Excel 2010 Bible

503

CHAPTER

Creating Sparkline

Graphics

IN THIS CHAPTER

An introduction to the new

Sparkline graphics feature

How to add Sparklines to a

worksheet

How to customize Sparklines

How make a Sparkline display

only the most recent data

O

ne of the new features in Excel 2010 is Sparklines graphics. A
Sparkline is a small chart displayed in a single cell. A Sparkline
allows you to quickly spot time-based trends or variations in data.
Because they are so compact, Sparklines are often used in a group.

Although Sparklines look like miniature charts (and can sometimes take the
place of a chart), this feature is completely separate from the charting fea-
ture. For example, charts are placed on a worksheet’s draw layer, and a sin-
gle chart can display several series of data. A Sparkline is displayed inside a
cell and displays only one series of data. See Chapters 18 and 19 for infor-
mation about real charts.

This chapter introduces Sparklines, and presents examples that demonstrate
how they can be used in your worksheets.

New Feature

Sparklines are new to Excel 2010. If you create a workbook that uses

Sparklines, and that workbook is opened using a previous version of Excel,

the Sparkline cells will be empty. n

On the CD

All examples in this chapter are available on the companion CD-ROM. The

filename is sparkline examples.xlsx.