Excel’s chart features can turn your spreadsheet data into compelling visual communications—if you know what to do. This guide will walk you through the basics of setting up trends, percentages, ...

This post recommends using Trellis plots instead of 3D bar charts for three-dimensional (three variable) data. In Winner of the Bad Graph Contest Announced, I promised to present alternatives to Excel ...

One way to improve your spreadsheet is to present data in chart form, and Excel is a great program for doing just this. However, Excel's overwhelming number of menus often results in some of the most ...

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. If you want to sow division among chartmakers, ask them if pie charts are a good idea. If you want to raise a ...

When preparing a bar chart for presentation, vary the appearance of the bars to increase the legibility by providing contrast. If your small business uses Macintosh computers, you can use Microsoft ...

Two weeks ago I announced a bad graph contest to try to encourage software vendors to improve their offerings. Readers nominated a number of bad graphs for the contest. This post discusses some of the ...