Excel 2010 Bible

Chapter 19: Learning Advanced Charting

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Other changes required are to

l Select the horizontal category axis and press Delete to remove the category axis from the

chart.

l Remove the legend.

l (^) Add a text box, linked to cell B21 to display the percent accomplished.
l In the Format Data Series dialog box (Series Options tab), set the Gap width to 0, which
makes the column occupy the entire width of the plot area.
l Select the Value Axis and display the Format Value Axis dialog box. In the Axis Options
tab, set the Minimum to 0 and the Maximum to 1.
Make any other cosmetic adjustments to get the look you desire.

Creating a gauge chart

Figure 19.36 shows another chart based on a single cell. It’s a pie chart set up to resemble a gauge.

Although this chart displays only one value (entered in cell B1), it actually uses three data points

(in A4:A6).

On the CD
A workbook with this example is available on the companion CD-ROM. The filename is gauge chart.
xlsx.

One slice of the pie — the slice at the bottom — always consists of 50 percent. I rotated the pie so

that the 50 percent slice was at the bottom. Then I hid that slice by specifying No Fill and No

Border for the data point.

FIGURE 19.36

This chart resembles a speedometer gauge and displays a value between 0 and 100 percent.