Chapter 21: Creating Sparkline Graphics
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Highlighting certain data points
Use the commands in the Sparkline Tools ➪ Design ➪ Show group to customize the Sparklines to
highlight certain aspects of the data. The options arel High Point: Apply a different color to the highest data point in the Sparkline.l (^) Low Point: Apply a different color to the lowest data point in the Sparkline.
l Negative Points: Apply a different color to negative values in the Sparkline.
l (^) First Point: Apply a different color to the first data point in the Sparkline.
l Last Point: Apply a different color to the last data point in the Sparkline.
l (^) Markers: Show data markers in the Sparkline. This option is available only for Line
Sparklines.
You control the color of the highlighting by using the Marker Color control in the Sparkline
Tools ➪ Design ➪ Style group. Unfortunately, you cannot change the size of the markers in Line
Sparklines.
Figure 21.7 shows some Line Sparklines with various types of highlighting applied.
FIGURE 21.7
Highlighting options for Line Sparklines.
Adjusting Sparkline axis scaling
When you create one or more Sparklines, they all use (by default) automatic axis scaling. In other
words, the minimum and maximum vertical axis values are determined automatically for each
Sparkline in the group, based on the numeric range of the data used by the Sparkline.The Sparkline Tools ➪ Design ➪ Group ➪ Axis command lets you override this automatic behav-
ior and control the minimum and maximum value for each Sparkline, or for a group of Sparklines.
For even more control, you can use the Custom Value option and specify the minimum and maxi-
mum for the Sparkline group.