Shortcomings of Showing Many Trends on a Single Chart in Excel 2007:-


Instead of using a stacked column chart, you might try to show many trendlines on a single line chart. This approach often leads to confusion. In the top chart in the Figure (given below), for example, the sales trends of five companies create a very confusing chart.



(Instead of using a single chart with five confusing lines, you can compare your company to each other competitor in smaller charts.)

If the goal is to compare the sales results of your company against those of each major competitor, why not show four individual charts, as is done at the bottom of the above Figure?

In these charts, the reader can easily see that your company is about to overtake the longtime industry leader MegaCo, but that quick growth from NewCo might still cause you to stay in the second position next year.