How company revenues are distributed across all our Product Lines? From Pie Chart to Horizontal Bar Graph using Excel

1. @sandolinic
How company revenues are
distributed across all our
Product Lines?
COMPANY REVENUES % BY PRODUCT LINE
PRODUCT LINE REVENUES %
PRODUCT LINE A 10%
PRODUCT LINE B 20%
PRODUCT LINE C 45%
PRODUCT LINE D 7%
PRODUCT LINE E 18%
Tot 100%
Well, the first option that came to
my mind was…
I thought this would be an easy one
Data Visualization
Challenge

2. @sandolinic
COMPANY REVENUES % BY PRODUCT LINE
PRODUCT LINE REVENUES %
PRODUCT LINE C 45%
PRODUCT LINE B 20%
PRODUCT LINE E 18%
PRODUCT LINE A 10%
PRODUCT LINE D 7%
Tot 100%
REVENUES %
PRODUCT LINE C PRODUCT LINE B PRODUCT LINE E
PRODUCT LINE A PRODUCT LINE D
- Order the revenues column
- Create a Pie Chart using default settings
This one doesn’t seem to work.
It is not easy to understand at all!
Maybe I need to work a little bit more with
settings.
Pie Chart
#DataViz
Challenge

3. @sandolinic
COMPANY REVENUES % BY PRODUCT LINE
PRODUCT LINE REVENUES %
PRODUCT LINE C 45%
PRODUCT LINE B 20%
PRODUCT LINE E 18%
PRODUCT LINE A 10%
PRODUCT LINE D 7%
Tot 100%
Modify the default Pie Chart settings:
- Add Labels
- Move the Legend
- Enlarge the Text
- Modify the Title
----------------------------------------
Still no good!
Then I remembered what Stephen Few*
says about pie chart and went back to
basics.
I designed my own horizontal bar graph!
*http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_busine
ss_intelligence/save_the_pies_for_dessert.pdf
45%
20%
18%
10%
7%
COMPANY REVENUES % by PRODUCT LINE
PRODUCT LINE C
PRODUCT LINE B
PRODUCT LINE E
PRODUCT LINE A
PRODUCT LINE D
Pie Chart [reloaded]
#DataViz
Challenge

4. @sandolinic
COMPANY REVENUES % BY PRODUCT LINE
PRODUCT LINE REVENUES %
PRODUCT LINE C 45%
PRODUCT LINE B 20%
PRODUCT LINE E 18%
PRODUCT LINE A 10%
PRODUCT LINE D 7%
Tot 100%
OK, this one looks better!
There are 2 things I would like to modify:
1. Move the labels in front of the bars
2. Add the total at the bottom
Should be easy, right?
Let’s see how it goes with Excel.
Sketch
1.
2.
#DataViz
Challenge

5. @sandolinic
COMPANY REVENUES % BY PRODUCT LINE
PRODUCT LINE REVENUES %
PRODUCT LINE C 45%
PRODUCT LINE B 20%
PRODUCT LINE E 18%
PRODUCT LINE A 10%
PRODUCT LINE D 7%
Tot 100%
7%
10%
18%
20%
45%
D
A
E
B
C
COMPANY REVENUES % BY PRODUCT LINEConvert the Pie Chart into Bar Graph:
- Remove the Legend
- Remove the horizontal axes
- Shorten the vertical axes labels
- Add the bar labels
- Change the bar colors
It still didn’t feel quite right.
Excel doesn’t let me modify labels or total!
Horizontal Bar Graph
#DataViz
Challenge

6. @sandolinic
COMPANY REVENUES % BY PRODUCT LINE
PRODUCT LINE REVENUES %
PRODUCT LINE C 45%
PRODUCT LINE B 20%
PRODUCT LINE E 18%
PRODUCT LINE A 10%
PRODUCT LINE D 7%
Tot 100%
So I looked for another approach:
- Go back to the table
- Add a new column by copying the
REVENUES %
- Add the bars by using conditional
formatting
- Some manual formatting
Now I fixed the labels but I lost control over
the bars!
- I cannot modify the colors
- I cannot modify the bar width
I am stuck!
PRODUCT LINE REVENUES % REVENUES %2
C 45%
B 20%
E 18%
A 10%
D 7%
Tot 100%
COMPANY REVENUES % BY PRODUCT LINE
Table with bar graph
#DataViz
Challenge

7. @sandolinic
COMPANY REVENUES % BY PRODUCT LINE
PRODUCT LINE REVENUES %
PRODUCT LINE C 45%
PRODUCT LINE B 20%
PRODUCT LINE E 18%
PRODUCT LINE A 10%
PRODUCT LINE D 7%
Tot 100%
Finally I’ve got it!
Well, not really.
I ended up drawing the bars manually!
PRODUCT LINE REVENUES % REVENUES %2
C 45%
B 20%
E 18%
A 10%
D 7%
Tot 100%
COMPANY REVENUES % BY PRODUCT LINE
This is not a graph,
it’s a picture!
#DataViz
Challenge
To be continued…