Difference between revisions of "Category:Small Multiple Charts"

Introduction

Small multiple charts is a term popularised by Edward Tufte. They allow comparing data series as they are repeated for different members.

In XLCubed they are useful for visualising large amounts of data, as hundreds of data points can be plotted and compared easily.

This allows users to find trends and outliers in the data more easily than by trying to study a large table of data.

UI

To create a small multiple click the menu item on the ribbon/toolbar. A blank chart and the small multiple task pane appear.

The task pane is the designer for you chart, and supports drag drop and the familiar XLCubed Member selector.

Hierarchy positioning

On the small multiple pane there are 4 boxes you can drop hierarchies in.

Two are familiar from normal Excel charts. The "Categories" box defines the members that appear on the X-Axis, and the "Series" box defines the members that will display as a separate series.

The "Rows" and "Columns" boxes define how the charts are repeated, best shown by an example

Chart layout

Clicking a hierarchy once it is in a box brings up the member selector with the usual XLcubed options including drive from range and linking to slicers.

Chart appearance options

The "Options" section on the task pane allows you to pick some chart styles.

The simplest allows you to change chart type to some of the standard types; column, bar, line so on.

The next options allow comparing two numbers directly in the chart, most often in the form of an X-Y scatter plot.

To do this drop a hierarchy (usually measures) onto the "Value Hierarchy" box, and pick "Scatter" from the Chart Type selector.

Next, you'll be prompted to pick members for the X and Y axes. Fill these in and then the chart will display:

Trends