this chart first.

play00:26

Here we have a bar chart that compares the number  of ships, aircraft, and helicopters between China  

play00:32

and the United States. Notice something is  different between this and a normal bar chart?  

play00:38

The titles for each category are on top and not on  the side. This is a nice design choice. For one,  

play00:44

it's easier to connect each category with  its own bar. It also takes up less space,  

play00:49

right? You can make it more compact. But most  importantly, take a look at the numbers. They  

play00:55

vary a lot. Some are in hundreds and some  are just a few. By putting the depths on top,  

play01:01

we kind of break up this chart so it looks  like we're dealing with multiple charts,  

play01:05

and it helps avoid confusion. So, let's see  how we could apply this to corporate context.

play01:10

So here we have the same numbers, just the context  is different. Let's assume we're a manufacturing  

play01:16

company that's sourcing parts from China and the  United States. We want to create a similar chart.  

play01:21

Let me just push this to the side. First thing I'm  going to do is highlight the area, go to Insert,  

play01:28

and insert a stacked bar chart, the 100% stacked  bar. Okay, so first thing I noticed is that this  

play01:35

is the other way round. I want "Battery Cells" to  be on top. So, select the axis, right-mouse click,  

play01:41

Format Axis, and select "Categories in reverse  order". This is going to switch things up. Let's  

play01:47

remove what we don't need. I'm going to delete the  numbers there, I'm going to delete the grid lines.  

play01:52

Let's bring up the legend and place it right here.  Okay, so let's adjust the colors. This one for  

play01:59

China, this was a red color, so let's go to Fill  Options. I'm going to go with this one. For US,  

play02:07

this was a gray color, let's go with this one.  Now, let's add data labels to these. So select  

play02:15

one of these series, right-mouse click, Add  Data Labels. Do the same for the other one. We  

play02:21

want these labels to be right aligned. So let's  select the labels and go to Label Options. For  

play02:28

label position, select "Inside End". We're going  to put these in bold. I'm going to do Ctrl + B.  

play02:34

For these, instead of "Inside End", we want them  "Inside Base". Ctrl + B for bold. And let's go  

play02:42

and make them white. So far so good. Now let's add  in our titles there. First thing I'm going to do  

play02:50

is to remove the current axis. I'm just going to  press Delete. Now, let's go ahead and add in our  

play02:55

titles. This is an important step. Okay, select  a chart first and then go to Insert and insert  

play03:02

a text box, and then draw it out where you want  it. I'm going to position it here. Now don't go  

play03:09

inside the text box, click on the text box to  activate it, go directly to the formula bar,  

play03:14

type in an equals, and then reference the  cell that has the title and press Enter. Okay,  

play03:20

so why did I tell you to select a chart first  before you go and insert the text box? Well,  

play03:26

that's because when you do that, the text box  is a part of your chart, so you don't have to  

play03:30

group it together, you can move this chart and  the text box comes with it. Now we're going to  

play03:36

replicate this. So just select a text box, hold  down Ctrl, and drag. And let's just repeat,  

play03:43

hold down Ctrl, drag, and let's do that two  more times. Okay, so now that we have this,  

play03:51

we just have to correct the cell referencing. So  for this one, we're going to reference cell A6,  

play03:58

this one is going to be A7, let's expand this,  this one A8, right? It's fun working with Excel,  

play04:08

this one is A9. Okay, that's it. All we need  is the title. I'm just going to connect it to  

play04:17

this right here and our chart is done.  Now, because we've connected the titles  

play04:24

to the cells, if they happen to change, they're  automatically reflected in the chart as well.

