Decorating the Christmas tree

There is a time of Christmas holidays, the time when everybody, more or less, decorates the Christmas tree, and this served as an inspiration for the text on the application of one more type of Excel chart. It is a subtype of the Scatter called Bubble and by which we can get a “XY” chart whereby a multicolored “balls” are found on the section. To create this diagram all we need are: a table of data, a picture of the Christmas tree and a little work in Excel!

To begin with, let’s fill the table on the basis of which we will make a bubble chart. It is a table with three columns (X coordinate, Y coordinate, width) and several types of data. The recipe is: as many spheres-so many species + one additional species (you will see later what it serves). In this example, we will fill in 10 row types, and for the start, let the entire table be filled with zero.

Then, we need to select all the data in the table (all zeros), then go to the Insert ribbon and open the menu that contains the options for creating a Scatter chart. One of them allows us to create a Bubble chart. We can create a 2D or 3D Bubble chart, and since it’s more beautiful, we will choose the option to create 3D charts.

After we perform this action we get an empty chart, which is logical because all data is zero. Clicking on each of the axes and choosing Format Axis on the right side opens a menu where we can adjust the axis dimensions. Both for the horizontal and the vertical axis, it is necessary to set the data that it displays to have values from 0 to 10. By right clicking on the center of the graph, the context menu will open, in which format Format Plot Area should be selected. In the Fill group, we select Picture or Texture fill and add the image of a Christmas tree that we previously downloaded from the Internet. Now you just need to change the dimensions of the chart so that the tree is correctly displayed in the chart.

Let’s decorate. First, fill in the column W (width) with value 10 for all types except for the last one, where you will enter number 50. Then, write the coordinates where you want to put the “balls” and the desired width. Let’s say that for the first three it is 12, the other three are 7, and the last three are 5. You can simply hide the last ball, which is much larger than all else, by clicking on it and choosing it to be transparent.

Finally, just remove unnecessary elements (title, axis labels, series labels), add star shape to the top of the Christmas tree, change the color of the balls (i prefer the red) … Be Creative! Of course, in practice, you will use the Bubble graph to display the data, for example, in the context of time (X part), values (Y part), and growth (width). But it’s a holiday time, lets play! And that’s the most effective way to learn!