The Bar of Pie Chart is a built-in chart type in Excel. Pie charts are meant to express a “part to whole” relationship, where all pieces together represent 100%.
Pie charts work best to display data with a small number of categories (2-5). The Bar of Pie Chart provides a way to add additional categories to a pie chart without generating a pie chart too complex to read. When configuring a Bar of Pie chart, Excel provides a setting that moves the smallest n slices of the pie to the bar, where n can be adjusted to suit the data.
Bar of pie charts should be avoided when there are many categories, or when categories do not total 100%. The human eye has trouble comparing the relative size of slices in a pie chart, and this problem is magnified with the pie of pie variety.
Pros
- A simple way to handle more categories in a pie chart
- Can be read “at a glance” with limited categories
- Excel can calculate and display percentages automatically as data labels
Cons
- Difficult to compare relative size of slices
- Become cluttered and dense as categories are added
- Limited to part-to-whole data
- Poor at showing change over time
Tips
- Limit categories
- Avoid all 3d variants
The Radar Chart is a built-in chart type in Excel. Radar charts, sometimes called spider charts , have one axis per category which all use the same scale. The axes of a radar chart radiate out from the center of the chart and data points are plotted on each axis using a common scale. The result is a geometric shape that shows “at-a-glance” performance across all categories.
Radar charts can be used to plot the performance of employees, athletes, products, and companies in various categories. They can be used for performance evaluations and satisfaction surveys.
Pros
- Compact presentation
- Can show at-a-glance strength or weakness
- Can handle more than one data series
Cons
- Unusual chart type may confuse audience
- More difficult to read for most people
