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Make All Of Your Excel Charts The Same Size

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Do you have a bunch of different-sized Excel charts on your worksheet? Do you need to know how to how to resize charts in Excel?. If so, you’re not alone. It’s easy to create multiple charts and then forget about the size until it’s too late. But don’t worry – we’ll show you how to make all of your Excel charts the same size in just a few simple steps. So follow along with us, and soon your charts will be uniformly sized and looking great!

Excel Macro

This is a really useful tip if you have multiple charts embedded on a worksheet and they would look a lot better if they were all aligned and the same size.  I use this a lot when presenting multiple charts. Simply follow the steps below to find out how to resize charts in Excel.

How To Resize Charts In Excel

  • First, select on of the charts that is the correct size you want.  In my example it is the chart in the bottom right of the worksheet.
  • Click the chart to select it
resize your charts in Excel
  • Chart Tools>Format- note the height and width settings of the chart
  • Select CTL+Click the other three charts so all four are selected
  • Chart>Tools Format-enter in the height and width settings noted in the first step above
  • The charts will now be the same size see below
how to resize charts in Excel

You can go ahead and manually align the charts or get Excel to do this for you

Chart Tools>Format>Arrange>Align

So, that’s all there is to it! You can make all of your charts the same size charts in Excel by following these simple steps. If you have any questions, or need more help with Excel, be sure to check out our other tutorials. We have everything from basic tips and tricks to advanced functions and formulas. Thanks for reading, and happy charting!

How To Create A Waffle Chart In Excel.

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Hello, Excellers. Welcome to another blog post in my Excel series. Today I will show you how to create a fun Excel Waffle Chart. Unfortunately, Excel does not have a Waffle chart in the charting menu. However, it is straightforward to develop in a few steps. Once created, you can re-use the framework over and over again.

Tutorial Contents.

What Is A Waffle Chart?. An Introduction.

A waffle chart is a great and straightforward representation of progress towards a goal. Commonly used to display simple metrics, it is a ten by ten grid, and the whole chart represents 100%. Each square in the grid represents 1% of the entire chart. Below is an example of a waffle chart. The chart is dynamic as it will change as the metric is changed. These waffle charts are straightforward to read and interpret by users. I will show you how to build the waffle chart below. It’s cute, isn’t it?.

create a waffle chart in Excel

What Can I Use The Chart For?

Waffle charts can be used to visually display in Excel reports or dashboards how far from a metric is away from a target. They are easy to create, maintain and interpret. If you have a few metrics to display you can also set them side by side to create a great visualization of your metrics on an Excel report or dashboard. They really are versatile.

Create The Waffle Chart Framework.

The first stage in the process is to create the Waffle framework. It makes up the ten by ten cell grid to give us 100 Excel cells within the chart. The height and width should be the same. The cells should run from 1% to 100%.

Waffle chart

A speedy way to populate these cells is to complete the first two rows, go ahead and select both rows. Then, finally, drag the numbers to the top of the grid..

Create Metric Cell.

Next, a metric cell is required. This cell will contain the value of the target achieved, which will be linked to the chart later on in the process. In my example, I have selected cell M5 to contain the percentage metric. I have also prepared some of the data labels to be near the metric to be used for data labels later in the process. These are “Region” and “of Target Achieved”.

create a chart in Excel

Apply The Conditional Formatting.

This is where the magic starts to happen. Or, where the conditional formatting is applied to the framework created in the previous step. There are two parts to the formatting. The cells that are less than or equal to the metric cell, and the cells that are greater than the metric cell. Finally, the cell in the waffle grid that represents the actual metric value will be conditionally formatted to have some star quality and stand out from the Waffle chart grid.

Format Cells Less Than Or Equal To The Metric cell.

So, the conditional formatting is simple. Select the whole Waffle chart grid. Then follow the steps below.

  • Home Tab | Styles Group | Conditional Formatting
  • New Rule | Format cells that contain
  • Format only cells with | Cell Value | Between = 0 | and =$M$5
  • Select Format and choose your preferred formatting type
  • I have formatted the cell colour the same as the font colour, which nicely hides the grid
conditional formatting

Format Cells Greater Than The Metric Cell.

  • Home Tab | Styles Group | Conditional Formatting
  • New Rule | Format cells that contain
  • Format only cells with | Cell Value | > $M$5
  • Select Format and choose your preferred formatting type
  • Again I have I have formatted the cell colour the same as the font colour, which nicely hides the grid
conditional chart formatting

Last Formatting Part- Format The Cell That Is Equal To The Metric Cell.

