Pie Charts in Excel: Never Use Pie Charts?

Your boss wants a pie chart. Data visualization "experts," say NOPE! So how do you decide?
In this video, I explain the pros & cons of pie charts and do 7 chart makeovers. In this video, we look at several common mistakes to avoid. This will allow you to tell better stories with your data and make your charts and dashboards easier to read.
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00:00 Introduction
00:38 What is a Pie Chart?
01:24 Two Types of Pie Charts
03:19 Too many slices
04:23 When Rank Matters
05:10 Panel Charts
05:37 Pie Vs Bar os Line Charts
06:02 Avoid the Legend
06:57 Too Many Colors & Labels
08:17 3D Exploding Pie Charts
09:29 Quiz Time

[@mts656]

This was such an amazing, informative tutorial. Thank you!

[@ExcelCampus]

Thank you! 🙂

[@harishnegi0903]

Wow...valuable tips...thanks a lot for sharing the video

[@ExcelCampus]

Thanks! 🙌

[@juanbon5996]

Hi John, thank you for sharing your personal perspective on this topic. In my experience, another negative I have found, is the amount of space pie charts occupy. When working with dashboards, these charts tend to use too much screen space for the amount of information they provide. Usually, I limit their use only when displaying no more than two sets of information.

[@ExcelCampus]

Thanks Juan! That's a great point on occupying screen space. 👍👍

[@nixneato]

Waiting for Halloween to talk about pie... We're onto you Jon :D

[@ExcelCampus]

Haha yep! Thanks! 😊

[@randyhaimila6476]

As always, Jon has made it easy to understand and fun to learn. Thank you Jon

[@ExcelCampus]

Thanks Randy! I really appreciate the nice feedback. 🙏

[@ahmed3la]

This is one of the best Excel guides I've seen so far: Your voice is calm, you're straight to the point, and your explanation doesn't take long to point out the piece of information you're trying to explain.
Thank you for being professional on this.

[@ExcelCampus]

Thanks for your feedback, Ahmed! 😀

[@IvanCortinas_ES]

Excellent tutorial Jon. The sweet is very appetizing.
Be careful with sugar!!! Thank you for this complete information. :)

[@ExcelCampus]

Thanks Ivan! My sugar intake is actually much lower in real life. I guess I like to dream about pies and donuts. 😂

[@yvlove77]

Thank you Jon! My boss loves pie charts and I always provide bar and column charts along with the pie charts as alternatives; i always include a reminder that pie charts are good for only 3-4 values at the most and when using more values, there's a good amount of manual work involved; it takes time to realign all the data labels when there is too much data or manually have to change the colors to make them stand out. I keep trying to get away from them, but I don't know if that will ever happen! But I did learn some tricks from this that might work for when I need to use them. Thanks for sharing this!

[@zahoorsarbandi2982]

really very informative lecture. explanation is outstanding. Thank you for sharing ur knowledge

[@ExcelCampus]

I'm happy to hear it. Thanks for your support! 😊

[@teoxengineer]

Thank you Jon for good tutorial.
besides, I also want to add a good benefit to use pie chat for what in order to introduce speedometer illustruations. I'm using it by making some tricks and getting good results.

[@cmcull987]

Thank you Jon, an informative and very useful as always. This also helps how to better explain to a supervisor why one chart type is better in a given situation.

[@ExcelCampus]

Yes! I'm happy to hear it will help explain when to use pie charts to your supervisor. 🙌

[@cmcull987]

Mini exam: I chose #10. The legend and % are inside each slice making it easier to understand. Also, I like the monochrome because it's less distracting.

[@ExcelCampus]

Thanks for voting! And good point on the monochrome. 👍

[@PaulEBrownbill]

Thanks, great video as always Paul

[@ExcelCampus]

Thanks for the feedback, Paul! 😀

[@mattdaniel6071]

great video

[@ExcelCampus]

Thanks Matt! 🙂

[@josealvesferreira1683]

very good

[@ExcelCampus]

Thanks, Jose! 😀

[@rw3486]

Would you ever use an area chart to convey the information in pie charts over time (or some continuous variable)?

[@sidneypereira4942]

Tem como fazer um aulão dessas fórmulas abaixo ????
EXCEL FINANCEIRO:
-Função BDContar
-Função BDSoma
-Função BDExtrair
-Função Esquerda
-Função Direita
-Função Texto
-Função DiaTrabalho (WorkDay)
-Função DiaTrabalhoTotal (NetWorkDays)
-Função Dias360
-Função VP
-Função VF
-Função NPER
-Função TAXA

[@ExcelCampus]

Hi Sidney - great idea! We already have training on some of those functions through our Elevate Excel program. We'd love for you to join it! (see Elevate link in the description)

[@eliassal1]

Jon another great video. Can you please let me know how you or where in the meus those (+ -) that hide and show charts on workseets are done

[@ExcelCampus]

Certainly, Salam! Select the columns (or rows) containing the chart you want to hide. Then, in the Ribbon, click Data, then Group. The + symbol appears. Click the + to view the chart, and the + will turn into a - symbol.

[@eliassal1]

@@ExcelCampus So many thanks