Small multiples

Tiny charts

When you want to display data that contains multiple separated series in a chart, it can often look clumsy. It is possible to tolerate presentation of three or four series, but anything more than that is a nightmare for those who watch the reports and need to draw a certain conclusion. The solution is to display several smaller, separate charts instead of one. This type of data presentation is called small multiples, and here’s how to achieve it in Excel reports.

When creating a report, the rule that less is better often applies. That is, instead of displaying everything with one visual, it is often a better tactic to create several smaller ones so that, by applying filters, you choose which of the data will be displayed. From now on, this procedure has been further simplified by introducing the Small Multiples option. It allows you to split one chart into several smaller ones based on a given dimension.