Sparklines are small charts that fit into a single Microsoft Excel cell. But if you're tracking non-numeric data, they can exhibit weird behavior. Learn how to avoid problems when using sparklines.

Charts and sparklines are powerful data visualization tools in Excel. Here’s a guide to the most popular chart types in Excel and how to best use them.

The Create Sparklines dialog box in Excel, with the Location Range field activated, and cells I2 to I9 selected. An Excel sheet containing line sparklines in the Trend column.

Sam Radakovitz developed a feature called “sparklines” for Microsoft Office Excel 2010 that lets users transform large amounts of data into small, at-a-glance displays that fit into a single cell.

Sparklines are in-cell charts in Microsoft Excel that are easy to create and extremely helpful, but they can be more insightful with just a few specific settings.