I believe that this last part of the conditional formatting takes the waffle chart to a new level. The waffle chart gets a little pop by formatting the cell that contains the same value and the metric. So, follow the steps below.

  • Home Tab | Styles Group | Conditional Formatting
  • New Rule | Format cells that contain
  • Format only cells with | Cell Value | = $M$5
  • Select Format and choose your preferred formatting type
  • I selected to format the font white in the cell, which matches the metric value

Using Text Boxes To Finish The Look.

To finish the waffle chart, you can add a text box or two to give the user more information. I have created three text boxes that link to the cells that contain the metric data. In this example, the first text box links to cell M4, which contains the Region name. The second text box I have connected to cell M5, which displays the current metric. The final text box links to cell M6 with clarification to the user the percentage is versus target. To link a text box to a cell in Excel is simple. Follow the steps below.

  • Insert your Text Excel workbook, Insert | Text | Textbox
  • Select the text box then in formula bar type = and then the cell reference you need

Now the text box references the cell. If the value or contents of the cell change, so does the text box.

Multiple Charts Or Multiple Series On The Waffle Chart?.

Waffle charts are a great way to visualize multiple metrics. Just align a set of them together to create a concise Excel dashboard. Create copies of your first Waffle chart and align your formatting and text cell links to the new metrics. Job done.

Excel Waffle Chart

So, What Next? Want More Tips?

Finally, if you want more Excel and VBA tips then sign up for my Monthly Newsletter where I share 3 Tips on the first Wednesday of the month and receive my free Ebook, 30 Excel Tips and check out all of my Formula Friday Blog posts below.

Excel Macro
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Excel Dashboard Course

Video Tutorial On Creating Self Expanding Charts

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Hello, Excellers.  Want to know how to create a Self Expanding Chart.  Video tutorials are a great way to learn Excel.  If you want to learn Excel you then I invite you to subscribe to my YouTube channels for lots of Tips and Tutorials. 

Here is a free tutorial on creating self-expanding charts.  It is one tip that readers liked very much so I have recorded a video tutorial.  This is a simple and effective this technique is to add new data to Excel charts automatically.

So, in Excel 2007 onwards we can use a new table feature of Excel tables was introduced.  By converting your data range to a table, the data for your Excel charts becomes dynamic.  This means once new data is added to the table, any charts linked to that table also automatically update also.

Create A Self Expanding Chart.

If you prefer to read the corresponding blog post to this video, then click on the link below.

self expanding chart in excel

Create A Self Expanding Chart In Excel

So, if you want more Excel and VBA tips then sign up for my Monthly Newsletter. I share 3 Tips on the first Wednesday of the month. You will receive my free Ebook.

Create A Self Expanding Chart In Excel

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Hello Excellers, welcome back to another Excel tip today.  I will show you how to create a self-expanding chart.    This tip is also a YouTube Video.  Why not check it out in the link below.  So, it is really easy to create a self-expanding chart in Excel.  Is it?.  YES!.  Normally a chart is set up to only display what is currently on the datasheet.  But, by a few tweaks and Excel magic, we can set up a chart differently.  We can allow a chart to automatically accommodate new data as it is added.

So, in Excel 2007 we can use a new table feature if you need the workbook to be backward compatible with previous Excel 2003 versions you need to do a few more clicks to get the same result.  Let’s look at Excel 2007 and Excel 2003 first.

Create A Self Expanding Chart.

To create your self expanding chart in Excel 2007 and Excel 2003  do the following

  1. Create your chart as usual ( you can use the sample data below)
  2. Select any cell in the range that contains data that is used by the chart
  3. Choose Insert- Tables Tables to convert the range to a table

self expanding chart in Excel

Note,  if you are using Excel 2003 in Step 3 above choose Data- List-Create List.

Believe it or not, that’s all there is to it!!.  Excel recognises the data as a table and that any data that is added to it, is automatically updated in the chart. 

So, as you can see in the screenshot above Northern has been added in automatically after I typed it then tabbed along to the Widget Sales ready for the figure to be entered.  A great way to create a self-expanding chart in Excel.

Finally, give this charting technique a go, it a good one to have in your Excel magic box of tricks.

Want To Watch The Video?

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Disclosure: I make a small commission for students who join Mynda’s course, but as you know I don’t just recommend anything and everything. It has to be of outstanding quality and value, and something I can genuinely recommend. After all, if it doesn’t live up to what I’ve promised you’ll think poorly of me too and I don’t want that. Oh, and just watching the course videos won’t transform your career, you have to actually put it into practice, but then you know that.

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