play04:31

Next chart is this one. It's typically referred to  as a dumbbell chart or a connected dot plot, and  

play04:37

it's great for cases when you want to emphasize  change or compare values between two different  

play04:42

periods. Here we have men's life expectancy at the  average age of retirement in the 1970s as compared  

play04:50

to 2020. Now something we have to keep in mind if  we're planting this in Excel is that change can  

play04:55

also go the other way, right? So we could be worse  off now than we were before like we have here. So  

play05:04

something we have to keep in mind, whatever  technique we use should work in this case as  

play05:09

well. So let's say you work in the HR department  and you've collected employee engagement scores  

play05:15

for these different departments. Optimally your  score has improved this year as compared to the  

play05:21

previous year, but unfortunately things could go  the other way as well. We want to use a dumbbell  

play05:27

chart to plot this. To make sure we can handle all  types of situations, I'm going to use a scatter  

play05:34

plot. A scatter plot needs numbers for both the  x-axis as well as the y-axis. Now in the y-axis,  

play05:41

I have my category labels. These are not numbers,  so I am going to translate them into numbers,  

play05:49

basically, I'm just going to get their position  as numbers. Just holding down Ctrl, dragging  

play05:55

this down, and I have my indexes here. Now, let's  just go somewhere empty, don't be on this data set  

play06:01

because Excel is going to come up with a crazy  chart, just go somewhere empty, go to Insert,  

play06:06

and insert a scatter plot. Now, we have an empty  canvas, right-mouse click on it, select Data,  

play06:13

Add, Series Name. First one I'm going to add is  the 2023 engagement scores, select the title. X  

play06:19

values, these are my percentages, Y values,  well optimally they would be my departments,  

play06:26

but because a scatter plot needs numbers, I'm  going to go with their position. And okay,  

play06:31

let's add our second series, that's the 2024  series, X values are my percentages and Y values  

play06:40

are my positions, and OK, OK. Next let's add our  connecting lines. Well, that is the difference  

play06:48

between my before and after. So let's calculate  that here. This is simply this minus this one,  

play06:58

and let's send this down. Okay, so how do we add  these in here? Well, I'm not going to add it as a  

play07:04

separate series, instead, I'm going to select my  after series here and activate the error bars for  

play07:10

it. So go to the plus here and place a check mark  for Error Bars. I'll delete the vertical ones,  

play07:17

so select them, press Delete. Now, select the  horizontal ones, right-mouse click and format  

play07:22

them. For the direction, I want them to go the  other way, so we're going to go with minus. I  

play07:28

don't want a cap, that's that little line here, we  don't need that. For the Error Amount, we're going  

play07:34

to go with Custom and specify the value ourselves.  And you've probably guessed what that value is.  

play07:41

For the negative error bars, we are going to  use our difference, and OK, and we get our dots  

play07:49

connected with one another. Now, let's take care  of our labels here. So this is where we obviously  

play07:57

don't want to see these numbers, right? We want to  see these. So what I'm going to do is add a series  

play08:03

that plots a dot at every point along this axis.  That series has a value of zero for the x-axis,  

play08:13

right? So I'm just going to put zeros everywhere  here. This is going to be for my labels. So we're  

play08:19

going to add a new series, Select Data, Add,  Series Name: labels. The X values, we're going  

play08:26

to plot everything right here along this line,  our Y values are our Y position. Okay, this is  

play08:34

exactly where we want to have these labels. Click  on OK and OK, select them, right-mouse click and  

play08:42

Add Data Labels. Select the data labels, go and  format them, place them on the left-hand side. For  

play08:51

Label Options, we're going to go with "Value From  Cells." What we want to see here are these values,  

play08:59

and OK, and uncheck the Y value here. Now it  looks a bit crowded, so let me just select my  

play09:07

vertical axis, the original one that we had, and  press Delete to remove it. Okay, so that's how we  

play09:13

can get our labels in there. Now, we don't really  need these, we could change the marker style if we  

play09:20

want, but I just want to hide them. So right-mouse  click and let's get rid of the fill, and in case  

play09:26

they have an outline, let's get rid of the outline  as well. Okay, so this is our connected dot plot.  

play09:34

We can improve on it by making these lines a  lot lighter, and we could make these thicker  

play09:41

as well. To do that, select them, right-mouse  click, Format Data Series, go to Fill Options. 

