Stacked Charts Continued and 100% Stacked Charts

To create the stacked column chart, 0:00 we select all the data in our spreadsheet that we wanna chart. 0:02 And choose Insert, 2-D Stacked Column. 0:10 Looking at the stacked column chart, you can see indeed that the Southeast and 0:17 Burnside locations make up the bulk of the membership. 0:23 Here's our Burnside location, 0:27 yellow, and here's our Southeast location, the light green. 0:28 In addition, you can see the relative weakness of the second half of the year 0:33 compared to the first half for the entire network. 0:37 Here it's generally larger and close to 14,000 or above in many of the months. 0:42 And in the second half of the year a lot more below 14,000 and 0:47 generally worse than the first half. 0:52 Let's switch to a stacked area view. 0:55 Go here, Change Chart Type. 1:00 Area > Stacked Area > Return. 1:02 I think the area is a better way than columns, to show the membership overtime. 1:08 It's continuous from period to period and shows that more clearly. 1:15 Instead of seeing the nominal values of each data series on the chart. 1:19 That is, the values in the data set. 1:24 If we select, the 100% stacked area option, 1:27 Excel will automatically convert it into an area chart displaying, surprise, 1:31 surprise, each data series as a percent of total. 1:36 So let's do that again. 1:40 Change Chart Type > Area > 100% Stacked Area. 1:41 Lets make this a little bit bigger so you can see it more clearly. 1:49 You can see the North 2 location is gaining share as a percent of total. 1:54 That's right up here at the top. 2:00 And Burnside and the North are declining. 2:02 Let's rearrange the data series to make that more clear. 2:05 So Burnside, I'm gonna go up here and make this 1. 2:08 And North, I'm gonna click on that and make that 2. 2:14 This 100% Stacked Area chart has relatively subtle changes. 2:21 But, that's not always the case. 2:26 Let's take a look at the units sold by a coffee shop over the course of a year. 2:29 Split out by whether the drinks are hot or cold. 2:34 Create a 100% Stacked Area chart. 2:37 You can really see the seasonality with 100% of total view of the stacked area. 2:47 Of course, in this simple example, you could probably also see the variety and 2:53 seasonality with a line chart. 2:58 But be aware that in situations where the changes are not so drastic, 3:00 a stacked area chart could be a good visualization option. 3:06