Use Sparklines in Microsoft Excel

Posted on:  02/08/2017
Use Sparklines in Microsoft Excel

Why use sparklines?

Excel 2010 brought us a new feature called Sparklines. Data presented in a row or column is useful, but patterns can be hard to spot at a glance. The context for these numbers can be provided by inserting sparklines next to the data. Taking up a small amount of room, a sparkline can display a trend based on adjacent data in a clear and compact graphical representation. Although it’s not mandatory for a sparkline cell to be directly next to its underlying data, it is a good practice.

You can quickly see the relationship between a sparkline and its underlying data, and when your data changes you can see the change in the sparkline immediately. In addition to creating a single sparkline for a row or column of data, you can create several sparklines at the same time by selecting multiple cells that correspond to underlying data, as shown in the following picture.

Create a Sparkline

  1. Select an empty cell or group of empty cells in which you want to insert one or more sparklines.
  2. On the Insert tab, in the Sparklines group, click the type of sparkline that you want to create: Line, Column, or Win/Loss.
  3. In the Data box, type the range of the cells that contain the data on which you want to base the sparklines.

Excel file used in the video

sparklines_chris_menard.xlsx

Chris Menard

Chris Menard is a certified Microsoft Trainer (MCT) and works as a full-time Trainer at BakerHostetler - one of the largest law firms in the US. He runs a YouTube channel with 900+ technology videos that cover various tools such as Excel, Word, Zoom, Teams, Gmail, Google Calendar, and Outlook. To date, the channel has helped over 20 million viewers. Menard also does 2 to 3 public speaking events every year, presenting at the Administrative Professional Conference (APC), the EA Ignite Conference, the Support Staff Conference, the University of Georgia, and CPA conferences. You can connect with him on LinkedIn at chrismenardtraining.com/linked or watch his videos on YouTube at chrismenardtraining.com/youtube.

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