play09:48

Under Marker for Marker Options, Built-in, you  can make them bigger if you need to. For Fill,  

play09:56

we can adjust the color, so I'm going to go with  solid fill and go with a light orange, and we can  

play10:04

have the dark orange for the after. Okay, let's  just quickly adjust the size of these as well.  

play10:10

Format them, under Fill Options for Built-in, I'm  just going to increase to the same size. And here  

play10:18

we have our before and after. You also have the  opportunity to change the formatting of the error  

play10:25

lines, so we don't have to go with the default, we  can go and make it into a nice gray color and make  

play10:33

it thicker, so it looks like a bar, right? All  we need to do now is add a proper title to our  

play10:40

chart. Let's bring down the plot area and type in  the title. Now, to make it clear what is what, I'm  

play10:47

going to format "2023" to be the same color as my  2023 dots here, so let's make it bold, and "2024"  

play10:59

should be in this darker orange and make it bold.  Okay, so that's our neat dumbbell chart in Excel.

play11:07

Now, it's one thing to create your charts in  Excel, but it's a whole different story when  

play11:11

you need to create charts or present charts in  PowerPoint for your business reports because  

play11:16

it can be a real challenge to make them look  just right. So if you're one of those people  

play11:21

who spends over 3 hours per week in PowerPoint,  then Think-Cell might be just what you need,  

play11:27

because this add-in can help you reduce the time  that you spend on your slides by up to 70%. And  

play11:34

Think-Cell is also well known in the business  world. In fact, 90% of Fortune 500 companies  

play11:40

trust Think-Cell with their presentations. With  Think-Cell, it's easy to build auto-updating  

play11:45

charts in PowerPoint. You get to link your Excel  spreadsheets straight to PowerPoint and then  

play11:51

choose which slides you want to update manually  or automatically. You can manage all slide  

play11:56

elements from one convenient menu, which makes  it super easy to review and, most importantly,  

play12:02

to deliver mistake-free presentations. Now another  benefit you get is that you can directly improve  

play12:08

on your charts in PowerPoint by just clicking  or dragging and dropping changes. This way,  

play12:13

you get to add in more information to your  chart so you make it easy for your audience  

play12:18

to understand the data that you're presenting. If  you were doing this manually, it would take up a  

play12:23

big chunk of your time. With Think-Cell, it's  just a matter of clicking here and there. And  

play12:28

here's the best part: because Think-Cell is sponsoring this video, you get to try  

play12:33

their add-in completely free for 30 days. Just  click on the link in the description and start  

play12:39

taking your presentations from good to great  risk-free. Now let's continue with our video.

play12:45

The next visual is this one right here. It's  not technically a chart. Now at first glance,  

play12:50

I thought it's a heat map, but it's not a heat  map either. It's just color-coded based on these  

play12:56

different categories. So what we have here is the  estimated frequency of temperatures exceeding 50  

play13:01

centigrade. "Almost never" is really dark  gray, then "Extremely rare," "Rare," and  

play13:06

"Common," and we have these different countries.  So I tried to apply this to corporate context,  

play13:11

and here's an idea I came up with. We have the  same data, just the context is different. We're  

play13:17

looking at the estimated frequency of complaints  directed at IT help desk between these different  

play13:23

departments and these different years. Now  I'm not happy with this approach. One, it's  

play13:29

not dynamic. If you take a look at what's inside  the cells, if you take a look at the formula bar,  

play13:34

you can see our values are right here. Then I've  used conditional formatting to conditionally  

play13:40

format each of these based on the cell's value.  I've also activated white borders for this, but  

play13:47

it's not as compact and neat as the version that  we saw from The Economist. So I really wanted to  

play13:53

replicate that, and that's what we're going to do  on this side here. And we're going to use a method  

play13:58

that became recently available in Excel. Plus,  take a look at this. Your data is probably going  

play14:04

to come in in this format, right? Where you're  going to have separate columns for department,  

play14:10

year, and complaints. So I formatted this data  as an official Excel table so that we can get  

