Highlight a Section of a Chart

When you create charts, sometimes there are area you want to point out or put some focus on....or maybe just highlight!  In this video, I'll show you how to highlight a section of a line chart by adding another series of data and using the area chart type.

Create a Speedometer Chart in Excel 2010

Sometimes...don't you feel the need for speed? Get into the car and just press the pedal and watch the speedometer needle go and go.  Of course that's probably not the safest thing to do in the real world in most settings.  So let do it in a more safe and benign environment - in your spreadsheet but with the same excitement! If you're creating dashboards or just wanted to add some flair to data that you're sharing, a speedometer chart may just fit the bill.  The excitement it adds is the green, yellow and red colors! And seeing the needle moving to the different colors like moving from yellow to red...that just screams the word "dramatic" (or "dangerous" depending on your audience).  Anyways a speedometer chart just presents data in a familiar dashboard analogy so if you wanted to add some visual appeal to your data, try a speedometer chart.  Check out the video below.

Create a Custom Number Format for a Chart Axis

After you've created a chart (like a line or column chart) Excel usually give you some default format for your x or y axis.  For the most part, Excel is "guessing" your numerical or alpha values and giving it's best shot on the type of labeling for the axis.  Sometime that's acceptable but other times it just doesn't make sense.  You'd think Excel was smart enough to read your mind and figure it out for you.  We are not there yet BUT you do have the option of customized the format of the chart axis to some extent.  What kind of customization can Excel do?  Well for example you want the Y axis to have different colors at some mid-point like the axis label numbers above 100 are red colored and the ones below it are green colored.  See the video to learn how this is done.