Tracy van der Schyff

 #Office365Challenge Of course data is valuable, but being able to present it visually helps people to interpret the data much faster, and saves time. The new Map Chart in Excel is brilliant for displaying geographical data and really easy to use.

Day:  336 of 365, 29 left
Tools:  Excel 2016, Office 365
Description: Creating Map Charts in Excel
Audience:  All

What does Microsoft say:  You can use a Map Chart to compare values and show categories across geographical regions. Use it when you have geographical regions in your data, like countries/regions, states, counties or postal codes. Read More…

This update was released November 2016.

How to create your Map Chart

As mentioned above, you need geographical regions in your data for Excel to recognize this as “chart worthy”.

Insert the Chart:

Click on your data to select, then on the Insert Tab and select Maps. If Excel does not recognize your data as geographical data it will not display a map – check your data / labels etc.:

Make changes to your chart:

When you double-click on your chart, the Format Chart Area toolbar opens on the right. Here you can make changes to colours etc. Click on the Chart Options dropdown and select Series “Population” (column name) to apply filters etc.: 

Now I’ve clicked on the Series Icon to show the Series Options. Here I’ve selected to only show regions with data which changed my chart from a world map to Africa only:

What can I say, Microsoft enables ordinary people to do extraordinary things 🙂

Overview of my challenge: As an absolute lover of all things Microsoft, I’ve decided to undertake the challenge, of writing a blog every single day, for the next 365 days. Crazy, I know. And I’ll try my best, but if I cannot find something good to say about Office 365 and the Tools it includes for 365 days, I’m changing my profession. So let’s write this epic tale of “Around the Office in 365 Days”. My ode to Microsoft Office 365.
Keep in mind that these tips and tricks do not only apply to Office 365 – but where applicable, to the overall Microsoft Office Suite and SharePoint.