Daily posts of Excel tips…and other stuff
I’m testing out widgenie (beta) and want to see how an embedded chart looks. I chose a pie chart because I’ve been reading lately how we all know pie charts are bad.
Anyway, this took about 10 seconds to create with Debra’s sample data.
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Harald Staff:
Mmmmmm pie.
11 July 2008, 11:48 amBest thing is that when you click a piece then it moves. And if that wasn’t enough; click again and it moves right back. The future, no less.
Debra Dalgleish:
And if you right-click on it, you can enable rotation, then spin it around. Fun!
I added a link to this on my Sample Data page.
11 July 2008, 12:14 pmTim Mayes:
I’ve been testing Widgenie as well, and giving them lots of feedback (it is a beta, and its rough in spots, but functional enough to use). It is pretty slick, but I suspect that Jon will object to the eye candy.
Debra, I hadn’t even thought to right-click on the chart. That is pretty slick.
11 July 2008, 12:46 pmmrt:
There are also “tooltip” like percentages if you mouse over the names.
…mrt
11 July 2008, 2:11 pmSandy Cavalaris:
Try the “Enable Slicing Movement” too. Click on a slice. Cool, but it’s still a pie chart. Does it handle other charts? Can you turn off the 3D look?
11 July 2008, 4:04 pmJon Peltier:
Oh good, something else I don’t have time to play with.
11 July 2008, 10:03 pmJon Peltier:
The pie you made illustrates the problems with this chart type. Jardine and Parent look to be the same size, while Kivell looks somewhat larger. The data labels indicate that Kivell is only slightly larger than Parent (by
12 July 2008, 8:34 pmPeltier Loves Pie » PTS Blog:
[…] of chocolate and eggnog flavored pudding, and whipped cream. So you could accurately say that Peltier Loves Pie. But not pie […]
13 July 2008, 12:01 pmJon Peltier:
Who truncated my comment? I was saying that Kivell is Peltier Loves Pie.
(just not pie charts).
13 July 2008, 12:13 pmJon Peltier:
Truncated again. Dick??
13 July 2008, 12:20 pmJon Peltier:
Oh yeah, stupid less than character. Doh!
As I was saying…
Kivell is <1% greater than Parent, while both are ten percent greater than Jardine. In Excel, the recreated pie shows a different illusion, I think it was Kivell appearing smaller than Parent and Jardine. Different orientations and colors are probably responsible for the changing illusions. When I sorted the pie slices by value, the illusion went away, and in a bar chart, there was no illusion, whether the bars were sorted or not.
Finally, I wrote about how I really do love pie:
Peltier Loves Pie
… just not pie charts.
13 July 2008, 12:36 pmChart Selection Guide » PTS Blog:
[…] Peltier Loves Pie, on Daily Dose of Excel […]
14 July 2008, 7:03 am