Excel - Create a Speedometer Chart Tutorials

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7/26/13 Ms-office - Excel - Create A Speedometer Chart Tutorials

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Home MS Excel Tutorials Working with Charts

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Create a Speedometer Chart

You can create a really impressive, workable speedometer (or "speedo")

chart, complete with moving needle, by us ing a combination of doughnuts

and pie charts. The added touch is that you can control the speedometer via

a scrollbar.

Excel's Chart Wizard offers many different types of charts, except,

unfortunately, a speedometer chart. A speedometer chart provides a slick

way to represent data. With the hacks in this section, you can create a

speedometer chart as well as add a scrollbar from the Control Toolbox

toolbar that will alter the chart and change the data in the worksheet

simultaneously.

The first thing you need to do is to set up some data, such as that shown in

the figure, and create a doughnut chart. Doughnut charts work a bit like pie

charts, but they can contain multiple series, whereas a pie chart cannot.

Figure. Data set up for speedometer chart

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Press Alt/ -~ to show the actual formulas on the worksheet. You also can

select Tools » Options... » View and check the Formulas option to see the

formulas, though that's a longer process.

Now highlight the range B2:B5 and select the Chart Wizard. In Step 1 of the

Chart Wizard, select the Standard Types tab (this should be the defaultanyway). Then, under Chart Type, select the first doughnut. Click the Next

button to go to Step 2 of the Wizard and make sure your data is charted in

rows. Click the Next button to take you to Step 3. You can make changes in

Step 3 if you need to, but they aren't necessary for this tutorial. Click Next

to go to Step 4, and make sure the chart ends up as an object in the current

worksheet (again, this is the default). Placing the chart as an object will make

it easier to work with as you are setting up the speedometer.

Figure. Basic doughnut chart

Highlight the doughnut chart, slowly double-click the largest slice to select it,

and then select Format Data Series » Options. Set the angle of this slice to

90 degrees. Click the Patterns tab and set the area and border of this slice to

None, then click OK. Slowly double-click to highlight each of the other slices in

turn, then double-click to get back to the Format Data Series dialog and color

the other three bands as required. The doughnut chart should look like theone in the figure.

Figure. Doughnut chart with 90% angle and no color or border on the first slice


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You need to add another series (Series 2) of values to form the slots for the

dial labels, so again highlight the chart, right-click, select Source Data, and

then select the Series tab. Click the Add button, which will create a new

series, and then, under Values, select the range C2:C13. Click the Add

button again to add a third series (Series 3) to create the needle, and under

Values, select the range E2:E5.

Figure. Doughnut chart with multiple series

At this point, the speedometer is starting to take shape. If you want to add

labels to the speedometer, you can download a tool for adding them for free

from John Walkenbach's Chart Tools, at http://j-

walk.com/ss/excel/files/charttools.htm .

Part of this add-in, which unfortunately works only on Windows, is designed

specifically for data labels. It enables you to specify a worksheet range for the

data labels for a chart series. John's add-in also contains the features

described in the following list.

Chart Size

Enables you to specify an exact size for a chart, or enables you to make

all charts the same size.

Export


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Enables you to save charts as .gif , .jpg, .tif , or .png files.

Picture

Converts a chart to a picture (color or grayscale).

Text Size

Freezes the size of all text items in a chart. When the chart is resized,the text elements will not change size.

Chart Report

Generates a summary report for all charts, or a detailed report for a

single chart.

Use the add-in to format Series 2 to display data labels using the range

D2:D13. Keep Series 2 highlighted, then double-click to bring up the Format

Data Series dialog. Go to the Patterns tab, and select None for both theBorder and Area.

Figure. Improved speedometer chart, with labels added

Highlight Series 3, then right-click it and select Chart Type. Change this

series to the default pie chart. Yes, it looks strange. But rest assured, if the

pie chart overlays the doughnut chart, you have done this correctly.

Figure. Speedometer chart overlaid with a pie chart


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Next you need to reduce the size of the pie chart you just laid over the

doughnut. To do this, explode it and reassemble the smaller slices. Select

one section of the pie chart (two slow clicks on the desired slice will do this)

and drag it outward. This will explode the pie and make it smaller.

Figure. Pie chart exploded and resized

Now select the whole pie, double-click it, and then select Format Data Series

» Options. Change the Angle of the first slice to 90 degrees. Select each slice

of pie in turn, then right-click, go to the Format Data Series dialog, then click

the Patterns tab. Select None for the Border and the Area for all slices except

the third slice, which needs to have a fill of Black.

Figure. Speedometer chart with only the third series of pie chart showing color

If you want to add a legend, highlight the chart, then right-click and select

Chart Options » Data Labels. Select Legend Key. This produces the

speedometer as shown in figure. Now move, size, and edit the chart as

required.

Figure. Speedometer chart showing legend


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Now that the speedometer chart is built, you need to create a scrollbar from

the Control Toolbox toolbar and make the scrollbar and chart talk to each

other.

To do this, right-click the toolbar area of the screen (the top of the screenwhere the Standard and Formatting toolbars are located) and select Control

Toolbox. Now select the scrollbar tool and draw a scrollbar somewhere on the

worksheet.

Select the scrollbar, right-click it, and select Properties. This will display the

Properties dialog. Choose cell F3 as the linked cell, and set the Maximum

value to 100 and the Minimum value to 0. When you close the Properties

dialog and move the scrollbar onto the chart, you'll see something like that

shown in figure.

Figure. Final speedometer chart

Clicking the arrows or dragging the slide bar will alter the speedometer, but

remember, this also will change the data on the worksheet to which it is

linked.

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Excel - Create a Speedometer Chart Tutorials

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