Chart Within Chart

Here is a nice chart that can show individual indicators along with total values. It features chart within chart by placing details chart inside totals chart.

For this tutorial, we are going to use a quarterly sales data. Here is how our data looks like:

Select whole data from A1 to F6 and insert a Clustered Column chart from INSERT ribbon. Excel will insert a default clustered column chart like the one below:

I changed chart’s color scheme for a more business feel. You can do it by selecting the chart and navigating to Chart Tools\Design. Click on “Change Colors” button and select a monochrome color scheme. I selected Color 16 for this chart.

Now it is time to add data labels for our data series. Doing this will be harder after a couple of steps later. I set label font size to 7 for quarters and left is as 9 for totals. This is done to avoid labels positioning on top of each other. Expanding chart itself also helps for fitting labels.

Now double-click on Total series and set it as secondary series. Adjust “Series Overlap” as 100% and “Gap Width” as 30%. Your chart will be messed up at this point. Do not worry about it. It will all come together as you continue.

Fix axis values for both axis, setting minimum value to 0 and maximum value to 1200.

Now delete both axes and gridlines by clicking on them and pressing “Delete” button. This will leave only data series on the chart. The chart is supposed to look like the one below at this point:

Click on total series on the chart and change series color as shown below and set transparency to 70%.

Change your chart title to describe your data, I changed mine to “Revenue By Quarters” and the chart within chart is ready.

You can download this chart and inspect it as you wish.

Download Chart Within Chart