Charts and Dashboards: More Target Practice
18 June 2021
Welcome back to our Charts and Dashboards blog series. This week, I look at another way to create a presentation of actual sales vs. target sales.
In last week’s blog, I looked at a way to represent the actual and target sales on a chart.
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/067/image1.png/e774d10cbbb9450fc45efbe51abdf434.jpg)
In April, my imaginary salespeople did much better (on the whole).
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/067/image2.png/f32e5a15e2cf9c3e4d2d058458ce054d.jpg)
This time I am going to present the data in a slightly different way. I will start the same way as last week, by selecting my data and pressing ALT + F1.
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/067/image3.png/f1140ff857fc3b6f5f97a6a24f4a6fc7.jpg)
A column chart is inserted in the sheet, and I can click on a bar from either of the data series and right click to access the menu. This time, I select ‘Change Series Chart Type’.
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/067/image4.png/72aa864d2854c6fefb1083fba0ab5792.jpg)
A dialog box appears:
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/067/image5.png/36776d1da4d05b45bb5a5d09375f407c.jpg)
I change the Target data series to ‘Line Chart with Markers’.
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/067/image6.png/23912d3b1671861e02bebcd5183f1607.jpg)
So far, this doesn’t appear to make anything clearer, but I have more changes to make. I click ‘OK’ and select the Target line, and right-click to access the ‘Format Data Series’ pane.
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/067/image7.png/6f49c288a0d88a66b427eaf4ece923d6.jpg)
In the ‘Fill and Line’ tab, I select ‘No Line’.
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/067/image8.png/b9ee28d90e6b5bc92ea4aeafdad51628.jpg)
This replaces the line with markers.
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/067/image9.png/0485ccbc83bdeec1d741bad442a1ea5f.jpg)
Next, I need to format the Markers on the ‘Format Data Series’ pane. I select ‘Built-in’ and pick the long horizontal line. I set the size of the line to 20.
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/067/image10.png/daf8c4f0259ce428269c0d3d4badd32b.jpg)
This changes the look of my chart.
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/067/image11.png/22c6daeb82d7d69ac88f878227e04b28.jpg)
I can now change the colours in the ‘Format Data Series’ pane for each series and edit the chart title.
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/067/image12.png/a1537847463e660a31158c8032525438.jpg)
Now I can quickly see who is exceeding their targets. Time for a chat with Newbie!
That’s it for this week. Come back next week for more Charts and Dashboards tips.