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Excel - Create Many Small Charts Instead of 1 Cluttered Chart - Small Multiples - Episode 604

629 views · Published 7 April 2009 · 2:13 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: MrExcel.com · 2009 · Education

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Microsoft Excel Tutorial: Create Many Small Charts Instead of 1 Cluttered Chart - Small Multiples in Excel.

Welcome back to the MrExcel netcast! In today's video, we're going to discuss an interesting charting tip that will help you present your data in a more organized and understandable way. As you can see, I have a chart here that compares our company to four other competitors over a span of seven years. However, with five time series on one chart, it becomes quite confusing and difficult to interpret.

So, here's the cool tip - instead of having one cluttered chart, we can break it down into four smaller charts. Each chart compares our company to one of the competitors, making it easier for viewers to see how we're doing against each one. For example, in the first chart, we can see that our company is performing better than the "Other Guys" who are just going up and down. In the second chart, we can see that we're on par with the "New Company" which is about the same size as ours. The third chart shows that we're catching up to the "Mega Company" who used to have a larger market share. And in the last chart, we can see that we're trending along with "Some Other Company".

By breaking the chart into smaller ones, viewers can now easily see how we're doing against each competitor without getting overwhelmed by too much information. And to make it even better, I've made each chart one-fourth of the original size, so it still fits in the same spot on the sheet. This is especially useful for executive dashboards where you want to present a lot of data in a limited space.

So, the next time you're trying to show a lot of information on one chart, consider breaking it up into smaller charts. This will not only make it easier for viewers to understand, but also allow you to provide more detailed information in each chart. Thanks for watching and don't forget to tune in for more netcasts from MrExcel!

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Table of Contents:
(00:00) Introduction to charting tip 
(00:20) Comparison of five time series on one chart 
(00:35) Tip to replace one chart with four smaller charts 
(00:45) Comparison of our company to each competitor 
(01:00) Example of how our company is doing against each competitor 
(01:13) Benefits of breaking up data into smaller charts 
(01:28) Importance of making charts smaller for executive dashboards 
(01:40) Clicking Like really helps the algorithm

(01:53) Conclusion and invitation to join future netcasts.

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Join the MrExcel Message Board discussion about this video at https://www.mrexcel.com/board/threads/1152004/

This video answers these common search terms:
Breaking up a chart into smaller charts for clarity
Charting tips for comparing companies
Comparing company performance against competitors
Creating informative charts for company analysis
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Enhancing data clarity with smaller charts
How to display multiple time series on a chart
Improving executive dashboards with multiple charts
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Organizing data effectively on charts
Tips for presenting complex data on charts
Using smaller charts for better data visualization

Join the MrExcel Message Board discussion about this video at https://www.mrexcel.com/board/threads/1152335/



Do you have a chart which is too confusing? Try replacing the one chart with four smaller charts, each chart focusing on one particular statistic. Episode 604 shows you how.

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