{"id":799,"date":"2015-03-23T20:57:33","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T20:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/?p=799"},"modified":"2017-03-23T20:57:45","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T20:57:45","slug":"excel-donut-chart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/excel-donut-chart\/","title":{"rendered":"Excel &#8211; Donut chart"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today lets take a stroll outside what Excel can do and make something fancy, fun and <em>may be <\/em>useful.<\/p>\n<p>Nowadays, many newspapers, websites and magazines are featuring info-graphics. An info-graphic is a collection of shiny, colorful &amp; data-full charts (or often pieces of text.) In many of these info-graphics, you can see <strong>threaded-donut charts<\/strong>. Not sure what that is..? It is not same as the blasphemy of spoiling a soft, sweet, supple donut with a piece of string. No one should be excused for an offense like that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What I am talking about is this:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/img.chandoo.org\/c\/donut-string-demo.gif\" alt=\"Donut string chart in Excel - demo\" width=\"156\" height=\"132\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>How to create this chart?<\/h3>\n<p><strong>A word of caution<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Before you smack your lips at the thought of stringy donuts, let me warn you.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Go easy with these charts. Use them sparingly. <\/em>As a rule a <a href=\"http:\/\/chandoo.org\/wp\/2009\/12\/17\/quick-thermometer-chart\/\">thermo-meter chart<\/a> would be better (easy to make, takes less space, scalable) for situations like this.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now that we have learned the ill-effects of donuts, let\u2019s make &amp; eat one, cause we are bad-ass like that.<\/p>\n<h3>Set up data cells<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/img.chandoo.org\/c\/data-for-donut-thread-chart.png\" alt=\"Data for threaded donut chart\" width=\"147\" height=\"66\" \/>This is easy. We will use C4 to capture the input for donut size.<\/p>\n<p>In C5, write =1-C4<\/p>\n<p>This will give us the balance portion of donut <em>where thread should appear.<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Create a donut chart<\/h3>\n<p>Select both cells and insert a donut chart.<\/p>\n<p>This is what we get. Just the donut, no strings attached ?<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/img.chandoo.org\/c\/just-the-donut-chart-thread-not-added.png\" alt=\"Just the donut, no strings attached!\" width=\"248\" height=\"246\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Make 2nd slice of donut transparent<\/h3>\n<p>This is simple.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Select the 2nd slice of donut (click on it once, <em>click again<\/em>)<\/li>\n<li>Fill it with no color, set no line.<\/li>\n<li>Your donut is transparent.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>Adding thread to donut \u2013 2 ways to do it<\/h3>\n<p>There are many ways to cook a donut.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Method 1: Placing a circle shape behind the donut chart<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/img.chandoo.org\/c\/donut-string-chart.png\" alt=\"Donut string chart with circle in the background\" width=\"142\" height=\"131\" \/>Select plot area of the donut chart and make it transparent.<\/li>\n<li>Draw a circle shape (Insert ribbon &gt; Shapes &gt; Circle)<\/li>\n<li>Fill with no color, make the outline thick enough<\/li>\n<li>Align centers of chart &amp; circle (select both, use Format ribbon &gt; Align and then Align middle, Align center)<\/li>\n<li>Push the circle behind the chart using \u201cSend to back\u201d from Format ribbon.<\/li>\n<li>For extra safety, group the chart and circle together. This way they will stay together.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/img.chandoo.org\/c\/adding-thread-to-donut-method-2.png\" alt=\"Adding cirlce as plot area background to create threaded donut chart\" width=\"450\" height=\"350\" \/><strong>Method 2: Use circle as background image for plot area<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is my favorite.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Draw a circle shape somewhere on your worksheet.<\/li>\n<li>Fill it with no color and make the outline thick enough.<\/li>\n<li>Copy the circle shape (Select it, press CTRL+C)<\/li>\n<li>Select Donut chart\u2019s plot area<\/li>\n<li>Press CTRL+1 to format it (alternatively right-click &gt; format plot area)<\/li>\n<li>Follow the steps in image aside.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>Download Threaded Donut Chart<\/h3>\n<p>I wish we can download donuts, but that day is not here.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/img.chandoo.org\/c\/new-donut-chart.xlsx\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Click here to download the donut chart workbook<\/strong><\/a>. Examine chart settings to understand this technique better.<\/p>\n<h3>Should you use this chart?<\/h3>\n<p><strong>We all know that donuts and pies alone cannot make a healthy diet<\/strong>. But once in a while, a donut adds variety. Same goes for charts too.<\/p>\n<p>Go with tried and tested charts like,<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bars &amp; columns<\/li>\n<li>Line charts<\/li>\n<li>Conditional formatting icons<\/li>\n<li>Sparklines<\/li>\n<li>Scatter plot<\/li>\n<li>May be an area chart or two<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>They are easy to set up, easy to understand, scalable, fit in to any sized report and awesome.<\/p>\n<p>That said, I would certainly experiment with stringy donuts in my future reports to see how they fit. A good example is to use this to depict % completion of a project or goal. Looks slick, easy to read and not too difficult to create.<\/p>\n<h3>What other charts work in this situation?<\/h3>\n<p>If you have a situation to show <em>x out y is done<\/em>, then consider these other charts too:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/chandoo.org\/wp\/2009\/12\/17\/quick-thermometer-chart\/\">Thermometer chart<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/ul>\n<p>(<a href=\"http:\/\/chandoo.org\/wp\/2012\/06\/11\/thermo-meter-chart-with-last-year-marker\/\">with last year marker<\/a>)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/chandoo.org\/wp\/2008\/07\/21\/dashboard-bullet-graphs-excel\/\">Bullet chart<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/chandoo.org\/wp\/2009\/04\/05\/budget-vs-actual-charts\/\">Budget vs. Actual chart (14 variants)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/chandoo.org\/wp\/2010\/05\/19\/new-features-in-excel-2010-conditional-formatting\/\">Conditional formatting rating icons<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/chandoo.org\/wp\/2009\/12\/18\/charts-to-compare-targets\/\">Best charts to compare actual with target values<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>source:\u00a0http:\/\/chandoo.org\/wp\/2014\/02\/20\/donut-thread-chart\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today lets take a stroll outside what Excel can do and make something fancy, fun and may be useful. Nowadays, many newspapers, websites and magazines are featuring info-graphics. An info-graphic is a collection of shiny, colorful &amp; data-full charts (or often pieces of text.) In many of these info-graphics, you can see threaded-donut charts. Not\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/excel-donut-chart\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-windows"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":800,"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799\/revisions\/800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adriangrigoras.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}