Chart Visualizations in Excel Power View help present data in a clear and interactive graphical format. Using charts like scatter, bubble, pie, line, bar, and column, users can easily analyze trends, compare values, and understand relationships in data.
Note: Power View is deprecated in modern Excel versions and may not be available in Excel 2016 and later. Microsoft recommends using Power BI for advanced data visualization.
Types of Chart Visualizations in Power View
- Scatter Chart
- Bubble Chart
- Pie Chart
- Line Chart
- Bar Chart
- Column Chart
Example
To create any chart follow the steps:
Step 1: First, enter data in the format shown below.
Step 2: Navigate to the Insert tab on the Excel ribbon and select the Power View option at the end of the list.
Step 3: When you select the Power View option, a power view report will be loaded and generated within the same worksheet. As illustrated in the picture below, you will have a power view report:
Step 4: Within Power View Fields, pick the Month, Quarter, and Sales Columns from the Range1 section. The ∑ sign is in the Quarter, Sales, and Percentage of Sales columns. It is present because those columns contain numeric data and may be summed.
Step 5: We will now include a graph. Navigate to the Design tab and use Switch Visualization to add a chart. Then, select a chart type from the Other Chart options.
Step 6: Select the Scatter option from the Other Chart dropdown menu.
Using the steps above, you can create different chart types as explained below.
Scatter Chart
Scatter charts are used to show the relationship (correlation) between two variables. It uses two value axes—one for numerical data on the horizontal (X-axis) and another for numerical data on the vertical (Y-axis).
Advantages of the Scatter Chart
- Simple and easy to understand.
- It is the initial step in understanding the relationship between two variables.
Limitations of the Scatter Chart
- Non-mathematical method.
- Can't be used for more than two variables.
- It does not give results in quantitative form.
Bubble Chart
A bubble chart are an extension of a scatter chart used to show the relationship between three numerical variables. Each bubble represents a data point, where the X-axis shows one value, the Y-axis shows another value, and the bubble size represents the third value.
Advantages of Bubble Chart
- It can be used for the 3-Dimensional dataset.
- Different colors and sizes of bubbles attract the user.
- A bubble chart in Excel is better than a table format.
Limitations of Bubble Chart
- The overlapping of bubbles is the biggest problem.
- The size of the bubbles might confuse the user.
- It might be difficult for the user to understand as compared to other charts.
Pie Chart
A pie chart is used to show the part-to-whole relationship of data. In Power View, pie charts can include features like drill-down and cross-filtering with other charts. Pie charts work best when the number of categories is 8 or fewer, as too many slices make them difficult to read.
Advantages of the Pie Chart
- Summarize large data in visual form.
- More Visually appealing than other types of graphs.
- Display relative proportions of multiple classes of data.
Limitations of the Pie Chart
- It becomes less effective if too many pieces of data are used.
- It becomes complicated if more than one data set is compared, as this chart is used only for a single data set.
- This may lead to taking more time to analyze and assimilate the result.
Line Chart
Line charts are used to compare data points across multiple data series. It displays categories on the horizontal axis (such as months) and numerical values on the vertical axis..
Advantages of a Line Chart
- They are easy to draw, read and compare.
- Can be used for a huge range of data.
- It can help us to show slight change also.
Limitations of a Line Chart
- Suitable for continuous data, but not ideal for categorical comparisons.
- It can only be used for data that have values in numbers and total figures for example total salary of employees.
- Requires consistent scales on the axes for accurate representation.
Bar Chart
Bar charts are used to compare values across different categories. It displays categories vertically and numerical values horizontally. In Power View, bar charts include stacked, 100% stacked, and clustered types.
Advantages of Bar Chart
- Accessible to a wide audience.
- Quick and accurate estimating results.
- Summarize a huge data set in visual form.
Disadvantages of a Bar Graph
- It does not indicate the critical activities of a project.
- Unnecessary additional information is required.
- It can't be used as a control device, as it does not show progress in the report.
Column Chart
A column chart is used to display data organized in rows or columns, making it useful for comparing values or showing changes over time. It uses a horizontal axis for categories and a vertical axis for values. In Power View, column charts include stacked, 100% stacked, and clustered types.
The months are shown horizontally, while the numerical data is displayed vertically.
Power View's charts are interactive. When you click on a value in one of the charts in Power View, that value is highlighted, and all of the tables, matrices, and tiles in Power View are filtered to that value.
Advantages of Column Chart
- Helps when there are multiple values for each category.
- Easy to compare the values of each category.
- Useful for time series analysis.
Limitations of Column Chart
- It is difficult to understand the stack column chart as there is no common baseline for measurements.
- Key assumptions and patterns are not revealed.