Charts & formats — Excel guide
Making numbers legible: picking the right chart, painting cells by rule, and format codes that say what the number means.
Chart choice in one breath
Categories compare → bar (horizontal when labels are long). Time flows → line. Parts of a whole → stacked bar over pie (and never a 12-slice pie). Two measures' relationship → scatter. When a chart needs a legend lecture, simplify it.
Conditional formatting
Home ▸ Conditional Formatting paints by rule: color scales, data bars, duplicate highlighting. The power move is 'Use a formula': =AND($D2="Late", $E2>30) — lock the COLUMN, free the ROW — highlights entire rows. =ISERROR(A1) paints every broken cell.
Custom number formats
Ctrl+1 ▸ Custom. 0 forces a digit (007), # shows only when present, [h]:mm keeps elapsed time counting past 24 hours, and the four-part pattern positive;negative;zero;text styles each case — e.g. #,##0;[Red](#,##0). Formats change the DISPLAY only; the stored value stays exact.
Sparklines
Insert ▸ Sparklines drops a tiny in-cell line or column chart per row — trend-at-a-glance for dashboards without the chart-per-row clutter.