![Advanced Excel Charts Tutorial](/advanced_excel_charts/images/advanced-excel-charts-mini-logo.jpg)
- Advanced Excel Charts Tutorial
- Advanced Excel Charts - Home
- Advanced Excel - Introduction
- Advanced Excel - Waterfall Chart
- Advanced Excel - Band Chart
- Advanced Excel - Gantt Chart
- Advanced Excel - Thermometer
- Advanced Excel - Gauge Chart
- Advanced Excel - Bullet Chart
- Advanced Excel - Funnel Chart
- Advanced Excel - Waffle Chart
- Advanced Excel Charts - Heat Map
- Advanced Excel - Step Chart
- Box and Whisker Chart
- Advanced Excel Charts - Histogram
- Advanced Excel - Pareto Chart
- Advanced Excel - Organization Chart
- Advanced Excel Charts Resources
- Advanced Excel Charts - Quick Guide
- Advanced Excel Charts - Resources
- Advanced Excel Charts - Discussion
Advanced Excel - Waffle Chart
Waffle chart adds beauty to your data visualization, if you want to display work progress as percentage of completion, goal achieved vs Target, etc. It gives a quick visual cue of what you want to portray.
Waffle chart is also known as Square Pie chart or Matrix chart.
What is a Waffle Chart?
Waffle chart is a 10 × 10 cell grid with the cells colored as per conditional formatting. The grid represents values in the range 1% - 100% and the cells will be highlighted with the conditional formatting applied to the % values they contain. For example, if the percentage of completion of work is 85%, it is portrayed by formatting all the cells that contain values <= 85% with a specific color, say green.
Waffle chart looks as shown below.
![Waffle Chart](/advanced_excel_charts/images/waffle_chart.jpg)
Advantages of Waffle Chart
Waffle chart has the following advantages −
- It is visually interesting.
- It is very readable.
- It is discoverable.
- It does not distort the data.
- It provides visual communication beyond simple data visualization.
Uses of Waffle Chart
The Waffle chart is used for completely flat data that adds up to 100%. The percentage of a variable is highlighted to give the depiction by the number of cells that are highlighted. It can be used for various purposes, including the following −
- To display the percentage of work that is complete.
- To display the percentage of progress that is made.
- To depict the expenses incurred as against the budget.
- To display Profit %.
- To portray the actual value achieved as against the set target, say in sales.
- To visualize the company progress as against the goals that are set.
- To display the pass percentage in an exam in a college / city/ state.
Creating a Waffle Chart Grid
For the Waffle Chart, you need to first create the 10 × 10 Grid of square cells such that the Grid itself will be a square.
Step 1 − Create a 10 × 10 square grid on an Excel sheet by adjusting the cell widths.
![Create 10*10 Square Grid](/advanced_excel_charts/images/create_ten_cross_ten_grid.jpg)
Step 2 − Fill the cells with % values, starting with 1% in the left-bottom cell and ending with 100% in the right-top cell.
Step 3 − Decrease the font size such that all the values are visible but do not change the shape of the grid.
![Decrease Font Size](/advanced_excel_charts/images/decrease_font_size.jpg)
This is the grid that you will use for the Waffle chart.
Creating a Waffle Chart
Suppose you have the following data −
![Data For Waffle Chart](/advanced_excel_charts/images/data_for_waffle_chart.jpg)
Step 1 − Create a Waffle chart that displays the Profit% for the Region East by applying Conditional Formatting to the Grid you have created as follows −
Select the Grid.
Click Conditional Formatting on the Ribbon.
Select New Rule from the drop down list.
Define the Rule to format values <= 85 % (give the cell reference of the Profit %) with fill color and font color as dark green.
![Green Font Color](/advanced_excel_charts/images/green_font_color.jpg)
Step 2 − Define another rule to format values > 85 % (give the cell reference of the Profit %) with fill color and font color as light green.
![Light Green Font Color](/advanced_excel_charts/images/light_green_font_color.jpg)
Step 3 − Give the Chart Title by giving reference to the cell B3.
![Cell B3](/advanced_excel_charts/images/cell_b3.jpg)
As you can see, choosing the same color for both Fill and Font enable you not to display the %values.
Step 4 − Give a Label to the chart as follows.
- Insert a Text box in the chart.
- Give the reference to the cell C3 in the Text box.
![Give Chart Label](/advanced_excel_charts/images/give_chart_label.jpg)
Step 5 − Color the cell borders white.
![White Cell Borders](/advanced_excel_charts/images/white_cell_borders.jpg)
Your Waffle chart for the Region East is ready.
Create Waffle charts for the Regions, i.e. North, South and West as follows −
Create the Grids for North, South and West as given in the previous section.
For each Grid, apply conditional formatting as given above based on the corresponding Profit % value.
You can also make Waffle charts for different regions distinctly, by choosing a variation in the colors for Conditional Formatting.
![Different Regions](/advanced_excel_charts/images/different_regions.jpg)
As you can see, the colors chosen for the Waffle charts on the right are varying from the colors chosen for the Waffle charts on the left.