Excel 2010 – Sparkline

Recently, I updated Excel to 2010 version. I noticed that under “Insert Ribbon”, there is a new charting feature called SPARKINE. It allows the user to generate a micro-chart which could show trend information.

 
I really feel it help visualize tabular data without taking too much space.

For example,

We would like to see how the sale prices of the fruits fluctuate on the monthly basis. The sparklines are shown in the column I.

Here are the steps to make sparkline.

Step 1, Go to Insert->Sparkline and Select the type of the sparkline (here, line is used)

Step 2, The Data range is the range of data you would like to make the sparkline.

           Location Range is the cell you would like to shown the sparkline.

Design Sparkline.

If you click on the cell with the sparkline in it, the “Sparkline Tools” is shown on the top of the Excel window. If you click “Sparkline Tools”, a new ribbon called “Sparkline Tools Design” is shown. This is the place where all the sparkline formatting options are included.

Like Formula, Sparkline can be auto-filled. It can also be copied and pasted.

Unlikely, when the file with sparkline is opened in Excel 2007, sparklines are not shown.

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