play14:19

our visual to be fully dynamic. If new data is  added, that Economist type of visual is going  

play14:24

to update automatically. These are my different  categories. For each of these, I want to have a  

play14:31

separate color and shape. Now it's up to you  where you want to create these. I've created  

play14:36

these shapes in PowerPoint just because I  like PowerPoint. I'm going to go to Insert,  

play14:42

Shape and draw this out. So a shape that looks  similar to this one. And then you can adjust the  

play14:48

shape fill. I'll use the eyedropper and select  this. Shape outline is going to be white. Once  

play14:55

you have the shape, you can right mouse click  and save it as a picture. So I've already done  

play14:59

that for these four different categories. Next,  I'm going to go to Excel, select these cells,  

play15:05

go to Insert, Illustrations, Pictures, Place in  Cell, This Device, these are my different shapes.  

play15:14

Hold down Ctrl, select all of them, and click  on Insert. Okay, so now that I have them here,  

play15:20

I'm going to bring them and include them as a  part of my table. So that if a frequency is rare,  

play15:27

I want to see the picture. Okay, so  let's call this "Category." You can  

play15:32

use the lookup function of your choice. Mine  is XLOOKUP. I'm looking up this value from  

play15:39

this range. Let's fix the referencing  using F4. And what we want to return,  

play15:45

so the return array is going to be this range.  I'm going to fix it using F4. Close the bracket,  

play15:52

press Enter. And because I'm using a table, my  formula automatically is copied down. Right?  

play15:58

So now I have the right shape associated with each  complaint frequency. Okay, so next, let's go ahead  

play16:06

and create our visual. I'll start right here.  First, I want to have the departments. So I'm  

play16:11

going to use the UNIQUE function and let's just  reference the Department column, close bracket,  

play16:18

Enter. Up here, I want to have the unique list  of the years. So again, we're going to use the  

play16:25

UNIQUE function and reference the Year column. And  when I press Enter, the years spill into the rows,  

play16:33

but I want them in the columns. So I'm going to  put this inside the TRANSPOSE function. Next up,  

play16:40

we're going to bring in the shapes. So again,  go with the lookup function of your choice.  

play16:46

I'll go with XLOOKUP. My lookup value is now the  combination of Department and Year. So I'm going  

play16:54

to select Department, but because I'm working with  spilled ranges, I can select the entire range. Use  

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an ampersand to connect it with the Year column,  right? So notice I get the hash icon here,  

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which means I'm referencing a spilled range. My  lookup array is the combination of Department and  

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Year. Right? I have to follow the same order. So  let's select Department, ampersand, Year. What do  

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I want returned? The Category. Close the bracket. And the beauty of this is it's going to spill down  

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and across, right? That's my visual right there.  All that's missing is a title. So let's bring it  

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over here. I can add in the legend by copying  these, pasting them here, and then notice this  

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icon. I get to pluck these images out of the  cells. So I'm going to select them, let's go  

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to more size options, you can uncheck "Lock aspect  ratio," and then I'll just go with 0.1. Okay, so  

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then you can place them wherever you need to and  add in the right category name. So I'll just fast  

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forward to where I've done this, and this here is  our beautiful visual. Now the beauty of this is  

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also the fact that it's dynamic. So let's say we  have next year's data that's added to the table,  

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I'm just going to paste it in. Notice the  formulas are automatically copied down here.

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Unfortunately, IT is also not having with the IT  Help Desk, but what happens to my visual? It's  

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automatically updated. How cool is that? That's  it, three charts from The Economist replicated  

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in Excel. If you want to get the template,  link to it is below. I'm also working on a  

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new Business Charts course where we're going to  be creating charts that look like McKinsey charts  

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in Excel. Many thanks goes to Think-Cell for  sponsoring this video. Thank you for being here,  

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thank you for watching all the way to the end,  and I'm going to catch you in the next video.

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Excel TutorialChart DesignThe EconomistThink-CellBusiness PresentationData VisualizationCorporate ContextDynamic ChartsEfficiency ToolFortune 500