In Excel 2007, MS introduced a bunch of useful Conditional Formatting options like icons, heat maps that effectively create small visualizations of underlying data. This is where Excel Sparklines shine, as they are very easy to create and maintain. Also, incell charts require some knowledge of excel formulas and creativity. But the dis-advantage is that we can make only few types of charts (bar charts, column charts by rotating cell text, dot plots). The advantage of this approach is that they work in any version of Excel. The main technique is to use REPT formula to repetitively show a bunch of symbols (usually | symbol) to create a small chart. In-cell charts are a powerful and lightweight way to create bite-sized visualizations.

How does Sparklines compare with other alternatives? Sparklines vs. Sparklines donвЂ™t show up in if you open the file in older version of Excel (say Excel 2007). What happens when someone opens a file with sparklines in Excel 2007? They work in desktop and web versions of Excel. Sparklines are available since Excel 2010.

Enable high / low points to highlight important values.

If you want to copy a sparkline over to a ppt or document, you can use вЂњcopy as pictureвЂќ option.

Juxtapose sparklines with conditional formatting icons to create stunning charts and dashboards.

Change their size: When you adjust row-height or column-width of the cell containing sparkline, the size of sparkline changes too.

Now copy and past sparklines to auto-fill them based on data in adjacent cells. Select the first set of values and add a sparkline. Here is a bunch of quick tips & tricks for those of you starting on sparklines. Adding them to pivot tables is a bit tricky but adding sparklines to tables is fairly straightforward and scales nicely. You can add sparklines to tables and pivot tables too.

Data in hidden rows / columns: If data has some hidden rows / columns, the values are neglected (unless you enable вЂњShow data in hidden cellsвЂќ option).

Zeros: If data has zeros, zero value is plotted.

Errors & #NA values: If data has some #NA values, they are neglected.

Non-numeric data: If the sparkline source data contains non-numeric data, they are neglected while plotting the sparklines.

Sparklines & Missing Data вЂ“ How does it work?

Group / un-group a bunch of sparklines (you can change formatting options, axis settings en-masse when you group sparklines).

Set axis options (show / hide axis, set min and max value for vertical axis, set axis type to date axis etc.).Set different colors for first point, last point, highest & lowest points (applicable for column and line chart types).Change the source data / target cells of sparkline.Change the sparkline type вЂ“ between line, column and win/loss.

Some of the key formatting / customization options available are, This is where all the formatting options for sparklines are included. Whenever you select a cell with sparkline in it, you will find a new ribbon called as вЂњSparklines вЂ“ DesignвЂќ ribbon. Sparkline Formatting and Options вЂ“ Explored Win-loss chart (useful for showing a bunch of wins & losses denoted by 1s and -1s).There are 3 basic types of sparklines in Excel 2010. Here is a short screen-cast showing you how a sparkline is created. Optional: Format the sparkline if you want.Specify a target cell where you want the sparkline to be placed.Go to Insert > Sparkline and select the type of sparkline (you have 3 options вЂ“ line, column and win-loss chart).Select the data from which you want to make a sparkline.You follow 3 very simple steps to get beautiful sparklines in an instant. Excel Sparklines Tutorial вЂ“ 3 stepsД¬reating sparklines in Excel is very easy. Here is an example of sparklines in a project team status report. What is a sparkline?ДЄ Sparkline is a small chart that is aligned with rows of some tabular data and usually shows trend information. This page provides a complete tutorial on Excel sparklines along with 5 secret tips. Sparklines (often called as micro-charts) add rich visualization capability to tabular data without taking too much space. Intense, simple, word-sized graphics Edward Tufte Edward Tufte coined the term sparkline and defined it as, These bite-sized graphs can fit in a cell and show powerful insights. Of all the charting features in Excel, Sparklines are my absolute favorite.

How to create sparklines in excel