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.

Select the first series of data, including the headers, and then create a traditional Column chart. Choose the desired display style, format the value display on the y-axis, add data labels, format other chart elements according to your wishes.

Then, when everything is set up, make as many copies of the chart as you have series in the table from which you pull the data. The shortcut for copying the chart is the CTRL+D key combination. In each of the newly created charts, change the references regarding the name and range of the data. This is done by selecting the Chart Design ribbon and then activating the Select Data option. In the Select Data Source dialog box, you need to click on the Edit Series button and then change the title and range from which the data is retrieved.

Note that all four charts should have the same scope of values ​​on the y-axis. At the end, you can additionally change the color of the series, to distinguish them better.

Let’s add a traditional Stacked Column chart, just so you can see the difference. On it we will display all four series of data together.

Which presentation of data do you like better?

Finally, I would like to add that Python programming language is a much more powerful tool for creating such charts. In general, it is a much better choice for displaying statistical data, but small multiples is an example where it dominates compared to traditional Excel charts.