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